HAGS

HAGS is a Greek artisan brand specialising in traditional wet-shaving products, founded in 2020 by Dimitrios Charokopos. Its full business name is HAGS Artisan Shaving Products, and the wordmark is styled in all capitals. The name is an initialism for "Have A Great Shave" [9]. The company is based in Psychiko, a suburb of Athens in the Attica region, where its products are also made [3].

The brand pairs small-batch shaving soaps, aftershaves and fragrances with label artwork drawn from dark and grotesque imagery. It remains active: a fifth-anniversary line appeared in 2025, the website carries a 2026 copyright notice, and the range is distributed through specialty grooming retailers in several countries.

HAGS began during the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020. According to the company, founder Dimitrios Charokopos had spent years wearing facial hair and decided to shave, but found that a commercial foam and a standard five-blade razor left him with irritation and an unsatisfactory result [2]. That experience led him to research traditional wet shaving and to experiment with formulations of his own before settling on the soaps that became the brand.

Charokopos was born on 9 May 1989 in Fremont, California, and later moved to Greece with his family [2]. While his birthplace is in the United States, the company itself was founded, is headquartered and is manufactured in Greece, which it gives as its home base [3][10]. He is described as a guitarist and multi-instrumentalist with a long-standing interest in horror films, particularly 1980s cult classics — an aesthetic that carries through to the brand's design.

HAGS describes itself as making shaving and grooming products with "a strong artistic identity and a performance-first mindset," summarised in the taglines "Art First. Performance Always." and "Art-led design. Performance shaving. Small-batch craftsmanship." The founder's visual approach draws on what the brand calls grotesque art across painting, film, music and theatre, and each product label is presented as part of that storytelling. The company frames its purpose as redefining men's grooming for customers who want both performance and creativity [2]. A further tagline, "Join The Cult" (rendered in Greek as "Μπες στη Λατρεία"), reflects the brand's community-oriented, collectible positioning.

The range centres on artisan shaving soaps, alongside aftershaves — including lotions, witch hazel lotions and moisturising balms — pre-shave sticks, beard care and a hand and body soap line. A signature soap, Barbershop, is built on the company's CORTEX X base; the brand states it produces a dense, cushioning lather, a slick glide and a soft post-shave finish [8].

HAGS formulates its soaps on several named bases, which it positions for different needs: OSIRIS X, a plant-based vegan formula; HATHOR X, built on tallow and milk; CORTEX X, described as skin-science-led; and MR. RICK, a limited-edition luxury base. A Tesseract base has also been referenced by retailers. The vegan designation applies specifically to the OSIRIS X base [1]; other bases contain tallow or donkey milk, so the brand is not vegan across its whole range. Stated hero ingredients include murumuru seed butter and jojoba oil, which the soaps deliver through a hot-process method [9].

Beyond soaps, HAGS produces a fragrance line of extrait de parfum, rollerball extraits and a fragrance mist, with scents that often share names and notes with the matching soaps. The company markets its manufacturing against several quality and regulatory standards, including ISO 9001:2015, the cosmetics good-manufacturing standard ISO 22716:2007, and registration with the EU's Cosmetic Products Notification Portal (CPNP) [2].

The brand marked its fifth anniversary across 2020–2025 with a limited-edition line that included releases named Eulogy, Resurrection and Aftermath [1]. It also issues recurring seasonal and collaborative editions — among them Christmas and Halloween specials.

According to the company, HAGS products are stocked in more than thirty specialty grooming stores worldwide [2], a network that includes wet-shaving retailers in the United States, the United Kingdom and continental Europe. The brand sells directly through its own website and offers wholesale to trade buyers.

HAGS is active. Its most recent visible activity includes the 2025 fifth-anniversary releases, a 2026 site copyright notice, and ongoing limited and seasonal drops, supporting a continuing multi-region export presence [1].