Pleasant surprise in an in-flight magazine

[Gustav]

On my way back from Sweden, I was eyeing through the in-flight magazine and was struck by a beautiful 2-page black and white add for a newly opened barber-shop in Stockholm called "Barber and Books" (http://www.barberandbooks.se). The add featured the usual badger brush and stand together with an all too anachronistic mach3 razor but to my delight it also featured a Merkur Futur and a Merkur 1904.

It may seem odd to post a thread about such a trivial thing, but I would still like to insist that such an add issued from the barren wasteland of wet shaving that is Sweden is a significant step forward and away from the beaten track of MBMs and canned goo.

So, naturally I was wondering if I am just getting my hopes up for nothing due to my limited wet shaving experience or if traditional wet shaving is making its way into the media once again?

 

[luvmysuper]

On my way back from Sweden, I was eyeing through the in-flight magazine and was struck by a beautiful 2-page black and white add for a newly opened barber-shop in Stockholm called "Barber and Books" (http://www.barberandbooks.se). The add featured the usual badger brush and stand together with an all too anachronistic mach3 razor but to my delight it also featured a Merkur Futur and a Merkur 1904.

It may seem odd to post a thread about such a trivial thing, but I would still like to insist that such an add issued from the barren wasteland of wet shaving that is Sweden is a significant step forward and away from the beaten track of MBMs and canned goo.

So, naturally I was wondering if I am just getting my hopes up for nothing due to my limited wet shaving experience or if traditional wet shaving is making its way into the media once again?

I think you have good reason to be cheerful about it.
Certainly wetshaving today is still a niche market and no where near what it was in its hey-day, but it is quite obvious to anyone who cares to look that it absolutely is gaining a following.
Many might be the young disposable income types, but there is a grass roots swelling against the exhorbitant price of cartridge blades today.
Look no further than the newspaper articles in GB about price fixing by Gillette etc.
The point of the story being true or not is not the issue, the gut feeling people have about the craziness of spending a small fortune on a razor cart is.
I thought that the day they started putting the cart blades in the ant-theft boxes was a momentus one.
It's just too crazy when a product that most men need to use on a daily basis is so expensive as to have to be placed in protective custody.

 

[shmeegs]

Ironic find but be proud that people might be paying attention to TWS.

 

[Uncle Erik]

TWS does seem to be coming back a little. Gillette continues to push the envelope on cartridge prices (probably carrying over business plans made before Depression 2.0) and no one is happy. Prices are at the point where people are starting to look for other options.

Also, it seems that every guy perks up and seems interested when you mention traditional shaving. Unlike a lot of hobbies where people tune out if you bring them up, everyone shaves and most are curious about methods other than cart'n'goo and electric.

One problem with traditional shaving is that it's fallen off the radar screen for a couple of generations. It will take some years before people realize that it's an option.

 

[Axel_]

First of all, hope you enjoyed your trip to Sweden, whatever the reason for the trip was!

Secondly, unfortunately I have to say I've not seen any increase on the articles of wetshaving here in Sweden, nor on international magazines like GQ and askmen.com. What the reason is is to me a mystery, but the main opinion to men in Sweden is "cartridge from Gillette is the best a man can get", and that DE razors won't get you smooth shaves (!) and that every single stroke with the razor is a pain, it fail to cut the beard and dull it instead (!) so it might be because of this swedish men really aren't interested in shaving articles, and as a direct result of this no articles are wrote.

/A