The demise of (most) cheap aftershave, noted

For many years, I have used Japanese aftershave.  There are a few common brands, often found in hotels (or in good onsen), and while I think they are mainly a thing for the older male (hey, that's me now!), it seems enough older males must use it for the product to be readily available in supermarkets, pharmacies, etc. (For the younger male, the skin care and hair care product range is much broader than it is in Australia, and there are some very mild versions of aftershave, not obviously alcohol based, for them, too.)  The thing I like about that country's aftershave is that they are not overpowering - even the initially stronger smelling ones are definitely not lingering, but give the nice, bracing astringent sensation that leaves the skin feeling very clean, especially in summer.  (In winter, I might moisturise instead - at least if the weather is super dry.)

But - I didn't realise until this Christmas just how comprehensively the "cheap-ish alcohol based aftershave" market has collapsed in Australia.   This may sound odd, but I thought I would buy my son a bottle of some "classic", since he has never used after shave. (OK, I suppose I could gift one of my Japanese bottles - but that's already mine!)  

As far as I can tell, after visiting Chemist Warehouse, a couple of supermarkets, and a couple of independent pharmacies, about the only "old school" brand of aftershave still more-or-less available is Blue Stratos.  I'm not even sure how old it is - an internet search first indicated that an Australian company has been making it since 2002, but elsewhere someone says it was released in 1976.   (It is, by the looks, made by different companies around the world.)  

Now, sure, you can get at the supermarket a few brands of after shave "balms", but if you live in a humid climate, the alcohol based end to a shave is far more desirable.   Whatever happened to plain old Old Spice, for example?   It's not be found anywhere on the shelves.  I see now that I can buy it online from Chemist Warehouse, but I am sure it wasn't on the shelf.   I saw something of (ugh) Brut in a pharmacy, but it was always crassly overpowering, and I didn't even check if it was aftershave or something else. 

Now, yes, I am aware that Chemist Warehouse has a substantial section of men's colognes, and amongst them there is one or two which are sold as aftershaves.  But they are more expensive European brands, and anything in that entire section is always overpowering in the "hairy man who wants to be smelt from across the room" kind of way.   I mean, what do they put in these colognes that make them impossible to remove even after a couple of washings with soap?   This time, I thought that surely a company like Reebok wouldn't sell a cologne that was too strong, but I sprayed a tiny spray (from a tester bottle, of course) onto the back of my hand and then was still smelling it there 4 hours later after several hand washing attempts to remove it.  Awful.

I would presume Australia is just following the lead of other Western nations, America in particular?   Oddly, given the number of varieties of Lynx deodorant/body spray on the supermarket shelf, which I think is the local equivalent of the often joked about Axe body spray in the US, the problem seems not to be young men don't want to smell - it's more that they want to smell too much.   At least after exercise, or something?   But, I don't know, I still associate strong male cologne smells with men of my age (or older) - I don't really recall noticing such a smell from a 20 something guy.  Then again, it's not that I am ever socialising with them.  Maybe if I went to a nightclub I would learn.

But yeah, I used to use Old Spice, maybe not daily, but often, as a young man, and its attraction was the mildness of the smell.  I really can't remember now when I stopped using it.  Maybe about 23 years ago, when I first went to Japan?    

By the way, there is probably a story to be told as to how men's aftershave came to be popular in Japan at all - given that I have noticed in other Asian countries (Singapore, Malaysia) that any form of male aftershave is virtually non-existant.   One might think that the relatively less expansive amount of facial hair to be found on many Eastern Asian men would be the reason (as shaving might not be a daily necessity for all) - but of course, Japanese men can have the same feature.  Was it the American post war occupation that set them on the path of aftershave?  And what is the situation in Korea, I wonder?   (Even more intense preoccupation with young men's skin and hair care than Japan, I presume, but what about aftershave?)  

Anyway, I bought the (very cheap) Blue Stratos aftershave, and, as I recall, it's not a bad smell (although I don't think I ever used it myself; just smelt it in the past and thought it was OK.)   He's used it and seems to thinks it's OK, but is wondering how it will affect his moisturising regime.  Young men these days!