In spite of all the reduction-morality justifications this young man finds for making his purchase, he also mentions that the shaving brush “looks retro.” Simplicity aesthetics has its own appeal; it looks simple, and the buyer is able to flesh out the virtues of his choice accordingly. By making this purchase, Rob acquires not just a nine-euro shaving brush, but also a sense of integrity from having made a moral decision. There are of course, even simpler alternatives than the shave brush, though Rob does not explore these in the context of his shopping trip. What about just lathering on the soap with bare hands?  Or, simpler still, why not forego shaving altogether? When my grandfather was in his eighties, he sat down and calculated how much time he spent each day parting his hair. He then calculated the amount of time that hair-parting was cutting into his life. Apparantly, this was a significant enough time expenditure that, from that day until he died several years later, he combed his hair straight back from his face—no part. There is always another backward step one can take in reduction-morality. 
The web of underlying credos spliced into the tapestry of the VS movement is extensive. Because a major tenet of VS is the desire to reduce personal impact on the environment, there is a solid connection with other reduction-morality movements. Natural food movements employ reduction-morality by stepping backward from the perceived evils of the typical American diet—fast food, GMO, pesticide-laden, animal-cruelty-endorsing omnivory—to organic, locally-raised, cruelty-free vegetarianism. Another step backward, and one will embrace veganism, followed in turn by a raw foods diet. Pursued to the extreme, natural food reduction-morality comes to the Jains, a religious sect that is not simply vegetarian, but only eats plant products—whether fruits, vegetables, or grains—that have ripened to the point of falling off the plant, in order to maintain the sanctity of the life of the plant (Jainism Simplified). On an interesting side parallel, those practicing the precepts of Jainism usually come from upper-caste Indian families, which affords individuals the ability to pursue a set of beliefs that are on the higher, or transcendent, levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy—similar to the hierarchical status of the average VSer.
American Puritanism was a response to perceived religious excess; VS is a response to perceived material excess. As with any movement that perceives itself as holding the answers to life’s most pressing questions, VS sometimes has a decidedly fundamentalist bent.
The call to cut back on material entanglements is common to a myriad of spiritual practices and utopian communities: the Amish, the Quakers, and the Shakers all embrace simplicity as a central tenet of their belief structures. Not surprisingly, when one is in a position to qualify the fine points of faith, one is on the upper levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. 