Moustache & Blade Podcast – Episode 16: Interview with Charles Roberts

Method Shaving Austen TexasWelcome back to The Moustache & Blade Podcast! In Episode 16 we hear from straight razor master Lynn Abrams, our very own Shave Doctor, Matt Pisarcik and learn how to achieve level 3 from your hot towel with Douglas…then we check in with The Method Shaver himself, Charles Roberts!

Charles has been on the wet shaving scene since day one. Listen as he drops some history and then looks toward the future…Shave Off 2014! Enjoy and Shave On People!

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To learn more about Charles, Method Shaving and his products visit: www.hydrolast.com

 

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About Douglas Smythe

Wet Shaving Software/Hardware Developer. Podcaster, Blogger, Man About Town.

Comments

  1. Where to begin? Thanks for your time. Enjoyed hearing from Matt and Lynn, as always. Charles, never heard of him, or from him, until now. A bit put off by pretensions, yet haven’t gone to his website to look at these revolutionary (?) ideas. There’s a passion I admire but my head is still waiting for the bottom line. Perhaps I’ll need to look at the website but so far haven’t heard anything close to ‘invention’. Who was the first light their farts? Two have made claim yet a caveman having discovered fire could have been there first. My head hurts.

  2. Bill Holt a.k.a. 'Bearded Dragon' says:

    I believe that this is the first ‘podcast’ I’ve ever listened to. Yeah I’m a bit of a dinosaur in some ways. ; ]

    This was thoroughly enjoyable! I’ve never been much of a ‘joiner’, so the sweat lodge talk appealed to me primarily on its technical merits. Ha!

    Lynn’s talk was interesting, but not particularly revelatory, because I’ve been intently roaming the Internet stacks for information as a newcomer to the culture of traditional shaving. Straight-edge will made its presence known at some point, I’m sure, but scrape-downs with vintage Gillettes is my focus for now.

    Accordingly, Matt Pisarcik’s call-in Q&A was fun. I’ve enjoyed Matt’s friendly correspondence a couple of times through e-mails. Nice guy, and razor Emporium’s site is great. What a collection, too!

    I now understand the ‘love him or hate him’ caveat which Douglas, I believe it was, presented before playing the interview with Charles Roberts. ; ] On a most positive note, it was very entertaining how this went into geek overdrive! I think it was around the 50-minute mark where the interview assumed the vibe of being a blend between a TEDx Talk at M.I.T. and a nerd herd Dungeons and Dragons ‘what if’ fantasy session. I was smiling.

    I shouldn’t sow any bad seeds… but I can’t help myself with this. My only negative thought here goes back to Charles. Nice enough guy, but in true geek fashion, far too serious and self-important. At one point he even mentions his own thought from years ago, which I’m paraphrasing as “It’s about cutting hair, how difficult can it be?” That’s basically how I feel about the matter. Now, with THAT statement, anyone who was thinking of stoning me is surely at full arm extension.

    Let me clarify: I went to http://www.hydrolast.com, read everything, or so I believe, and watched every video there. I can see where Charles probably had a successful sales-based career prior to his ‘invention’ of the ‘water-based’ maxillofacial epidermal depilatory technique. For the less verbose out there, I’m busting his balls for claiming to have invented ‘wetshaving’ — get more stones to hurl, because I detest that pretentious, obvious-sounding term, too: it’s f*ckin’ SHAVING! Plus, I think that Gillette’s own unfettered braggadocio for the 90 or so years prior to Charles’ appearance on — or invention of, depending on who you ask — the DE shaving scene rather effectively suggests that men were getting at least acceptable shaves, if not exceptional ‘gloss’ ‘reductions’ for decades. Gillette sold over 4 million razors in 1921.

    Charles is a bit arrogant, but tolerably so. I could hang out with him. Still, listen to his dismissive tone when he addresses the thought of accommodating moustachioed fellows in a special category for the still hypothetical ‘Shave Off, 2014’.

    I liked his videos. The product demonstrations were very compelling. I would like to give his PRODUCT system a go. I guess this is where I drop the bomb that’s been ticking in my hands. Watch the guy shave. I don’t doubt his claims in this podcast that he’s the fastest gun in the Wet ‘n Wild West. I honestly began to feel as if I were back in school, watching that one ‘look at me!’ kid that everyone had to suffer at some point. His actual SHAVE system I’ll TRY, but if his product is as good as he claims it is– and indeed the stuff looks worthy of even his own accolades — my mediocre technique is probably fine.

