There are alotta factors at play, no way to single out any one reason why it's making a comeback...but you need to also consider why it went away in the first place.



If you've seen vintage shaving ads on ebay from the 1950s onward, especially Barbasol brushless.....speed was the main selling point getting people away from old-timey shaving. With drawings of successful businessmen and sexy women along with very long wordy ads- they brainwashed everyone to stop using a brush & soap, like you were nuts to keep doing it that way. I've even seen a vintage barbasol tube cream where the directions actually stated - "just apply to face, don't rub-in, don't try to over-complicate it".



So then guys of my dad's generation, learning to shave in the late 1960s and thru the 70s/80s/90s....were really busy, working their asses off, long days, plus long commutes back and forth. He didn't have time for a luxurious shave, just a quick few strokes with a cart (Atra, Sensor, Mach3) , splash on some Old Spice and he's out the door. There was no time for self-pampering and no internet forums to learn about new hobbies/interests/better ways of doing something. When I asked if he'd ever used his Dad's Gillette Slim he was emphatically like - "NO WAY !!!" ...He said that he learned with an Atra, and the main objective was just to get the shave over with as quickly as possible.



But now in 2020, guys of his generation (65+) are retired, have more time to sniff the roses, try new stuff, and access to anything they want online. And for guys like me (42 years old) in this crazy modern world of ours, the wife is the one hustling out to the office everyday, and I'm the one at home with the kiddo and have all the friggen time in the world to read about shaving and soaps and things that smell nice, and scour ebay for cool vintage items. ....



So here we are....that's my take on it...guys just have more time to actually take a little bit of care of themselves nowadays, more products available, more information on how to use them...you can learn how to do pretty much anything on youtube, how to shave, how to find/identify/restore old razors, it's all out there and easily available.



I don't think it's a passing fad. For those recently bitten by the bug, they'll probably be in it for the rest of their lives, I wouldn't ever want to go back to carts and cans of foam.