Every week it gets more painful to fill up at the pump. With most commodities at all-time highs, there might be some comfort in having the ability to buy oil for $30 or less. The only catch is that it's not quite a "barrel". I started using a pre-shave oil about five years ago and I must say that it has revolutionized my shaving experience. Every man has those days when no matter how careful their preparations, they still have a painful shave. But most ingrown hairs, shaving irritations, redness, and renegade whiskers can all be tamed by simply using a dime-sized dab of pre-shave oil. For those of you who did not have a debonair grandfather or father to show you the secret to a perfect shave, let me recap...[Read More]

Gentlemen -- our faithful readers, customers, and fans -- we have let you down. It is now November 26th, and we are just getting around to telling you about MOVEMBER! The truth is, we were warned a couple weeks back, but we honestly thought it was just a grooming company's ploy to sell more products. Turns out, it's a real movement aimed at increasing awareness of prostate cancer.

What is Movember? Well, "Mo" is Australian slang for moustache, and so Movember begins on November 1st, when a "Mo Bro" registers his clean shaven face. He then spends the month growing (and grooming) his Mo. The month culminates in a Movember party, currently scheduled for 7 cities. If all goes well, we'll be hosting one next year in San Francisco!

Why the need? According to their site (and who are we to argue), prostate cancer is the most common non-skin cancer in the U.S. with one in six American men developing the disease and 27,000 men dying of the disease every year.

Spend a couple minutes on the official Movember website, and we suspect we'll see you growin' a Mo next year with us!

"It's man make-up for men only. It says so on the box." 

That is the punchline of the Saturday Night Live commercial for "Maybelline for Men" -- a make-up for men -- that aired last night, hosted by Brian Williams (yes, the Nightly News anchor, and by the way, he did a great job). Thanks to the Internets, you can already watch the commercial online. Once the player loads (and it may not load for Firefox users), choose the Brian Williams episode, first chapter for the commercial.

Why did this commercial hit so close to home? Apart from my own habit of over-applying mascara and rouge, it struck a nerve because it was so dead-on. As the big health & beauty companies began to notice more men taking an interest in properly caring for themselves, they could not slap a "For Men" label on their boxes fast enough. Had the products changed? Probably not. But in America, it's rarely the substance so much as the packaging [we're talking to you too, Bottled Water].

I am no scientist, or dermatologist, or paleontologist, so I can't list specific ingredients in the grooming products we sell that make them different or better. But I do know this: just like men are from Mars and women are from Venus, so are their skins. I'll let you ponder that for a moment. Profound, indeed. So for our dollar, we'll stick with Truefitt & Hill who has been "Grooming Men for Greatness" since 1805, Anthony Logistics with the most comprehensive line of products formulated for men, Moxie For Men (it says so on the box!), and The Art of Shaving, whom, until very recently, focused exclusively on men (we'll forgive their transgression into shave cream for women for now). We respect and admire their focus on the men's market even before it became a bandwagon for bigger brands to jump on, resulting in a compliment of the highest form: an SNL parody.

Staying up past midnight was a treat. Now it's back to solving gentlemanly problems for gentlemen only...it says so in our tag line.

Not everyone is complaining about the stringent restrictions on travel these days. Requiring travelers to show up to the airport earlier has been a boon to airport restaurants who now have hundreds of people at the airport with time on their hands once they finish the security gauntlet. But few investigative journalists have bothered to look into "Big Grooming"'s role in the perpetuation of rules barring gels & liquids.

You've finally picked your favorite scent of shave cream, and you've discovered just how significant a difference Pre-Shave oil can make, but all the bottles or tubes you've bought are over 3 ounces. So Big Grooming lobbies the government to put in these ridiculous regulations that force the modern gentleman to buy a whole new set of products for travel. Genius, albeit evil genius.

Fortunately, some of the grooming companies have recently introduced "TSA-approved" kits that include everything you need to both travel safely and look good doing it. Anthony Logistics recently unveiled the Grab & Go Kit which contains their Glycolic Facial Cleanser, Facial Scrub, Shave Cream, Astringent, Shampoo, and Body Cleansing Gel that comes with a one-quart clear zip top bag. Meanwhile, The Art of Shaving began shipping the Carry-on Kit that includes their Pre-Shave Oil, a Shave Cream pump, Aftershave Balm, and a Badger Hair brush. 

I dream of a world where Big Grooming is unable to play the terror card to push product, and instead sells their wares on the simple promise of baby-soft skin. Until then...
 

The Art of Shaving has been around now for a little over 10 years with 26 stores throughout the country, but it feels like they are on the cusp of really breaking out. Last night, the two founders, Eric Malka and Myriam Zaoui were featured on CNBC's The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch. The theme of the show was "Zero to Millions" with the idea being that the show would feature businesses whose founders were told they had no chance of success. They have certainly proved the doubters wrong.

Even more exciting is a new line of products that will hit our shelves on October 1st. No, we're not talking about the new convenient Carry-On Kits that contain TSA-approved grooming products in a clear Ziploc bag. We're also not talking about their sleek new leather Dopp Kit. We are talking about a new line of shaving tools called the Fusion Chrome Collection.

The Fusion Chrome Collection features razors designed specifically for Gillette's® Fusion Razor. A Power Razor features the button required to activate the Fusion's micro-pulses, and also includes a spotlight that will illuminate those pesky hairs that hide in the shadows. A Manual Razor will also be available for those that want 5 blades but don't need the vibration (you know who you are). A special brush is also made to match, and two different stands -- one for just the Razor, one for the Razor & Brush.

The line has not even been photographed yet; the photo above is a scanned copy of a digitized rendering of the Razor, Brush, & Stand so we could at least whet your appetite. If you're like us, and you have to be the first on your block to have the shiny new toy, we have made the entire line available for pre-orders...sight unseen!

The third Presidential candidate we'll do some Father's Day shopping for is the former Senator from North Carolina and Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2004: John Edwards. 

If we were really clever, we would spend some time thinking about gifts appropriate for a trial lawyer (the Mulholland Brothers Montgomery Street Brief is a very sophisticated attache). Any El Casco desk accessories would also make a nice gift. But Edwards hasn't really been a lawyer in years; more recently, when not campaigning, he was working for a hedge fund. So perhaps anything from our Wall Street lifestyle would be more appropriate. 

There is really only one department we can recommend for the candidate who apparently spent $400 on a haircut, and whom Republicans have taken to calling the "Breck girl". Take your pick from the Grooming department, and pay special attention to the Hair. To really make it special, and since he'll be traveling the country for the next 18 months, our gift would be to put those hair products into a beautiful leather dopp kit. That's a solution for a modern gentleman.

Tomorrow we shop for Republican candidate Rudy Guiliani...