    LISTEN to the video of him shaving. I hear him hitting bristle all the way through the shave, and he even unapologetically says that you can come back for touch-ups which an exalted ‘system’, in my opinion, should make unnecessary. I’m on the fence as to whether I like or detest something he inarguably did invent: unnecessary new terminology. Forms. Quadrants. There is no ‘North/South axis’. It’s ‘The Science Of Shaving’. He throws out a couple more for you to chew on, too, but I’ll let you discover them on your own if you haven’t yet seen the videos.

    MY bottom line where shave-guru Charles Roberts and his ‘invention’ are concerned is that every face is different. Right in the podcast he says that every beard changes in its own growth hourly so that there isn’t a true ‘pattern’. I need a shave so I’m going to take a swipe at Charles’s ‘Forms’. I need a semi-scientific approach to see if I can truly train my manly muff to grow as commanded so that Method Shaving gives me the ‘gloss’ I so like to show off when cruising the supermarket for produce and p*ssy. Ha! Did my own edits, by the way, out of respect for Douglas and my privilege of access to his site. ; ]

    I was ready to champion Charles after the podcast, but after watching his own videos the proof is going to be in the mix. Honestly, I’m smellin’ just a little somethin’at this point, and it ain’t Hydrolast® product. Watch his shaving demonstration. Granted, he’s performing for the camera, but after all that furious autistic clawing, there SHOULDN’T be as much as a single stub sticking even a micron above his skin, technique aside! I haven’t made that many passes at the girl I’ve been trying to get to go out with me for the last seven years. Ha! Shave time!

  3. Hey Bill!
    Great comment (or novella!)- Welcome to the wild world of Podcasts! I am glad M&B was your first, had we known Ryan and I would have dimmed the lights, lit some candles and played our vinyl collection of Whale songs…to set the mood. 🙂 Please stay in touch, especially in the comment section.You are our favorite to date!
    Cheers & Happy Shaving,
    D

  4. Bill Holt a.k.a. 'Bearded Dragon' says:

    I inattentively made a few grammatical and typographical errors in my above comment, but unless someone sees fit to make mention of them, I’ll let sleeping dogs lie. ; ]

  5. Bill Holt a.k.a. 'Bearded Dragon' says:

    Thank you, Douglas!

    If you recall, we recently corresponded through a few messages pertinent to my transition from a ‘horseshoe’ to a ‘handlebar’. Pleasant exchange, it was!

    I’ve dropped by this evening for two reasons: first, to see if my last comment had passed muster with The Chief of ‘Stache; and second first, to order a tin of tacky ‘Tache Wax. I’m getting tired of gnawing on my tickler, as it’s become annoyingly unruly without a proper waxing to restrain it. The beast must be tamed. It’s coming along nicely, I believe, but that’s a subjective evaluation. There’s only so much I can do to clear the bar set by my genetics, you know.

    I wanted to commend you for promoting Petal Pusher Fancies’ Dandy Candy prior to the release of ‘Tache Wax. It’s heartening to see the cooperative rather than rabidly competitive spirit of free enterprise, notably alive and well among the community of smaller scale artisanal manufacturers. To ‘reward’ that trait, I’m choosing to try your ‘Tache Wax first, and PPF’s Wicked Cookie Duster as my first product remover.

    It’s funny that you mention whale songs, for I’m sitting here listening to a loop of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Albatross’, which has nothing obvious to do with whales or moustaches, but sets a mystical vibe not unlike that of whale songs. Whales would probably not share that sentiment. Also, after drinking and having lip-drip forgettably trapped in my whiskers, I frequently find myself blasting a mist similar to a whale’s blowhole exhalation.

    I have a candle and several tea lights within reach, but I fear that lighting them would only serve to symbolically illuminate your mockery of me. ; ]

    Thank you for the invitation to breach here, and thanks for your efforts to develop quality output, both digital and physical ; ]

    Cordially,
    Bill ‘Bearded Dragon’ Holt

  6. Hello again Bill!
    Always good to hear from you! You can’t go wrong with Dandy Candy and I am a horrible business man! Actually, I don’t buy into the outdated business model of yesteryear…there is room for all of us here and if anything we should join arms and lock whiskers! So to hell w/ fear of symbolism and light those waxed wicks in celebration of soon to be waxed whiskers and as a vigil to the horseshoe you so recently tossed!
    Bravo and saludos,
    Douglas
    PS- Fittingly enough Albatross is Portuguese for pelican, pelicans have been known to follow whales when they feed…so you see, there is indeed a correlation here to be had. There is no duality and no such thing as coincidence. TA Ta!

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