Since last writing here I have been lucky enough to spend a little time in Egypt, a country that is both in Africa and Asia. With a population of around 80 million the average income is around $500 per month. In the shaving world the big player is Lord of Alexandria, a very large and top class manufacturer of razors and blades.

The shops I visited were in tourist areas so may well be non representative of Egypt as a whole. The razors on display were mainly disposables with a few system razors (including the older and thus cheaper models) manufacturers were Gillette, Schick and Lord. Very rarely were double edged (DE) blades available and there were no DE razors. This would seem to be an ideal market for the new Gillette Guard razor. I bought some Gillette Nacet DE blades made in Shanghai, China.

The brushes on display were all Omega boar, mostly made in China for about £1 each. But I found some made in Italy models at about £3.50 each and bought one for the lovely Arabic script on the handle. It is an Omega 10018 model.

Aftershaves and colognes were varied, but many had the number 5 as their name, repeated multiple times. I bought the big bottle of Eau de Cologne in the photographs for about £1.50. It is very pleasant but the 65% alcohol content is interesting in a Moslem country, some must get into the body through inhalation and through the skin.

There were a total plethora of shaving creams, local as well as global brands. I just bought a tube of Lord and a tube that carried the same repeated 5 motif of the colognes. In one shop I enquired of the price for this and was told £2, obviously their pricing policy depended on the appearance of the customer. The next shop visited wanted 50 pence for the exact same item. This is typical of shopping in Egypt.

Overall this is one of the great delights of traditional shaving, seeing what is happening in different countries and bringing goodies back home.