When I walked into the barber shop on Magazine street in New Orleans, it was like walking into a time capsule. Cabinets filled with antique shaving equipment. The original Gillette shave kits that were given to enlisted soldiers in WWI. A razor that oscillated the blade. Another one that opened up like a butterfly. Some of these relics didn’t look that dissimilar to modern day safety razors, while others show-case some incredible (if short-lived) ingenuity. There really did seem to be an explosion of innovation across these artifacts from a century of shaving innovation.
Born in Ireland, but a resident of New Orleans, Aidan is both a master barber and a bit of a shaving historian.
The proprietor of this particular barber shop-slash-shave museum is a man named Aidan Gill. Born in Ireland, but a resident of New Orleans, Aidan is both a master barber and a bit of a shaving historian. He still does the full hot towel shave treatment for his customers, and has been shaving people for over 40 years.
When we first met back in the spring of 2023, one of the first things Aidan asked me was “why don’t you fellas sell a shaving cream to go with that razor of yours?” My answer was the same I’d given to everyone who asked that question: because we didn’t know the first thing about making a great one.
The Henson razor was born in an aerospace machine shop, by machinists with a deep understanding of cutting mechanics and manufacturing tolerances. The expertise for producing a cream was outside our domain. We didn’t walk into that barber shop on Magazine street looking for a shave cream, but over the next several months we realized that Aidan’s product was an exceptional pairing to our razor.
We really tried to look at shave cream from a basic function-first premise.
The nice part about lacking expertise in something, is that you have no preconceived notion of how things ought to be done. We really tried to look at shave cream from a basic function-first premise. What is shaving cream's actual purpose? Well turns out that’s pretty simple: it should soften your hair and help protect your skin. Where shave creams have lost the plot, is in trying to support supplementary objectives. Making it smell really good, giving you a cooling sensation, making it easy to foam up in your hand. That leads to ingredients like dyes, alcohols, isobutane and even propane.
The cream lathers beautifully, helps the razor glide effortlessly, and leaves your skin feeling refreshed instead of dry and irritated. It’s also baked over several days to deliver a velvety texture that’s honestly quite luxurious. We’re really confident that Henson and non-Henson users alike will love this product.
Made of high quality ingredients, we’re so glad to finally be able to offer the Henson Shave Cream, made in partnership with our friend Aidan Gill. Available now at hensonshaving.com and on Amazon.