Wet shaving. Because Grandpa was right.

Aqua Velva will no longer be sold in glass bottles.

To some, that statement might provoke no more than a disinterested shrug, maybe a “meh”.

To others, it signifies the curtain slamming down on generations of wetshaving goodness.

Aqua Velva.

Pressure from retailers looking to protect their margins finally has caused its manufacturer, Combe, to give in. All future Velva will be shipped in plastic containers. While Combe swears the formulation won’t change, this is almost impossible. Tweaks there will be to keep the stuff from ‘turning’ in plastic bottles.

On the AV front, word also is out that Combe is in play. If the company, and its products like AV and Williams Mug Shaving Soap are bought out, you can bet changes will be afoot in these products.

Remember Old Spice? It never smelled the same after Procter and Gamble bought the brand and saved a few cents a bottle by changing the formulation.

By the way, don’t bother looking for glass bottles of Aqua Velva in the eastern Sacramento suburbs. I already bought them all.

This is an idea whose time I knew had come. There are some open store spaces in a tourist street near me – pondering what kind of store I would put there, the thought wasn’t long coming. A wet shaving store would be cool.

Unfortunately, as much stuff as I have, it doesn’t begin to be at the level of store stock.

It came as a pleasant surprise to read an article about a wet shaving store opening in New England.

Reading the article, marveling at the sheer amount of stock in the place, I figured this had to be a member of Badger and Blade.

Yeah, that thread didn’t take long to find. The proprietor of the new shop is none other than Ray ‘ThirdEye’ Fournier.

Well done, Ray!

You can stop reading now if you like. The rest of this post is devoted to sending what link love I can to Ray’s new site *ahem*: Wet shaving supplies and custom laser engraving at Gentlemen’s Best

And one more thing, Ray. I know the site is under construction, but you gotta start SEO’ing that bad boy now. ‘Home’ is no kind of title for a page. Call it your heading bro, “The Finest in Men’s Traditional Grooming/Wet Shaving!” Let Google know what’s going on there.

Good Luck!

Prices on Fusion and other multiple-blade Gillette ripoffs cartridges are being slashed at British retailer Asada. Monster UK retailer Tesco is expected to follow.

“The store’s toiletries buyer, Graham Speak, said: ‘Instead of lining the pockets of Federer, Henry and Woods, we think companies like Gillette should ditch their razorsharp pricing and put customers first…”

The revolution will be televised. It will feature Messrs. Woods, Jeter, and Federer.