Beards have been “in” again for several years, but razor makers are only now seeing the effect facial hair is having on their bottom lines.
Gillette maker Procter & Gamble is starting to bemoan the rise of the beard, complaining that razor sales in developed countries are falling. Schick’s parent company Energizer is saying the same thing, reporting a 10 percent drop in razor sales over the past year alone.
But your choice to sport a five o’clock shadow to work most days a week isn’t really to blame, according to Bloomberg Business. They blame the drop in razor sales solely on America’s latest counter-cultural, cool-because-they’re-not-cool group: Hipsters.
Though rules about facial hair in the workplace have been easing up for years, most people still shave sometimes , even if it isn’t every day like 10 or 20 years ago. But not Hipsters. They let it all hang out Grizzly Adams-style, and because it’s not cool to have a scraggly steel-wool beard, these flannel kings have somehow made it cool .
Thus, Hipsterism spreads and razors sales fall. If this is true and Hipsters are to blame, then they can literally calculate a financial victory in their fight against the establishment.
But it’s possible that Hipsters aren’t to blame. Maybe razor makers shaved a little too close themselves and have caused their own downfall. MSN Money points out that ridiculous and needless six-blade lotion gel hand-warming massage razors marketed relentlessly by razor makers at high prices might have the still-shavers yearning for simpler days.
Take our pals at Dollar Shave Club , a private label that sells simple, sturdy razors for 4 percent of the U.S. market. As Michael Dubin points out in DSC’s hilarious viral video , “stop paying for shave-tech you don’t need.” His company strategy is easy and available enough: Make ’em laugh, make ’em feel manly, and sell them good quality razors without the bells and whistles. And heck, it worked .
So the only question is this: Do you have a beard? Okay, two questions: How often do you shave?
[Image: Shutterstock ]
