Rediscovering the lost art of the old-fashioned shave [Chicago Tribune]

Dec. 18--Austin Winston is discovering the lost art of the old-fashioned shave.

Each day, the 21-year-old engineering student walks into the dormitory bathroom at the Illinois Institute of Technology toting a basket of shaving supplies reminiscent of his grandfather's generation: hand-held bowl, cotton washcloth, round bar of shaving soap, double-edged safety razor, stainless steel straightedge razor, badger-hair shaving brush and a good dose of patience.

"You have to be really careful, because you pay for your mistakes," said Winston, stretching the skin on his neck with his fingers and running a straightedge razor across his throat. "You know you're doing it right when you know the blade is on your skin, but you don't feel it. It's cool."

Winston is part of a growing cadre of shaving aficionados turning to the Internet to learn what the convenience-driven, throwaway era of their fathers never taught them. Rather than standing at bathroom sinks next to their dads, the men are sitting in front of computers watching YouTube videos and shaving blogs that demonstrate the intricacies of traditional shaves: how to properly hold a safety razor, techniques for building a good lather and even a 22-step breakdown of the anatomy of a straight razor.

Although traditional wet shaving is a niche market, it is gaining so much momentum that Procter & Gamble's Gillette -- with 70 percent of the market, it's the king of disposable razors -- has jumped into the game. Since P&G acquired the Art of Shaving in 2009, the New York-based shaving boutique and product line has become the fastest-growing brand in P&G's beauty and grooming division, company spokesman Damon Jones said.

P&G has been pouring money into expanding the Art of Shaving's retail presence, once primarily confined to high-end department stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Marshall Field's on State Street in Chicago.

The past two years, the number of Art of Shaving stores has doubled, to 63, and more than half have a barbershop inside where men can get an old-fashioned, hot shave. The wood-paneled stores sell $45 shaving soaps in teak bowls and $150 badger brushes in an atmosphere reminiscent of a 19th-century English barbershop.

Traditional wet shaving got a big boost last year when Cincinnati-based P&G launched a national advertising campaign, Art of Shaving's first since it was founded in 1996, touting the "brotherhood of shaving."

Plans call for the company to operate 70 stores by the end of next year and to roll out pop-up, or temporary, shops in urban markets, Jones said. Art of Shaving's first pop-up store opened Nov. 15 at 11 N. LaSalle St. in Chicago's financial district, where it is slated to operate through Jan. 15.

Mark Herro, the most-watched shave expert on YouTube, with more than 4.6 million views, launched his shaving career in 2004 after his wife, weary of his five o'clock shadow, gave him an anniversary gift of a barber shave. Herro liked the smooth feel of his skin so much that he bought the tools to give himself a barber-style shave at home.

Noticing a dearth of information online about how to shave, the Texas A&M University telecommunications manager began posting how-to videos on YouTube under the handle mantic59 and created a shaving blog called Sharpologist.

His following soared as men, already schooled in the grooming practices of the metrosexual movement, connected with the machismo of facing a straightedge blade.

"For a lot of college-age men, there is an element of being a badass for shaving with a straight razor," Herro said. "The metrosexual thing has run its course."

Indeed, the shaving revival goes hand in hand with the millennial man's desire to express his individuality, said Stephen Hahn-Griffiths, chief strategy officer at Leo Burnett in Chicago. The advertising agency released a study Thursday that asserts a new definition of masculinity is taking shape, noting "the universal archetype of masculinity is over."

Unlike the metrosexual term coined a decade ago to describe straight, urban men willing to embrace their feminine sides, the 2011 man is about self-expression, the study said. Men ages 18 to 40 are spending more time on their appearance, curating their individual style.

"It's less about being Neanderthal or clean cut, but about variations of those two extremes," Hahn-Griffiths said. "It's about finding your own personal look. It's not manicured, but it's still cool."

Another reason traditional shaving is on the rise is that it saves money and is eco-friendly, experts said. Although a safety razor can cost $25 to $200, the replacement blades cost as little as 20 cents each. Even the premium stainless steel blades, at more than $1 each, are less expensive and longer lasting than disposable razor cartridges.

The wet-shave revival is also boosting the barber profession. Retro-style barbershops, such as State Street Barbers in Chicago and F.S.C. Barber in New York and San Francisco, are popping up in big cities as men bypass the hair salon for a more masculine experience.

The number of U.S. barber schools rose 8 percent this year, to 454, from 420 for the same period in 2010, according to the National Association of Barber Boards of America. And the number of barbers has climbed to about 250,000 from 225,000 two years ago.

Charles Kirkpatrick, executive director of the Arkadelphia, Ark.-based trade group, said he has been getting inquiries lately from business owners from Miami to Brooklyn, N.Y., asking him if he knows barbers who can shave. And former barbers are calling in to renew their licenses after losing their jobs.

"A barber manufactures what he sells, and we don't have to worry about (our customers) flying to China to get a haircut," Kirkpatrick said.

Lynn Abrams, considered one of the godfathers of the wet-shave revival, has been trying for the past decade to preserve the old-fashioned shave as an art form. The former Kemper Insurance executive experienced his first straight-razor shave in 1973 at age 21, when his grandfather took him to a barber. He remembered that moment decades later when, in the late 1990s, he found himself on the corporate treadmill.

"Life was hectic," said Abrams, 60, a former Chicagoan who lives outside St. Louis. "I was up and out of the house in 15 minutes, taking the train into the city. I was in the office early, returning phone calls, having meetings. My whole life was at this frantic pace. I decided I'd had enough. I needed to slow down. And that set me on a quest."

Abrams began getting up a half-hour earlier to have time for a daily wet-shave ritual. On weekends, he would do hot-towel shaves. In 2000, Abrams launched an online shaving forum called Straight Razor Place that today has 37,000 members and millions of hits a month.

Although there are plenty of men who prefer the convenience of a quick shave with a disposable or electric razor, sales of traditional wet shave products are on the rise.

The U.S. market for men's razors and blades rose 5.7 percent, to $2.1 billion, in 2010, after remaining essentially flat for the previous three years, according to Euromonitor International. The uptick suggests men are buying more expensive shaving products. Sales of shaving items on eBay increased, on average, 12 percent this year, said Amanda Coffee, spokeswoman for the online auction website.

Meanwhile, department store sales of high-end men's skin care products, including shaving lotions and facial cleansers, gained 10 percent, to $80.6 million, for the 12 months through September, according to NPD Group.

"It really is amazing how quickly this whole thing has transpired," said George Pahos, owner of Shave Nation Shaving Supplies in Glenview and the year-old shaving blog Geofatboy. "I can sit there and tell somebody how to do something all day long, but the best way is to watch someone else do it. A picture is worth a thousand words. And a video is worth a thousand pictures."

Last month, more than 250 men, most in their 20s and early 30s, gathered at the Palmer House in Chicago for the city's first Great Shave event. The party, hosted by Chicago-based merchant Merz Apothecary, touted YouTube shaving stars, barber demonstrations and razor displays.

Merz owner Anthony Qaiyum said sales of shaving products at his drugstore have doubled in the past year. In 2012, he plans to introduce a razor-sharpening service. And within the next two years he is hoping to generate enough interest in the shaving community to stage a national shaving convention in Chicago.

Traditional wet-shave convert Adam Goc, for his part, has put assorted shaving creams and shaving brushes on his Christmas wish list this year. The 21-year-old student at North Central College in Naperville discovered traditional shaving while surfing online two years ago. Now, he is spreading the word to other men in his dorm.

"I find it a meditative ritual," Goc said. "It's a mindful thing. I'm trying to tell the other guys as much as I can about it."

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