The Art of Shaving Acquired by Gillette

We received some big news this week. Apparently, shaving giant Gillette (owned by Proctor & Gamble) has acquired The Art of Shaving Brand. Seems like it was just yesterday back in 2007 when the two shaving companies were collaborating on TAOS’s recently released Fusion Collection. I guess that has done well for the two companies and they have decided to combine forces.

The Art of Shaving was founded back in 1996 by a husband and wife team:

Like most men, Eric had sensitive skin. One day, in the kitchen of their Manhattan apartment, Myriam decided to formulate a special oil for him to be used before shaving—a combination of botanical ingredients and pure essential oils. The next morning, Eric applied this protective pre-shave oil before shaving. From the first stroke of the razor, he could feel the blade glide smoothly across his face. A new shaving concept was born.

Eager to share their new pre-shave oil treatment—but having no money to invest-they decided to sell their car for $12,000 and use the proceeds to open a store, and during the fall of 1996, the first The Art of Shaving shop opened its doors on a side street in Manhattan.

The rest is history. Since then The Art of Shaving has grown to 36 retail outlets and over 600 retail partners. Not too shabby for a little kitchen experiment… excuse us while we go startup our blender.

The Lovely Taste of Spam

Ah Spam… wonderful meat-steak like spam.

This past week has been quite the technological shakedown. Last weekend our blog was taken down by some stealthy hacking and this week our forum has been getting attacked by the spam bots. Luckily we keep back-ups, so we usually get back on our feet quickly after these things. They are actually good reminders that we either need to do some updates or look into increasing our security measures. It also reminds me to be diligent in my personal life. For instance, having a pro-active “what if I were victim of identity theft” plan. Do you have one? If not, this site has some pretty good tips.

We’ve never had much of a problem with spam on our phpbb3, but the spam bots must have finally cracked their visual verification measures because they have been bustin’ through the flood gates. We have pruned all the users that were added since Feb 3 because we couldn’t tell what was spammy and what was really. If you were a legit new member we apologize. We’ve implemented some new security, so come on back and register again.

What the hell does spam taste like anyway? I’ve never eaten it, but I imagine it is a close cousin to bologna.

Take a Memo

We love the geek-chic school-inspired serve ware accessories from the Memo Collection at www.fishseddy.com. Make tax-time a little less taxing this year by dishing out a few snacks on the graph paper tray or a couple of dagwoods on the lined note paper trays – you can school all your buddies with your kitchen skills and mad style. Don’t forget to whet your whistle with a man-tastic composition cup.  Having a big shindig? Grab your nearest grease pencil and claim your cup with your very own name – it’ll wash off, we swear!

Winners of TAOS Full Size Lemon Shaving Kit

Okay, the comments are in and the contest deadline has passed. Can we get a drum roll please….

AND THE WINNERS ARE:

• Bhavesh on January 3rd, 2009 12:49 am
• Ramsey on January 7th, 2009 1:17 pm
• RM-NYC on January 10th, 2009 12:14 am

Thanks to all those who participated. We had some great shaving routine descriptions that help us understand the range of practices within our readership… hopefully you guys read through them and picked up a tip or two. If you are not one of the lucky winners, continue to monitor our blog and newsletter… you never know when we just might fire out a free offer or some crazy discount.

Winners – you have one week to claim your prize. Please contact us using the contact form on our blog to let us know what address you would like your kits shipped to (hopefully you’re reading this blog… or we’ll just give your stuff to someone that is.. ha ha ha).

Top 10 Dudes Who’d Look Weird Without The Beard

While we at Foreman cannot say that a full, unkempt beard is the height of men’s grooming and sophistication, we’ll begrudgingly admit that there are a few hyper-coiffed dudes out there that we just don’t think will look right all spruced up and clean-shaven. So in honor of the latest Hollywood trend of shaving aid-neglect, here is our top 10 list of Dudes who’d look weird without the beard:

10. Garden Gnomes. It would be kind of hard to get a close shave on these guys.

9. Grizzly Adams. For you kids raised in the 70’s, you’ll remember Dan Haggerty in “The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams” and his famous bear named Ben (special props to his bearded sidekick Mad Jack, played by Denver Pyle, probably better-know as Uncle Jesse on The Dukes of Hazzard.  Any guy named Mad Jack is alright with us.)

8. Fred Sanford. Redd Foxx’s sometimes beard, sometimes goatee gave “You big dummy!” an element of surprise.  Just ask Lamont.

7. Barry Gibb. Barry’s beard is slightly more like overgrown mutton-chops but the chicks dig him, man.

6. ZZ Top. This one’s a two-fer, two totally rocking flavor-savers…and that other guy.

5. Abe Lincoln. Our 16th president; an American legend, a real trailblazer. Sure there were other full-bearded presidents (5 including Lincoln) but Honest Abe was the first and wore his without the ‘stache. (Bonus trivia: the Republican Party is historically more hirsute than their counterparts.  Double bonus if you don’t have to google “hirsute”.)

4. Wizards. I challenge you to find a wizard without the flowing facial mane. Ask any basement-dweller. Professor Dumbledore, Gandalf the Grey and Merlin to name just a few.

3. Chuck Norris. He would round-house kick us for dropping him to #3 but we’ve got standards.

2. Papa Smurf. Part wizard, part Santa Claus, and 3 apples high, he has the smurfiest beard in Smurf Village. We hope he never smurfs it off.

1. Santa Claus. The original flowy white whiskers adored the world over. Santa’s an International Man of Style, setting the grooming bar pretty darn high and the only guy who can get away with “go ahead and tug on it, it’s real.”

