People are not interested in things they can’t change.
It’s the proverbial shoulder shrug. When people acknowledge an issue, but don’t have the ability to control the outcome, they generally fall into disinterest. Traffic, the weather, the latest political scandal, it’s easy to become apathetic towards items outside our control.
And there’s a parallel to be drawn as it relates to shaving. Since the majority of men expect irritation when they shave, but don’t understand how to eliminate it, they’ve generally become apathetic towards the products they are using. In many cases, they continue to shave in a way they acknowledge to be suboptimal.
In fact, most of the advice on the internet on how to deal with a damaging shave relates to minimizing or soothing that damage after it’s happened. There’s a surprising lack of information on how to avoid it (other than to stop shaving altogether).
"Why change if you don’t understand that there could be something better?"
“Why change if you don’t understand that there could be something better?” That’s something Dr. Karen Cross, the CEO of MIMOSA Diagnostics said to me when we sat down with her at the Nova Scotia Health Innovation Hub last month. “No one has been able to tell a person how to shave properly, or what is the sensitivity of their skin.”
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| Dr. Karen Cross, CEO of MIMOSA Diagnostics |
This is the genesis of our current research project with MIMOSA. We know that hundreds of millions of men have challenges with shaving, but very little understanding of what to do about it. They don’t even have the right tools to self-identify what their predisposition to certain outcomes might be. For example, many men who get irritation do not believe they have sensitive skin, as an example.
Essentially, if we can understand it, we can treat it. Or to put it another way, if we can help educate people, they can get better results.
“This scientific investigation is looking below the surface of the skin to look at the circulation, does the temperature change, etc. Then with the intervention of the shave, we will be able to tell ‘Was there more blood flow in that area?’, ‘What was the impact of the shave on the area of the skin?’ — And we’ll be able to do all that non-invasively,” says Dr. Cross.
“It’s objective, quantifiable evidence — that’s visual.”
This project, spanning several phases and 14 months, will collect the largest set of empirical data related to shaving’s impact on the skin to date. This project doesn’t just look at the efficacy of shaving, it adds to the knowledge of skin physiology.
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| Imaging a participants skin with the MIMOSA Pro. |
“The best part of this whole process is what we’re going to learn,” says an enthusiastic Dr. Cross.
"The shaving industry on the other hand has seen a complete absence of empirical data"
If you look across other personal care categories, there’s a tremendous amount of successful interventions consumers can take in areas like dental health, anti-aging, vision, etc. Why? Because we’ve had measurable data on these topics and others for decades, so the industry has been able to produce numerous solutions. The shaving industry on the other hand has seen a complete absence of empirical data, and as such has been unable to participate in meaningful solutions – until now.
We all know we should brush our teeth at least twice a day, to floss regularly, get regular dental checkups as part of a healthy dental care routine. What might a healthy shaving routine look like? It’s about time shaving had the same breadth of understanding.
And if people understand that something could be better, they’ll be more interested in taking actionable steps towards achieving that change.