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So after the trial, he turned cosmetics industry entrepreneur. Palmer’s scrapes and burns drove him to his basement to set up a makeshift laboratory, “where all great inventions start,” he said. And he started mixing up his own shave formula.
Finding something that worked with a coincidental but crucial bit of help
from a dermatologist, he thought he might be able to convince other men
that they didn’t have to leave the bathroom with little bits of tissue
stuck to their chins. Now, after about six months of actively marketing
the product, called About-Face, he says he is selling more than 1,000
jars a month.
He says it works for men even with extreme problems, such as “razor bumps,” from ingrown hairs, that make shaving unbearable. Such problems are prevalent among black men, many of whom use depilatory creams or grow beards to avoid the pain of shaving, said Steve Toth, a pharmacist at Tschiffely Pharmacy on Connecticut Avenue NW. As what Palmer calls “the first interracial shave product,” Palmer’s cream retails for an “upscale” price.....
After nearly 30 years as an attorney here, and having argued three cases before the Supreme Court, the 53-year-old Palmer said he had never thought making business decisions would be so interesting. At first he said, he was just looking for a cure for razor burn.
The Vitamin E cream he was using as an after shave was soothing to his face, he said, but he thought, “there’s no reason why one product could not do two things. And there’s no reason why you have to go with the traditional formulations--with that foamy stuff.”
He started trying different combinations of creams but found nothing spectacular until a dermatologist who was treating Palmer for a case of poison ivy showed him a new, highly concentrated lubricant.
Adding this to his formula “really turned the tide--it makes the razor glide,” he said.
After producing the cream for himself and friends, he decided to market it commercially. He
contacted the manufacturers of the two main ingredients, the Vitamin E
cream and the lubricant, and started buying in bulk.
A doctor's comment led him to Tschiffely Pharmacy. "They were
established in 1874 and they still compound their own mixtures," Palmer
said.
The pharmacists there tried it, liked it and agreed to market the cream,
since they occasionally carry private labels. In six months, he has
added about 45 stores to the list of About Face retailers and has hired a
sales representative to get the shave cream to more stores, including
places outside the Washington area.
The California laboratory that produces the base cream agreed to work
with him on the prototype formula--scientifically this time. It
produces more than 1,000 jars of About-Face a month.
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