Thursday, February 14, 2013

Shaving has come full circle …

 

At least for me.

But first some history.

Men have over 25,000 individual hairs on their face and they grow at the rate of 125 – 150 mm per year. For those more comfortable with inches – that translates to between 5 and 6 inches per year.

And since the earliest of time, men have endeavoured to keep their beards groomed beginning with implements made from stone (pumice), sea shells etc.

The Egyptians were especially finicky about being well groomed in this department and in fact invented copper razors at around 3,000 BC.  Alexander the Great made it mandatory in the 4th Century BC for his warriors to be clean shaven to avoid “beard grabbing in conflict”.

These implements for shaving were sharpened with a ‘Strop’ initially made from stone and more latterly consisted of a Leather Strap also known as a Strop.  The art of sharpening, not surprisingly, is called ‘Stropping’.

The Leather Strap became popular in the late 17th Century, with the invention of steel straight razors in Sheffield England. It is stilled used by traditionalist barbers.

In the late 1800’s King Gillette patented the Safety Razor (1880) which is still widely used today.

Now my own history which has come full circle.

My grandfather, a veteran of world war one, used a straight razor and honed its blade on a leather strap.  He eventually evolved to the safety razor.

My father, a veteran of world war two, initially too used a safety razor but in the after war years moved on to the newly invented electric razor. The electric razor was invented just prior to the Great Depression but did not come into vogue until the late 40s and 50s.

It allowed for a dry shave so dispensed with the need for shaving cream and accordingly was much faster / neater.

When I started shaving in the 1960s, I too used an electric shaver if for no other reason than the fact that my father did. But once I left home I soon converted to the safety razor since I found that it gave a much closer shave.  The electric razor ‘pinched’ my skin and was quite dirty to clean out.

But recently, I switched again – back to the electric shaver…sort of.

It is a safety razor that is operated by battery.  So you get the best of both worlds – a clean shave with the efficiency of an electric razor and no messy clean-up.  It gives an even better (closer) shave than the standard safety razor with much less razor burn.

I am committed.  So back to the future for me.

Thought you might be interested.

As I see it…

‘K.D. Galagher’