When it comes to a man’s shave, there are a lot of choices – including whether to shave at all, and depending on a man’s age. For an adolescent youth, there’s not a lot of facial hair growth, and shaving is not necessary every day – indeed, it is a time of experimentation, and the youth may enjoy trying to grow a wispy moustache or longer sideburns, or even try different lengths of stubble. For a busy young man at work, shaving is probably a necessity every single day, and anything that shortens the time taken to shave in the morning (such as using an electric shaver), is welcomed. On the other hand, the young man may have taken a lifetime’s decision not to shave but to grow a full beard, although even this needs to be trimmed and neatened on an almost daily basis. Later in life, a man may have retired and feels he wants to grow the beard he always wanted, although there may be other factors at work such as his wife’s preferences and his balding head, not to mention the grey or white stubble that now appears at this stage of his life.
A beard can make a man look older, which can have advantages, but by far the biggest influence on whether a man grows a beard is the preference of the women most close to him – his mother, wife, daughter or girlfriend. If they don’t like his beard, he will soon get rid of it.
The following article is inserted (with acknowledgement and thanks) into my own observation as it is interesting and relevant to my subject.
THE HISTORY OF SHAVING.
C. Modern Gent. Dover, Kent
For thousands of years man has been fighting a battle with his facial hair – over 25,000 hairs as hard as copper wire of the same thickness.
The hairs grow between 125mm and 150mm per year and man will spend an average of more than 3,000 hours of his life shaving them.
Egyptians shaved their beards and heads which was a custom adopted by the Greeks and Romans about 330BC during the reign of Alexander the Great.
This was encouraged for soldiers as a defensive measure to stop enemies from grabbing their hair in hand-to-hand combat.
As shaving spread through the world, men of unshaven societies became known as “barbarians” meaning the “unbarbered”. The practice of women shaving legs and underarms developed much later.
Men scraped their hair away in early times man with crude items such as stone, flint, clam shells and other sharpened materials. He later experimented with bronze, copper and iron razors.
In more recent centuries he used the steel straight razor (aptly called the “cut-throat” for obvious reasons).
For hundreds of years razors maintained a knife-like design and needed to be sharpened by the owner or a barber with the aid of a honing stone or leather strop.
These “weapons” required considerable skill by the user to avoid cutting himself badly.
Why, when and how people started shaving.
Shaving predates history but it was the early Egyptian men and women who really established shaving and hair removal as a regular part of daily grooming.
And the custom continues today for people all over the world.
The Egyptians had an almost unhealthy personal obsession with body hygiene – and curious customs to accompany it.
The Greek historian Herodotus (485-425BC) commented that the Egyptians bathed several times a day and “set cleanliness above seemliness”.
Being so clean all the time was associated with fanatical behaviour by outsiders. The ancient Romans thought that a lack of major body hair was some kind of terrible deformity.
But not in Egypt where priests believed that body hair was shameful and unclean.
Wild animals and barbarians had hair, not the sophisticated and advanced Egyptian civilisation. Being hairless was achieved by shaving, using depilatory creams and rubbing one’s hair off with a pumice stone.
Men, women, and even the children of ancient Egypt all shaved their heads bald and wore elaborate specially-made wigs, which were preferred over a natural head of hair for ultimate protection from the sun’s harmful solar rays.
These wigs were made of natural or artificial hair, and were strategically designed to keep the head cool.
It was rare to find a man or woman out in public totally bald-headed, not just for sun protection, but for making a fashion statement as well.
Another reason for removing all body hair, including that on the scalp was that being hairless gave people an excellent way to prevent various body infections and diseases.
Living in the Nile Valley wasn’t at all easy because it was so very hot and body hair and the heat could become an irritating combination.
Soap was not easily available to the masses and the Egyptians certainly didn’t have the hair care products available to us today.
Keeping shoulder length hair clean was very difficult and washing didn’t always clear up the lice problem that most people had. A bald head could be easily washed and dried.
A bald head didn’t feel itchy under a wig, or create a place for the lice to live. Everyone started shaving everything eventually, yes – everywhere. Being hairless kept people cooler, as well as bug and odour free.
The less hair one had the easier life was.
Celebrity barbers and bogus beards
Items of Egyptian royalties personal care items found during archeological tomb excavations have thrown up such items as razors, manicure tools and other cosmetic implements made of jewel encrusted gold.
Excavations have uncovered works of Egyptian art that show in detail that only peasants, slaves, mercenaries, criminals, plunderers and barbarians were hairy faced.
Ever wonder why we started shaving our faces and heads?
Egyptian men thought that wearing facial hair was a sign of personal neglect. Egyptians who could afford to normally kept a barber on their household staff.
In Mesopotamia barbers were held in the highest regard by society like a doctor or dignitary.
Each town had a street or an area where a number of barber shops could be found. These barbers took great care of the general public by shaving their clients daily with razors and pumice stones then massaging perfumed oils and lotions into their skin.
The evidence we see on ancient wall murals proves that some Egyptians did have hair on their faces. Even with their obsession for personal cleanliness they also thought though that a beard was the sign of a real man, of masculinity and dignity since the beginning of time and that it could give a man status.