*If all this talk about beards has you itching for a smooth start, we recommend you enter our giveaway for The Art of Shaving Full Size Lemon Shaving Kit (hurry up, contest ends on January 12th). Not into citrus? That’s cool, we sell all the other shaving gear you need right here.

Foreman Giveaway: TAOS Full Size Lemon Shaving Kit

* Update 01/13/09 – This Contest is now closed. The winners have been selected. Please follow our blog and newsletter if you would like to be notified of future giveaways and promotions.

We want to help you get a smooth start in 2009, so we’ve decided to give away a few The Art of Shaving Full Size Lemon Shaving Kits. Each kit is valued at $100 and includes:

• Pre-Shave Oil (2 oz.)
• Shaving Cream (5.3 oz.)
• After-Shave Balm (4 oz.)
• Pure Badger Shaving Brush.

In order to get your chance at winning one of 3 Free The Art of Shaving Full Size Lemon Shaving Kits from Foreman you must do a few things:

• Sign up for the Foreman email newsletter. (you can do so here, unless you’ve already signed up)
• Comment on this post by describing your current shaving routine/products? (US readers only)
• Provide feedback on your experience with the products if you win.

Best of luck! This contest will end on Monday, January 12th 2009 at 11:59p.m. Winners will be announced the next day.

A List of 25 Great Self-Made Men

Where they find the time we haven’t a clue, but The Art of Manliness has done it again. They have just posted an excellent article entitled 25 of the Greatest Self-Made Men in American History. Now, we have long been avid readers and supporters of The Art of Manliness because they continue to produce some of the best mancentric content around. But, this particular article really pulled at our heart strings because it is at this time of year that we all begin reflecting on what we have accomplished throughout the current year and begin contemplating what we will strive for in the next. This article does a great service to us by providing 25 examples of men who created their own legacy through hard work, diligence, and vision.

Some men are born into greatness by the actions of their forefathers and some men create their own greatness despite the adverse conditions that surround them. It is these men and their stories that truly inspire us to reach for our own greatness.

These stories prove that it doesn’t matter who your parents are, where you’re born, or how much education you acquire; the difference is in your character and willingness to do whatever it takes to be the best and achieve your dreams. As we honor these self-made men, we hope to inspire you to join their ranks.

We also appreciate that the author points out the fact that many of these men were in no way perfect.

All had flaws and made mistakes.

But, it is up to us to sift through the good and the bad to find the takeaways we will strive to implore in our own lives.

Take a read through the list of these self-made men and think about what you would like to apply in 2009. What steps will you take to improve upon your own manhood?

We were surprised not to see three of the greatest philanthropists of our time on the list:

Warren Buffett

Truett Cathy

Ted Turner

If you enjoy this article we would recommend checking out the book They Made America. It goes into great detail about the lives of some great American inventors and visioneers… a few of which made this list.

Thanks Art of Manliness for all the inspiration and virtuous words of wisdom you provide us with on a consistent basis!

Hairs to Friendship

Weekend before last I went to a small fundraiser for the John Smoltz Foundation with a couple friends. It was hosted by none other than John Smoltz himself along with Jeff Foxworthy and Ernie Johnson. The evening was a lot of fun and for a great cause, but it was just a little on the chilly side (they must have gotten a deal on the place because why else would you have a fundraiser at an outdoor venue in Nov?). Smoltzie came walking out on stage sporting a visor and a new crop of hair… that turned out to be a Flair Hair Visor. I’m not sure if it was just for comic affect or warmth? But, I got a kick out of it.

The visor was a good symbol of the spirit of the evening. It was all about having a good time in support of a great cause. The highlight for me was seeing how great a friendship Smoltz and Foxworthy have and what great things they are able to accomplish through it. The have been friends for years and have managed to do some pretty cool things along the way (although I think Jeff’s been doing the exact same comedy routine the entire time). It got me thinking about who I surround myself with and whether or not I am creating great friendships that can be used to accomplish great things? Are you? All men should be so lucky to develop such great friendships with like-minded guys that allow them both to become better men.

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: “What! You too? I thought I was the only one.” — C.S. Lewis

Seek great friendships.

Jack Black Eye Balm Giveaway

As we get closer to Election Day, I think we’re all growing a little a little tired of the smear campaigns and seeing the same ads over and over. Does that really work? I assume it must because the tactics never seem to change. To help offer some fatigue relief we’ve partnered up with TruthInAging.com, a blog dedicated to all things anti-aging, to giveaway a few Jack Black Eye Balms. All you have to do is leave a comment on their post and offer up a review once you’ve had a chance to try it. Good Luck!

* 11/05/08 A lot of people seem to be leaving comments on this post, but please note that the giveaway requires you to leave comments on the TruthInAging.com post we link to. They are deciding who gets the free goods, so leaving a comment here will not qualify you. However, please feel free to spend some time looking around at our other posts and comment on them.

* 11/15/08 TruthInAging has selected the winners. Contest is now closed

Save 5% On ALL Foreman Orders

Do you want to save 5% on quality men’s grooming products? Not just a one time only offer, but a continous savings on every order you place with us! Then, head on over to our Forum and join our community. Our community members are very valuable to us, so we have set up a special discount code for them that grants a 5% savings on all orders ALL THE TIME. But, you have to be a member to find out what it is. So join now!

But, don’t stop there. We want our forum to be a place where you can communicate with us and each other about all types of relevant men’s topics like:

• Mantastic Links
• Arts & Culture
• Health & Improvement
• Product Reviews
• and much much more…

See you there.

Next Page »