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Most of us pick up a razor at least every couple of days, and although shaving’s a little tedious, it’s not too much of a hassle. It hasn’t always been quite so easy, though. Let’s take a look at the history of shaving.
It Could Get a Little Rough Pre-Gillette
In the days before razors, you could either sport a hirsute look or get creative. Records drawn on cave walls show prehistoric people shaving with clamshells, flint knives, and even shark teeth. It’s not clear when these crude implements gave way to what we now think of as razors. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, circular solid gold or copper razors can be found as far back as the 4th millennium BC in some Egyptian tombs. Still other cultures sharpened volcanic obsidian glass and used those.
Another story posits that the Roman king Lucius Tarquinius Priscus introduced the razor to his people in the 6th century BC, but shaving didn’t really catch on with Romans for another hundred years or so.
In the 4th century BC, Alexander the Great encouraged his men to shave so enemies couldn’t grab their beards during melees. Alexander’s subjects were often shaved using a novacila, a block of iron with one edge sharpened, which sounds like a great way to shred your face.
Julius Caesar supposedly preferred to have his beard plucked out with tweezers, although other Roman men used razors or rubbed the beards from their faces using pumice stones. (Ouch!)
It Didn’t Get Safe Until 1828
Designs for safety razors date back to at least 1762, but they didn’t really catch on until 1828, when they debuted in Sheffield, England. In 1847 William Henson invented the hoe-shaped razor that most of us have in our medicine cabinets, and in 1895 a traveling salesman named King Camp Gillette (pictured) combined this shape with the idea of shaving with a disposable double-edged blade. The resulting safety razor eventually made Gillette a fortune and solved the hassle of having to remove the razor’s blade to sharpen it every few shaves.
The idea was great, but there was a problem: the blades weren’t easy to make. It took another six years for Gillette to find someone who could actually make the disposable blades. MIT professor William Nickerson joined up with Gillette to figure out a way to stamp the blades out of sheets of high-carbon steel, and by 1903 they had their first batch of razors ready to take on America’s beards. By 1906 Gillette’s design was moving 300,000 units a year. Interestingly, Gillette sold the razors at a loss, but he more than made up for it by selling the blades at a huge profit.
Although Gillette’s invention came from his notion that he should invent something people bought, threw away, and then repurchased, he wasn’t your typical capitalist. He became a strong proponent of utopian socialism later in his life and planned a community in Arizona in which engineers would rationally orchestrate all activity. Gillette even offered Teddy Roosevelt $1 million to serve as president of this planned utopia in 1910, but Roosevelt declined.
Things Got Electric in the Twenties
People have been patenting and trying to market electric razors since 1900, but at first they met with little success. (One failed model from 1910 ran on clockwork.) In 1928 a retired Army colonel named Jacob Schick patented an electric razor he had designed, and the world finally had a winner. Schick razors took store shelves by storm in 1931, and they quickly sold millions of units.
The real winners in this transition from wet shaving with soap and a brush to electric razors were badgers. Their hair had been highly prized for wet shaving brushes because it retained water so well, so more than a few badgers were spared a shearing as America started plugging in their electric Schicks.
Like King Camp Gillette, Jacob Schick was a bit of an odd duck. Part of the reason he went into the shaving business was that he really, really believed in the benefits of shaving. In fact, Schick supposedly thought that if a man shaved often enough, he could lengthen his life to 120 years.
The Real Arms Race Started in the 1960s
After years of losing market share to their electric competition, Gillette finally hit upon a winning innovation in 1960 when it introduced stainless steel blades. These newer blades were tougher to hone, but they lasted much longer and didn’t rust. Consumers loved them. Bic introduced the first totally disposable razors in the sixties as well, which made shaving even more convenient.
Gillette struck another blow in 1971 when it introduced the two-blade razor. Other companies followed suit, and now it’s just a matter of time before we’re all shaving with a 17-bladed behemoth. [Image courtesy of Wikimedia.]
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Comments (19)
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I remember watching my dad shave using a safety razor and his brush and shaving soap. Something about that brush and soap so intrigued me. Watching someone shave isn’t nearly as interesting with an electric razor.
posted by Hyacinth on 8-11-2009 at 2:09 pm
All I could think of while reading this is that scene in “A Hard Day’s Night” where George picks on the band’s roadie because he shaves with an electric razor.
George: Me mind boggles at the very idea, a grown man and you haven’t shaved with a safety razor.