On certain occasions therefore the heads of Egypt wore artificial beards which they strapped on with string that fastened beneath their chins.
The Original Hairless Elite
Prehistoric Times – shaving history takes us way back to the Stone Age, around 100,000BC, when Neanderthal Man started first pulling hair from his body.
Filing down his teeth was also a popular pastime.
Cave paintings show that early man discovered ways to remove hair from his face that are still being used today. In the beginning he simply plucked the hair out using seashells like tweezers.
Throughout history tweezers have remained the most popular ever grooming tool invented, used by both “civilised” men and women to painfully remove body and facial hair.
The earliest shaving razors discovered were flint blades from as far back as 30,000BC.
Flint can provide an extremely sharp edge, perfect at the time for shaving. These implements were the first disposable razors as flint dulls rather quickly.
Not only did your early man cut or shave off his body hair with flint he also enjoyed cutting unusual designs into his skin. He added dyes and colours to the cuts and ended up tattooed.
Other shaving tools made of stone found were made during the Neolithic Period.
4000-3000BC Women are removing body hair with depilatory creams made from such combinations as arsenic, quicklime and starch.
3000BC marked the first permanent development of razors due to metalworking being invented. In both India and Egypt razors made from copper are found.
1500-1200BC Some of the most elaborate razors in ancient times in Scandinavia were produced. Razors were found in leather carrying cases with scenes embossed in the bronze blades in excavations carried out in the Danish Mound Graves with the handles carved into horse head shapes.
500BC It became popular for men to crop their hair very short and shave the face in Greece. Alexander the Great is responsible for this as he is obsessed with shaving.
He shaves even during war and will not be seen going to battle with a five o clock shadow. Like the Middle East culture Greeks back then considered it an aesthetic approach to personal hygiene.
Around this time, Roman women remove their hair with razors and pumice stones. They even make their own depilatory creams from medicinal drugs such as Bryonia.
They also pluck their eyebrows using tweezers.
Roman men have a skilled live-in servant to shave them; otherwise they start their day with a trip to the tonsor, or barber, who will shave a face with an iron novacila, or Roman razor.
This type of shaver corrodes quickly and becomes blunt; so most customers usually, or eventually, get cut. But don’t worry – the tonsor can fix this by applying to the face a soothing plaster made from special perfumed ointment and spider webs soaked in oil and vinegar.
Despite the dangers of going to the barber shop, Roman men continue to flock in daily because they are also great centres for news and gossip.
400BC The typical man of India is found sporting a neatly trimmed, well-groomed beard, yet he shaves off all hair on his chest and pubic area.
The average woman is removing hair from her legs with razors and tweezers.
Greek women are removing hair from their legs by singeing it with a lamp. Most Greek men are shaving their faces on a regular basis.
300BC and one day Publicus Ticinius Maenas, a rich Greek businessman brings professional barbers from Sicily to Rome which introduces a new craze for shaving.
The barbers use thin bladed iron razors which are sharpened with water and a whetstone. They don’t always use soap or oil making it a long process of shaving a face.
300 BC During this time in Rome young men of about the age of 21 are required to have their first shave. They kick this off by celebrating their official entry into manhood with an elaborate party.
Other friends are invited to watch and give the novice a bunch of gifts. Only soldiers and those training to become philosophers are excused from participating in this cultural ordeal.
50BC In Rome men are following the example of Julius Caesar, who has his facial hairs plucked out individually by tweezing every day.
Depilatories are used as an alternative to the bloody mess that results from shaving with a blade. The latest available creams include some pretty wild ingredients such as resin, pitch, white vine or ivy gum extract, asses fat, she goats gall, bats blood and powdered viper.
100AD In Rome shaving the male face starts to become old hat thanks to Emperor Hadrian, 76-138AD, who is now reviving the growth of beards.
The truth though is that Hadrian grows a beard to hide the lousy complexion he has on his face.
Middle Ages to The Crusades
476-1270AD European women carry out the bizarre beauty secret of removing all the hair from their eyebrows, eyelashes, temples, and necks.
The look to die for becoming trés chic. This is carried out masochistically by plucking and shaving every day, but a real lady who wants to represent herself in the ideal image of modern female beauty knows this is a necessity.
840AD In Spain, a famous musician and singer from Baghdad, Blackbird, opens the world’s first beauty institute.
Here, students learnt the secrets of hair removal as well as how to apply cosmetics, manufacture deodorants, use toothpowder and the basics of hairdressing.
1066AD Shaving and haircuts help William of Normandy invade England to overcome Harold the Saxon of Hastings. Harold’s spies ventured out before the attack and came back reporting a large group of priests seen nearby but no enemy.
The priests were William’s army who they mistook for Holy Men owing to their clean shaven appearance. They also carried exaggerated pageboy haircuts.
They shaved the hair on the back of their heads but kept a short back and sides which made them look like monks.
1770 French barber Jean-Jacques Perret writes The Art of Learning to Shave Oneself – La Pogonotomie – which gives advice for the use of different shaving products and equipment. The book is the first to propose the idea of a safety razor.
French women shave their heads completely so they can wear the huge powdered wigs of the latest hairstyles.
