Thread: Straight razors verses safety razors, circa 1906.

The battle between straight and safety razors, raging since way back in 1906, as displayed in this early version of Popular Mechanics. The link takes you to an advertisement for the Radiumite straight razor, which declares:

"Throw away your "safeties" and other unnatural, amateurish, scraping, smarting, ripping, inhuman shaving devices. Shave in the natural way with a standard razor"...

and if you scroll up to page 502, you'll find and ad for Gillette safety razors which argues back:

"No stropping, no honing, no waiting, nothing to learn, nothing to adjust, always ready, always sharp, absolutely safe"...

I wonder how many shavers came to fisticuffs over this.

Popular Mechanics - Google Books

Both arguments pretty much sum it up....

I still think is it a shame to give up such a fine shave just because one is impatient.... Makes me wonder what kind of lover they are....

Probably the same kind of person that posts "(insert whine here) I didn't bother to do any research nor read and my first straight shave wasn't like the mock 3".

No fisticuffs.

Like everything else the youngans were the first to switch over with the older folks slow to change and the old-timers highly resistant and of course those troglodytes who remained with the straight.

I read somewhere that WW1 was the progenitor of the demise of the straight in favor of the safety. IIRC Gillette gave the US armed forces safety razors and all of those servicemen got into the habit. An easier softer way I guess.

One thing that folks miss is during that era there was the idea that it was modern times and with great advancement in technology many things of old fell by the wayside because they weren't high tech enough for the times. Razors were one thing and the change from pocketwatches to wristwatches were another. There were many changes like that going on. Horses were being used less and less too.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

One thing that folks miss is during that era there was the idea that it was modern times and with great advancement in technology many things of old fell by the wayside because they weren't high tech enough for the times. Razors were one thing and the change from pocketwatches to wristwatches were another. There were many changes like that going on. Horses were being used less and less too.

Not really much different than today if you stop and think about it. Most of the "gotta have the latest and greatest" crowd will recoil in horror at the very idea of using one of those "old fashioned safety razors" and I'm sure I'm probably not the only one here who, upon revealing my love for the straight razors was treated to a somber, concerned facial expression and the question, "Are you suicidal?" I think it all boils down to marketing and King Gillette (if you'll pardon the pun) was the king of marketing. If anything the power of marketing since those days has only increased exponentially with our advances in communication. Even bad information can be force fed to an incredible quantity of people, who now, more than ever are prepared to take it as gospel because they saw it on T.V. or the internet. Guy at work has one of the BS roller skate razors that he shaves his dome with. He's seldom without a band-aid or divot on his head from this vile, plastic, wheeled abomination. I gifted him a Fat Handle Tech some time ago that to this day he is afraid to use. When I noticed his fresh band-aid the other day, I just couldn't resist digging in a little deeper, "Gee, I shaved my spud with a straight razor this weekend and didn't bleed a drop. The "latest and greatest" looks like it gave you a damn labotomy!"

PS: Oh yeah, I own the razor shown in the Gillette ad.

I do find the marketing "war" between the too funny. Advertising in general was way different back then with manufacturers taking a bit more license with the truth anyway.

I looked through quite a bit of that link loving the ads. Quite interesting.

From a purely marketing and advertising standpoint Gillette was a genius. He took advantage of every oppurtunity to advance himself and his business and was quite succesful at it. Not saying that he was the first to do it but definitely one of the more succesful at marketing a product that required ongoing dependence on that manufacturer and it's product. We still see this model today. Also the idea of loss leading a one time purchase that forced multiple high-profit purchases continues today.

Charlie