BREAKING NEWS: The Art of Shaving has been acquired by Proctor & Gamble. Read more in AdAge if you're interested. 

File under "Things that make you go hmmm..."

Last week, we announced a new feature called Gotta See It -- our attempt to highlight products that are virtually impossible to do justice...virtually. In my eagerness to post something about the amazing Australian Saltwater Hornback Crocodile Belt, I didn't consider the possibility that I might want to write about how something smelled rather than just how it looked. 

So in just our second edition of "Gotta See It", we're instead promoting a "Gotta Smell It" product. Specifically, The Art of Shaving's Lemon scented Eau de Toilette.

Perhaps it escaped my attention because it was released months after their Sandalwood fragrance. Perhaps I didn't think I would like it despite the fact that I have used - and enjoyed - the lemon-scented Pre-Shave Oil and Shaving Cream. Regardless, a customer in the store sprayed a little of the Lemon in the air, and mentioned how much he liked it. I came over and hit myself with a little sample, and I must say, it had a really nice fragrance; definitely not as lemon-y as I would have thought.

Obviously, $70 is a decent chunk of change to spend on a cologne you've never smelled. But if you pop into an Art of Shaving store, I would highly recommend you try it out...and then buy it from us to save the sales tax ;-)

How much do you want to bet that "the guy who has everything" does not have a Sterling Silver Razor Set? Does he really need a $2K+ razor set? That's beside the point -- the premise is that even the guy who has everything doesn't really have everything. More broadly, one rule of thumb

Within the umbrella of our Men's Grooming department, you can pretty much divide the products up into 3 categories: grooming tools (razors, badger brushes, etc.), grooming products (shave creams, aftershave balms, etc.), and kits/gift sets (travel kits, starter kits, etc.). Today, we'll focus on grooming tools which includes razors, brushes, and razor & brush sets.

Buying grooming products for a gentleman should be pretty well restricted to mothers or wives/partners buying for him. His executive assistant or fraternity brother from college buying it for him will only telegraph the fact that he is dirty and he stinks. Then again, perhaps that's a message needs to hear. Instead, focus on grooming tools or kits.

Grooming tools are definitely the most popular men's grooming gift for a couple reasons:

1. Considering the number of times a man will shave in his life (let's assume 4x a week from 18-68 for nice round numbers and you get 10,400 shaves). Anything that makes a daily ritual more enjoyable is a welcome gift. 
2. He will be reminded daily of you and your gift, and with a razor or brush, it will last for years, if not decades.
   
3. Grooming tools are very masculine. Just the word "badger" in "badger brush" evokes imagery of Neanderthal man hunting down the little creatures for their precious hairs and then affixing them to a piece of wood with tree sap to improve his daily shave.
   
4. Chances are he's using the razor that came with the blades at the drug store where he bought it. He probably doesn't own a badger brush, and if he has had one, he can probably use a new one (a life in the bathroom will take its toll eventually).
   

Grooming kits are a great way to introduce him to a new brand, or to new products, but we'll make that case another day. Our assortment of some of the best grooming products & tools in the world can be found here...

Since I know you are all very concerned with my shaving regimen, I wanted to provide a brief update on my experiences with Safety Razor shaving. Three weeks in now and I'm now beginning to enjoy it. Here's what I've learned so far:

• Cream is key. While they call it "wet shaving", cream seems more important than water. With a Fusion or Mach III razor, you can take a pass with no cream and do little harm; with the safety razor, it seems to be much more effective with cream. The good news is that I have developed a very serious, emotional bond with my badger brush now.
• Don't swallow...or move...or even think while you're shaving around your Adam's apple. After a pretty serious "gun shot wound" to the throat on the 3rd day of shaving, I now take the neck much more cautiously.
• When $#*% happens, alum block works much better than a small piece of tissue paper.
• I've spent $0.45 on blades. Now, I don't shave every day, but with the blades being "double-edged", I get twice as many shaves out of a single $0.15 blade than I originally expected. With the money I've saved, I hope to buy the country of Iceland.    

Learning to master a straight razor may be in my future after all...

So my first pass at a safety razor shave came last night with my beautiful new Truefitt & Hill Ebony Safety Razor, and it was quite an interesting experience.

First, my thanks and apologies to mantic59, the Badger & Blade veteran with the YouTube tutorials on safety razor shaving. Thanks for the vidoes; apologies for mentioning your name in this post as it will trigger your Google alerts any second now.

After massaging in some Pre-Shave Oil and applying my trusty Truefitt & Hill Shave Cream with a badger brush, I took my first swipes with the razor. I was amazed how easily the razor wiped up the shave cream & hairs -- I didn't feel anything. Everything was going smoothly until my dad called to get directions, at which point, I stopped mid-shave, talked on the phone, and returned a couple minutes later. At this point, some of the shave cream had disappeared (hopefully not onto the living room carpet). I returned to the bathroom and thought I'd just keep going, but I could really feel the pulling of the razor on the hairs. I tried a couple of strokes, and then decided to reapply more shave cream.

What a HUGE difference. The shave was instantly more pleasurable, and I finished my first Safety Razor shave with just 3 small nicks on my neck -- much better than I anticipated. If you really do get better with practice, I suspect I'll be enjoying my shave again at 1/25th the cost per blade! Assuming I live another 50 years, and shave at least 4 times a week, and each blade gets me 3-4 shaves, I am looking at a lifetime savings of $13,000. And if my dad taught me this when I started shaving...well, I'd have lost it all in the market last week anyways!

Unless you've been living in a cave palling around with terrorists, you've no doubt learned a lot more about economics than you ever thought you would. TED spreads, credit-default swaps, collateralized debt obligations, auction-rate securities and so much more. In fact, we almost considered making Das Kapital our Book-of-the-Month selection for October! The turmoil in the stock market has prompted a "flight to safety" to things like Treasury bonds and safety razors, and I'm jumping on the bandwagon too.

Like many men, I'm always looking for a better shave. I've actually been very pleased with my current regimen which involves Pre-Shave Oil, a badger brush, Truefitt & Hill shave cream, and the Gillette Fusion razor (the 5-blade one). The only problem is that the Fusion blades are something like $4/cartridge. Because I have a tough beard, I'm lucky if I get 3 good shaves out of a cartridge before the moisturizing strip loses its color. Using a blade after the strip has lost its color is a lot like drinking milk the day after the expiration date -- it might be good, but do you really want to risk it?

Truefitt & Hill's CEO, Todd Fisher, has been very keen on safety razor shaving for the past few months, but I have not had the time to learn the technique properly. Yesterday, I received a gift from Truefitt & Hill -- my very own Safety Razor! Aside from providing a closer shave, the blades are something worth considering in times like these as they cost something like 15 cents rather than $4.

I'll be spending the new few weeks mastering my technique, but promise to check back in to tell you the results. If you're interested in seeing how it's done, user mantic59 has a series of videos on YouTube that will teach you just about everything you wanted to know about safety razor shaving. And for that, my face and our nation are ever grateful.