Roadie: It’s not my fault, I come from a long line of electricians.
posted by Tracie on 8-11-2009 at 2:43 pm
The link to a hilarious onion article about razors is in my name.
posted by Troy H on 8-11-2009 at 2:46 pm
This reminds me of a MadTV skit of Spichak’s Mach 20! I’m at work, and youtube is blocked here so i can’t link it until i gte home, but if you’re willing to do the research yourself, it’s quite funny. just type in “Mach 20″ or add mad tv to it.
posted by Steven on 8-11-2009 at 2:59 pm
Now the REAL curiosity is why and how WOMEN began to shave nearly everything… And yes, its true… most French women don’t shave their armpits.
posted by Kate on 8-11-2009 at 3:18 pm
@Kate – exactly what I was going to ask!!!
C’mon mental floss… why and when and how did it become the norm for women to shave?
And, do you have origins on waxing, sugaring, threading, etc?
We go through so much pain to be beautiful!
posted by Renis on 8-11-2009 at 4:32 pm
Ironic that this was posted by a guy with a beard.
posted by Travis on 8-11-2009 at 6:15 pm
Wow – no review of shaving could possibly be complete without mentioning Quintippio! Though the 17 blade comment did come close.
posted by goyuix on 8-11-2009 at 6:25 pm
As promised, here is the link to the MadTV skit.
disregard the subtitles, it was the only good link i could find.
posted by Steven on 8-11-2009 at 7:45 pm
That Madtv razor originally was in a Mad magazine. My husband still has it actually. It is the July ‘79 issue. I linked to a Wired mag article with some pics.
posted by Nihil on 8-11-2009 at 7:52 pm
My first razor was a Gillette Techmatic. It was a band razor set in a cartridge. A little strange, but it did its job.
posted by Steve C on 8-11-2009 at 8:53 pm
I wish they would make female razors as effective as males. I’m forever borrowing my boyfriend’s Gillette Mach 3 (much to his annoyance) because the female razors are generally ungainly and have a lot of stupid extras, like soap dispensers etc. As silly as it sounds, I’m certain one of the razor companies would make a lot of money if they simply marketed the next female razor as being “just like the male one”.
Oh, and I absolutely understand that Gilette made it’s fortune out of blades, not the razors – every time the shopping list includes razor blades, there’s always collectively raised eyebrows at the bill total!
posted by dangermouse on 8-11-2009 at 9:12 pm
Women “shaving” has been going on for thousands of years. In some cultures, women would remove all the hair from their body from the neck down as an ancient tradition before they got married. In ancient India, this was achieved with sugaring. Evidence from ancient Greece, Egypt, and Rome indicate that women would pumice off their leg hair. As for the removal of other hair, you might just have to pick up a playboy magazine to see the trends in that.
posted by Lou on 8-12-2009 at 12:26 am
If i remember right, women started shaving because a) their clothes started showing more leg and b) razor companies wanted to sell more razors. Link is in my name. ReCaptcha: waters bearding
posted by Isaac on 8-12-2009 at 12:26 am
I switched to using soap and a brush in my early 20’s and would never switch to an electric razor. I find the brush helps lift the hair and gives a much cleaner shave.
posted by James on 8-12-2009 at 1:00 am
I hated shaving so much I grew a beard. I’ve had it for almost 25 years now. My wife and kids have never seen me without it. I tried several electric razors and was never happy with them.
Oh, and as for women and that ‘other hair’, I don’t get the hairless look or the little designs. (how can I put this delicately?) I prefer a nice shrubbery.
posted by crocostimpy on 8-12-2009 at 1:20 pm
For those asking about female shaving habits, click my name to read an article I found at the Straight Dope.
posted by Tamahome Jenkins on 8-12-2009 at 2:07 pm
I’m with Renis, Kate, and a few others. When, exactly, did Gilette start targeting the female audience and why? Did they, like DeBeers did with diamonds, create the market or were they responding to demand. Inquiring female minds want to know.
posted by Tracey Mc on 8-12-2009 at 3:44 pm
Wet shaving with double edged safety razor, soap and brush is the best method. Nothing else gets as close. The Mach 3 is a joke and electric is useless. Any questions go to http://badgerandblade.com/ on the net. Not a commercial site, just a bulletin board site about shaving and related stuff.
posted by Pete on 8-17-2009 at 2:10 pm