How Many Of Us Are There (Updated)?

Back in 2014 I took a stab at estimating how bit the traditional shaving in the US might be. Since then I have occasionally wondered “where we are” but still don’t have the resources ($$$$!) to purchase commercial marketing reports that might give me clues.

Then AI agents like Chat GPT came along. So I recently tried again. Here’s the prompt I used:

You are a data scientist and demographics expert. Estimate the number of men in the United States who wet shave with traditional product types (lathering shave cream or soap, shave brush, single-blade safety razor or straight razor, etc.). Show your reasoning.

AI’s Short Answer: a reasonable central estimate is about 2 to 3 million men in the US who actively use traditional wet shaving gear, with a plausible range of roughly 1 to 5 million depending on how strictly you define “regular user” vs “occasional dabbler.”

Below is how the AI got there, in data-science terms with sources, but without pretending we have precision that we really don’t.

1. Start with how many “men who shave” there are

Adult male population

Recent demographic estimates put the US total population around 347 million in 2025, with about 50.25 percent male, which gives about 174.5 million males of all ages. (Statistics Times)

From Census age structure, about 78-79 percent of the population is 18 or older. (Wikipedia)

If we apply that to males, we get on the order of:

• Adult men (18 plus) ≈ 137 million

How many of them ever pick up a razor?

You used 94 percent “men who shave” in your 2014 Sharpologist article based on Experian data. (Sharpologist) Facial hair has become more common since then (YouGov and others show big increases in bearded men in the UK and similar Western markets), but even bearded guys often clean up necklines and cheeks. (Original Shave Company)

A reasonable 2025 assumption for the US:

• Men who shave at least occasionally: about 85-90 percent of adult men
• Using a midpoint of 88 percent, that gives roughly 120 million men who use some kind of razor on their face.

2. Split electric vs manual shaving

Market and industry reports consistently describe traditional manual razors (cartridge, disposable, safety) as still dominant worldwide, with electric shavers gaining but not taking over. (Coherent Market Insights)

Your 2014 estimate used:

• 36 percent electric
• 64 percent manual, among “men who shave” (Sharpologist)

Since then, electric shavers and trimmers have grown, especially with the beard trend, so it’s reasonable to nudge the manual share down somewhat.

A plausible 2025 split (US, among men who shave):

• About 60 percent primarily manual razors
• About 40 percent primarily electric / trimmers

Apply that to the 120 million shavers:

• Manual shavers ≈ 70 to 75 million men
  (using central assumptions, about 72 million)

That 72 million is our “denominator” for traditional wet-shaving penetration.

3. How many of those are using traditional wet shaving gear?

Here we have to move from hard data to structured guessing, anchored to a few signals.

3.1. What counts as “traditional” for this estimate

For this estimate I’m including men who, at least several times per month:

• Use a single blade safety razor, single edge razor, injector, or straight razor, and/or
• Use a shaving brush with lathering soap or cream (not just hand-applied canned foam or brushless gel),

for shaving their face.

So:

• DE + canned foam = in
• Cartridge + brush + hard soap = in
• Beard plus occasional neckline with a DE and brush = in
• One experimental DE shave three years ago and never again = out

3.2. Anchor 1: your 2014 guesstimate

In 2014 you estimated, for the US: (Sharpologist)

• Manual shavers: about 91 million
• Assumed 5 percent used a shaving brush → 4.5 million brush users
• Assumed 1 percent used non cartridge razors (DE, SE, straight) → about 900 thousand

Comments on that post argued 5 percent brush usage might be high if <5 percent are using safety or straight razors, but everyone agreed we’re dealing with a very rough order of magnitude. (Sharpologist)

Since 2014:

• Male population grew.
• Beard culture expanded (fewer daily clean shavers).
• Traditional gear went from obscure to “visible niche” thanks to e-commerce, Reddit, YouTube, etc. (Mordor Intelligence)

So the share of all men might be similar or slightly higher, but the absolute number of traditional-hardware users almost certainly increased.

3.3. Anchor 2: industry language about “traditional wet shaving”

Wet shave market reports say things like:

• “65 percent of men still favor traditional wet shaving for a closer finish”, where “traditional” clearly means any manual wet shave vs electric, not DE + brush in the hobbyist sense. (Global Market Statistics)

So that 65 percent is basically our “manual wet shavers” bucket, not the subset we care about. It validates that manual shaving is still the majority, but tells us nothing specific about brushes or safety razors.

