THE SAFETY RAZOR-- Your grandpa would be Proud

Gents, it's time to up your shaving game.  Conventional wet shaving provides the closest shave possible with the least irritation to your skin.

Nothing beats the gratification of a traditional wet shave.  Applying a hot towel, lathering up with a smooth shave cream and soft badger hair brush, and finishing with an after-shave balm is the ultimate grooming ritual.  YOUR GRANDPA  WOULD BE PROUD.

What is a safety/double edge razor.  If your above the age of 40, you probably witnessed your grandpa use one.  If your below the age of 40, you probably have not a clue.

 But as history has a tendency to do, it is bound to repeat. What was once a art is now making a come back among those that never knew.

Maybe a little history of shaving may be in order.  So here it comes. Click on the link to take you to shaving history.  http://www.moderngent.com/history_of_shaving/history_of_shaving.php

To shorten the history up a bit, here is a basic summary.

 Early man used sea shells and such as a form of tweezers to remove hair.  Then flint rock and later knives.  One of the earliest forms of shaving tools was flint rock.

  

Then along came knives that were shaped into tools to make shaving hair much more easy to deal with. Such as the picture below. 

   

  These knives eventually started being designed into a knife know as the straight razor which had the sole purpose for shaving. These Straight razors were the first to provide a shave that was as smooth as a shave could possibly be, but as you can guess, they were very sharp and very dangerous to use.  

Generally speaking, it took a person a lot of cuts and time to perfect the art of shaving with this new and evolutionary tool.  Most people either shaved their selves or had their wives to do it for them. (can you imagine how trusting and peaceful that relationship had to be).

As time progressed, it was barbers that took up the service of shaving their customers.  They had the tools, the means of keeping them sharp and the experience of "many shaves" to provide the safest and best shave possible. Shaving had not only became a necessity, but it was also a luxury. 

Many families passed their straight razors down from one family member to another.  Not so much for sentimental reasons, but for privilege and means to be able to shave. As well as to function within a society that had came to expect it. 

As time went on, more and more people needed to shave with more convenience. Most had neither the time, money or luxury of going to a barber.  So the safety razor was invented.  

And between 1880 - 1970, it became the razor of choice.

The basic forem of the razor, "the cutting blade of which is at right angles with the handle, and resembles somewhat the form of a common hoe", was first described in a patent application in 1847 by William S. Henson.


The first attested use of the term "safety razor" is in a patent application in 1880.


A pivotal innovation was a safety razor using a disposable double edge blade that King Camp Gillette submitted a patent application for in 1901 and was granted in 1904.


The success of Gillette's invention was largely a result of his having been awarded a contract to supply the American troops in World War I with the razors as part of their standard field kits.  The returning soldiers were permitted to keep that part of their equipment and therefore easily retained retained their new shaving habits.


And thus the birth of everyday shaving as we know it today was born. 

The Safety razor had it's run from 1880 until 1970.


In 1970, Wilkinson released its "Bonded Shaving System:, which embedded a single blade in a disposable polymer plastic cartridge. You basically kept the razor handle and purchased the disposable polymer plastic cartridges.

Cartridge blade razors are considered to be a category of their own and not a variety of the safety razor but rather the pre-cursor to the disposable razor of 1974.


In 1974 Bic introduced the disposable razor.  Instead of being a razor with a disposable blade, the entire razor was manufactured to be disposable.

 THIS IS WHERE WE ARE TODAY.  

The disposable razor has been through many changes from one to seven blades to adding aloe strips and other bells and whistles to encourage the shaver a better shave. 

But as for me and many others, the romance, the history, the personal grooming experience, and the closeness of the shave, can only be found in the use of a Safety/Double Edge Razor.

Nothing beats the gratification of a traditional wet shave.  Applying a hot towel, lathering up with a smooth shave cream and soft badger hair brush, and finishing with an after-shave balm is the ultimate grooming ritual.  YOUR GRANDPA  WOULD BE PROUD.

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