What is the estimated number of traditional (SE, DE, Straight) wet shavers in the US?

Does anyone know of a "substantiated" estimate of the number of traditional wet shavers in the US? What about a similar estimate for the entire world? In the US, most people are totally surprised that anyone still shaves traditionally. Is it that way in other countries, or just the US?

Well, I'd like to know these numbers too.

Very interesting thread.

I would imagine that only big players like Gillette would have the research and numbers on that.


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In the US, most people are totally surprised that anyone still shaves traditionally. Is it that way in other countries, or just the US?

It's the same everywhere else in my opinion. There is no hard coated data anywhere on this. Google would have shown it otherwise.

But in densly populated countries like mine, people largely are into foams and gels.

I am part of some Frag groups here with members running into 700+. They would have tried almost any niche or exotic fragrance produced in the world but have no clue about any of the brands on the shaving side.

When I tell them the prices of Badger brushes or DE/SE razors they can't believe me...



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Thats next to impossible to keep track of. Traditional wet shaving isn't even on any major companies radar for one big reason: there's no data! All the artisans are considered small business and have no way of reporting sales figures, which would give us a better idea of what percentage of the shaving market we own.

Amazon and eBay are the next best bet but that covers more mainstream products like Tobs, Merkur, Edwin Jagger etc...

My only reference point has been to ask 10 men a day at busy places if they use a safety razor. Less than one in ten even know what I am talking about.

My only reference point has been to ask 10 men a day at busy places if they use a safety razor. Less than one in ten even know what I am talking about.

At my store when they see the shave kit, I constantly hear, “Do people still use those?”


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I am not sure that number could be determined. Unless there is a statistician out there that indicates different.

Example, there are approximately 7.442 billion humans on earth. If you assume that 25% of that number represents people under the age of 18 who do not shave that would be 1.860 billion, 7.442 minus 1860 = 5.582 billion people who shave and would be a candidate for wet shaving. I know people of the age of 16 to 18 shave but I do not believe they wet shave. In addition if you divide 5.582 billion by 2 (assuming 50% of the population are female and I know females shave) you would come up with 2.791 billion males who are candidates to wet shave. So now what do you do with that number? What do you use it for? If you were off by a fraction of 1% that could be hundreds of millions.

I don't believe even PGG would attempt to develop those stats.

I don't think the number is very high. I did not even know what a DE was before I started shaving with one 4 years ago. I just happened to come across them when I was looking for something other than a Schick or Gillette cartridge since I did not like any of the ones they produced.

Not enough.



I doubt it's even a fraction of a percent here in the United States. If wetshavers even got to 1% of the market, I think you'd see the big boys start to take preventative measures to the next level. They've been lining the pockets of a few key senators and representatives for years trying to push regulations onto smaller artisans in the name of "cosmetic safety," and actually got a few items passed last year that will make scaling very difficult for many wetshaving small businesses and artisans.


Either way, there are hundreds of millions of people in the US for the wetshaving industry to target. I don't expect the number to ever reach 1%, but I do expect it to grow above where it is now. It's going to take someone with deep pockets making a marketing push though and doing some real consumer education. Most people aren't going to see that VanDerHagen kit at Walgreens and just think to themselves "Hey, I bet that's better than my Mach 5."