3.4. Anchor 3: safety razors as “niche but growing”

Several US and global razor market analyses explicitly describe safety razors as a niche segment, even within the overall razor market, albeit with strong growth driven by sustainability and cost concerns. (Mordor Intelligence)

That implies:

• We are definitely not talking about 10+ percent of men.
• More realistically, low single-digit percent of manual shavers, at most.

4. Building a structured estimate

Given 72 million manual-shaving men, consider two overlapping behaviors:

1. Traditional hardware users
   Regular DE, SE, injector, or straight razor users (even if paired with canned foam).
2. Traditional lather users
   Brush + lathering soap or cream, regardless of razor type.

Many will be in both groups, but not all.

4.1. Traditional hardware

Based on:

• Your original 1 percent non cartridge estimate in 2014, (Sharpologist)
• “Niche but growing” description in 2025 reports, (Mordor Intelligence)
• Anecdotal evidence where fewer than one in ten men even recognize “safety razor” as a concept in casual surveys at malls etc, implying awareness under 10 percent and actual adoption well below that, (damnfineshave.com)

a reasonable current US adoption guess is:

• Traditional hardware users: roughly 1 to 2 percent of manual-shaving men

Apply that to ~72 million manual shavers:

• 1 percent → about 0.7 million
• 2 percent → about 1.4 million

So, roughly 0.7 to 1.4 million US men regularly shave with a DE/SE/straight style razor.

4.2. Traditional lather (brush + soap/cream)

Not everyone with a brush uses a DE, and not everyone with a DE uses a brush.

Your 2014 “5 percent use a brush” estimate produced about 4.5 million brush users among manual shavers. (Sharpologist) Some commenters thought 5 percent was high, but that was 2014, when online specialty retailers and YouTube were much smaller.

A conservative 2025 view:

• Among manual-shaving men, maybe 3 to 6 percent have and regularly use a brush and lathering product.

Apply that to 72 million:

• 3 percent → about 2.1 million
• 6 percent → about 4.3 million

However, most habitual DE/straight users will also have a brush. If we assume:

• Around 70 percent of traditional hardware users also use a brush,
• And 30-50 percent of brush users use only cartridges or disposables,

then the number of unique “brush-only but not DE” users might be on the order of 0.5 to 1.5 million.

5. Putting it together

Combine:

1. Traditional hardware users: about 0.7 to 1.4 million
2. Additional brush-only traditional lather users (cartridge plus brush): maybe 0.5 to 1.5 million unique men

That gives a total of roughly:

• Lower bound (very strict): around 1 million
• Upper bound (quite generous, including lots of “occasionals”): around 5 million

A realistic central band that balances those assumptions:

• About 2 to 3 million US men who regularly wet shave with at least one traditional product type (brush, lathering soap/cream, DE/SE/straight).

That works out to:

• Around 1.5-2.5 percent of all adult men, or
• Around 3-4 percent of manual-shaving men

which is consistent with:

• Your earlier 1 percent DE estimate being a bit low for 2025, and
• Brush usage being somewhat higher but still firmly niche.

6. How confident is this?

What would move the estimate upward

• If Mintel or a similar firm showed that 5-8 percent of US manual shavers buy DE blades or brushes in a rolling 12-month period, then a 3-5 million “active user” count would look more reasonable.
• If we count any man who owns and uses a DE or brush even a few times per year, not just “regulars,” the number likely creeps toward the upper end of the 1-5 million band.

What would move it downward

• If electric and trimmer usage among bearded men is higher than I assumed, shrinking the manual-shaver base below ~70 million.
• If a serious survey showed that DE/SE/straight adoption is still under 1 percent even among manual shavers, which would push the central estimate closer to 1 to 2 million total traditional wet shavers.

AI’s Conclusion

If you ever decide to buy one of the commercial datasets from Mintel or a razor market report that actually breaks out US safety razor and brush penetration, we could re-run this with real priors and treat your 2014 article plus this estimate as the “pre-data” Bayesian guess. For now, though, “on the order of a few million men, not tens of millions” is the honest answer.

Comments? Leave ’em below!