World wars put Gillette blades in millions of kits
Copper razors appeared around 3000 BC, yet the modern mass market arrived with disposable blades. In 1918 Gillette sold 3.5 million razors and 32 million blades to U.S. forces. In World War II the firm supplied 12.5 million razors and 1.5 billion blades—then cartridge wars stacked blades from two to seven.
Shaving slices hair with a blade down to the skin. Men most often clear faces; women often clear legs and underarms; either sex may clear chest, abdomen, pubic hair, or the scalp. Head shaving marks religion, military life, swimming, bodybuilding, charity drives, cancer treatment, or male-pattern baldness—and has also been used historically to punish or signal submission. Before metal blades, people tugged hair with paired shells or scraped with water and sharp tools. Alexander the Great pushed Macedonian soldiers to shed beards lest enemies grab them in combat.
Straight razors were made in Sheffield from the eighteenth century. Early-1900s America still favored barbershop straight shaves until safety and electric razors gutted that trade: one New York barber estimated shaving revenue fell from about half of shop income around the Spanish–American War to roughly a tenth by 1939. The Kampfe brothers patented a single-edge Star safety razor in 1876. King Camp Gillette designed a double-edged disposable-blade model in 1895, perfected a patentable version by 1901, and began commercial production in 1903. Wartime kit issues, then a postwar price cut from five dollars to one, locked in habit. Wilkinson Sword’s bonded cartridge arrived in 1970; Gillette’s twin Trac II followed in 1971, then Mach3’s three blades in 1998, Schick’s four-blade Quattro the same year, and Fusion’s five in 2006. Bic launched fully disposable razors in 1974; by 1980 disposables held more than 27 percent of worldwide unit sales.
Wet shaving softens hair with warm water—fully hydrated hair needs about 65 percent less cutting force after roughly two minutes—and adds cream, soap, gel, or oil so the blade glides. Multiple light passes beat one aggressive stroke for cuts and ingrown hairs; alum and styptic pencils close nicks. Electric razors, first built by Jacob Schick in 1928, hide oscillating or rotating cutters behind a foil or rotary screen so hairs poke through and are sheared dry. They usually leave a less close result but fewer cuts and no lather. Spring-wound mechanical shavers such as the Monaco brand even flew on Apollo missions in the 1960s and 1970s.
Side effects—cuts, abrasions, razor burn—shrink with sharp blades, ample lubrication, shaving with the grain, and light pressure. Cuts may bleed about fifteen minutes. Some skins cannot tolerate blades at all and turn to dissolving powders or simply grow a beard.
Source: Shaving
