G’day Shavers

My name is Lauren but around here they call me the Shave Doctor.

IN A NUTSHELL:  I am a Shave Therapist, Whole Body Skin Care Specialist, Massage Therapist, Author and Founder of SHAVE911 and the SHAVING GALLERY.  I created these concepts to help shavers of all ages and ethnicities overcome annoying, uncomfortable shaving and skin care challenges that have frustrated them for years. 

Since 1991, I have been working feverishly on perfecting my Cross-Method shaving technique to supersede all of the bullshit beliefs that have surrounded shaving since man decided to hasten the evolutionary process.  Having used and tested this method on over 20,000 shavers, I now know shaving can be more than a means to an end.  In fact, done right, it is the ultimate skin care solution. 

I believe that how we take care of our skin determines our quality of life. Not only does this incredible organ protect our innermost vital organs, it is also the catalyst to how well we feel and experience our physical world and how the world will see us.  Because shaving is the most commonly performed personal care act shared by both men and women around the world, I decided to find out as much as I could on the subject and was as surprised as you will be with what I have uncovered.

First things first, I thought I’d better introduce myself and give you the scoop as to why a mere women has the audacity to go by a fictitious title like “Shave Doctor” in an area she ought not to know much about.  I apologize in advance for the long windedness of this story but I was in the mood for sharing.  So here goes…

Born a native New Zealander, I left home in 1991 and head to Olde Blimey (London, England) for the standard overseas experience that has become expected of antipodeans under the age of 25.  With only 400 pounds (English money) to my name, I decided to invest it wisely in a trip to Munich during Oktober Fest which left me with a belly full of beer but without a pot to piss in.  To make matters worse, everything I owned was stolen out of the boot (trunk) of the car we’d hired during a hazy stopover in Amsterdam. Not the best start to a new life in a new country; but obviously I survived.

Luckily for me, I had some Kiwi mates in London who were kind enough to let me doss (camp out) in their lounge room with 5 other dossers for a small fee. After a week of worry and zero personal space, I landed a job working as a Personal Assistant for a Lord (Aristocrat) who needed help managing several projects he was playing with.  One of these projects happened to be the US distribution of an aristocratic shaving line. I found the business intriguing enough that I asked the Lord for more responsibilities.  He gave me (don’t think I earned it) the glamorous title of VP of marketing.  While my role had little to do with actual shaving, I learned a lot about distribution, licensing and design and got a firsthand look behind the scenes of the elite world of high end department stores and specialty boutiques that drove aristocratic lifestyle choices.

Not before too long, I had all of my male friends (platonic) set up with fancy shave creams, balms and accessories. While I didn’t really think these beer guzzling rugby fanatics would actually use products like Rose Shave Cream or Extract of Limes aftershave, I didn’t really care.  Male or female, if it was your birthday, you got shaving products. I rationalized that quality shave creams were something everyone would use but wouldn’t necessarily buy for themselves; but secretly it was because I got most of it for free or next to it.

Then one day we were at the pub about to watch a rugby game on the big screen when one of my mates asked me to get him more of that pink crap (Rose shave cream)  I’d given him for Christmas.  He started going into detail about how much easier it made shaving and that he didn’t have the razor burn he’d come to think of as being “normal”. Next minute the bunch of them became engrossed in each other’s shaving nightmares, swapping tips and giving advice like old fish wives having a natter over a cup of tea.  The moment I looked up and saw the rugby game was already 5 minutes into the first half, the idea to create a shaving and skin care forum for every day men ignited an enthusiasm in me I hadn’t had since I decided to blow all my money at the Beer fest.  While my testosterone filled mates could both afford and benefit from the products they’d been using, the stuffy, pretentious retail and service environments typical of exclusive lines disconnected them from further involvement.

Soon after my epiphany, I secured the NZ and Australian distribution rights for the shaving line, waved bon voyage to the Lord and began to make my way back downunder to launch my new and improved shaving concept.  I decided to have some fun along the way and met up with some mates down in South Africa for the rugby world cup.  New Zealand lost to South Africa in over time so we decided to cheer ourselves up with a trip to Zimbabwe and several other East African countries thereafter.  Africa was a pleasant surprise and a great place to work on a Business Plan without too much interruption.   

Africa was so relaxing I decided I needed to shake things up a bit so me and another mate head on over to the good ol’ US of A looking for some inspiration mostly in all the wrong places.  Then out of nowhere, I meet this man Steve and 12 months later we were married.  Orginally, we originally agreed to move back to NZ to start our married life together and launch my shaving concept; but that wasn’t to be.  Instead, I opened my first concept, The Shaving Gallery; in a quaint historical downtown district 50 miles North West of Atlanta Georgia.

My suppliers weren’t exactly stoked with my choice of location and various family members and friends thought I was 2 scones short of a morning tea for choosing such an out of the way location to sell $30 pots of shave cream.  While their concerns had merit, it felt right to me for reasons that would reveal themselves a long uncomfortable financially strapped decade later. 

The fact that I knew so little about the anatomy of skin, shaving, retail, taxes and “the South” wasn’t a big enough deterrent for my ego.  My biggest concern was that my suppliers wouldn’t be able to make the products fast enough for the sales I was about to do.  However, delusions of shave cream mania quickly evaporated when it took 7 days to sell my first pot and not too many more before the savings, credit cards and spare change dried up.  While it was uncomfortable as hell, it was the kick in the arse I needed to start learning everything I could about the industry I was in and how I was going to carve out my niche and bring my vision to the forefront of family skin care.

E-commerce was still raw, slow and not well utilized at that time so it was difficult to garner any information, never mind on the subject of shaving.  The text books issued at the barber school hadn’t been updated since the invention of the wheel and every self proclaimed expert parroted the same outdated advice without really knowing why.

At first I toyed with the idea of offering straight razor shaves as everyone seemed genuinely interested in seeing this lost art reinstituted.  But I knew that I wanted my concept to be current and meet the skin care needs of today’s shaver.  The only way to sell them product they could use at home would be to demonstrate it real time using tools they were familiar with.  This way I could prove that it wasn’t a special razor that gave them a close, irritation free result but the shave preparations and techniques that I could teach them to duplicate at home. 

As business started to pick up, I began to create relationships with my shavers who I would start to see on a weekly basis.  It was during these visits that I started to figure out what worked and what didn’t. 

Because I believe in throwing enough crap at the walls to see what sticks, during my 12 years here in the US I became a massage therapist specializing in deep tissue and lymphatic drainage integration therapy, joined a scientific organization who taught me all about the ill effects of pollution and parasites, earned a retail certification in homeopathy and aromatherapy, learned how to apply magnetic therapy, read biofeedback technology, use herbology as a means of prevention, conceptualized and designed the first biologically appropriate shaving line to be used as a skin care solution and updated the shaving curriculum so estheticians and cosmetologists can bring a higher value to a facial service specifically designed for men.    

Today, I don’t believe there’s a skin out there I couldn’t help fix.  Because I address the whole body and look for the cause of the problem rather than focus on symptoms, shavers can enjoy a full recovery from any challenge if they’re prepared to put in the work.  This involves understanding the role of skin, how hair follicles work and how to work with your whiskers and not against them.  Armed with the right tools and knowledge, every shaver has an opportunity to turn their shaving nightmare into the ultimate skin care success. 

Over the months, I will be teaching you how to do this as well as bringing you tales from the shave chair just to keep things interesting. 

On that note, thanks for visiting and I look forward to hearing from you along with any questions you might have.

Cheers

The Shave Doctor