The Perret Razor is manufactured as an L-shaped wooden guard that holds a razor blade in place. It prevents the user cutting themselves too deeply.
It still does not have any real safety and is not considered to be the first true safety razor but this is the beginning of the safety razor.
1800s and shaving and grooming for men is now a self indulgent pastime thanks to George Bryan (Beau) Brummell who is a dandy known for his impeccable manners and style of dress.
Brummell is said to have shaved his face several times a day and pluck out any remaining hairs with tweezers. After inheriting a sizeable fortune Brummell dedicated himself to be known as a gentleman of fashion.
European women are still knocking up their own depilatory creams in their kitchens. The ingredients now contain such items as oak and French white wine to be taken in a hot bath for 24 hours.
In Sheffield production begins of straight steel razors and they are in constant demand until the middle of the 1800s. These razors dull very quickly however so they have to be honed and stropped frequently in order to use over and over again.
1840 After fleeing England in 1814 to escape from paying off tremendous gambling debts possessed shaver Beau Brummell died in a French lunatic asylum.
1847 William Henson created the first hoe razor which placed the blade perpendicular to its handle, just like a garden tool. This changes forever the way that man will grip his shaver and provides more control.
It is an overnight success.
By the late 1800s Victorian man is now extremely particular over his personal grooming and is starting to use shaving soaps and after shaving lotions which are usually home made in the kitchen using cherry laurel water.
In the United States the Kampfe Brothers file a patent for the first Safety Razor featuring a wire skin guard along one side of the blade’s edge. Only one side of the blade is used which has to be removed often for sharpening.
This is the best available shaving method on the market that won’t cut a user unlike straight steel razors. Blades are manufactured by forging which requires frequent sharpening.
1895 – In the United States King Camp Gillette, a salesman for the Baltimore Seal Company comes up with the idea for a new type of disposable razor blade.
Over the next six years he promotes and sells his idea to backers and toolmakers in order to make his dream shaver a reality.
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The two main choices in shaving are whether to shave “dry” or “wet”, followed by the various methods in shaving in each choice.
Dry shave
In a dry shave, there are many different designs of electric razor, powered either directly from house mains or by battery. The differences are whether the razor is rotary, or in-line. The rotary razor works by a cutter head rotating in each of 3 separate discs, protected by a thin metal foil or mesh that is spring-loaded and cushioned to allow for the contours of the face and skin. I have seen an electron microscope photo of a facial hair cut by a rotary razor, and it looks extremely ugly and twisted, ragged and jagged – therefore not giving a really smooth finish to the facial skin. That is why I don’t use a rotary shaver – it leaves my sensitive skin feeling rough and prickly.
The in-line razor is designed to agitate horizontally a row of cutters fixed underneath the foil, so that the cutters work back and forth on the stubble. This produces a cleaner cut than the rotary cutter, but still not, for me, the perfect shave. Electric razors are designed above all to save time, and are usually preferred by men who have a tough or weathered skin, where a really close shave and the cut of the stubble is not so important.
Wet shave
There are even more choices available in the tools for a wet cut. Wet cut is the traditional method of shaving, whereby a razor blade held in a safety razor, such as a metal or plastic-handled tool, is hand held and applied to the skin through the medium of shaving soap, or cream or foam or gel. This medium allows the blade to glide smoothly across the skin, cutting the hair really close to the follicle.
The “Cut throat” razor is the oldest design of a wet-cut razor, whereby an open steel blade is honed to literally a “razor sharp” edge and applied to the lathered face. The edge is kept sharp by a continuous “stropping” of the blade by the barber on a leather strop – this apparently gives the blade an edge just right for cutting the stubble. When not in use the blade is hinged back inside a protective plastic or wooden handle.
Other methods – the steel “safety razor” invented by Gillette or Wilkinson Sword.
The 2 bladed plastic disposable
The 3 bladed plastic disposable
My first shave was at school at about 15 years old. This was with a Gillette metal safety razor, as plastic disposables had not been invented at that time (circa 1967), and was accomplished in the cold, bare wash-room of my House at school, probably using cold water. Anyway, it was an important “rite of passage” for me. I continued to use the Gillette old fashioned type of safety razor for many years, but when the plastic disposable razors appeared (also manufactured by Gillette), I did try them, but didn’t really like them because the blades got clogged too quickly with the foam and stubble, and needed a lot of water to clean them. This took too much time for me!
Experience of cut throat razor – grandfather’s razor. In my early 20’s I discovered my grandfather’s original cut-throat razor, which had a black Bakelite handle and his initials “CSJT” faintly scratched on the side. The blade was rusty, so I took it to a leather-goods shop and they cleaned and sharpened the blade to a useable bright finish, but I never actually used the razor but just kept it as a memento for many years.
I look in the mirror and check my stubble. It is three days’ growth, which for me is the right length to cut, as too shorter it’s too painful or too longer, too difficult. I like to take my time with an unhurried shave, I don’t like to feel rushed as otherwise I make mistakes and have cuts or nicks on my skin which are annoying, as well as painful. I find I can have a great shave in just under 6 minutes, providing I have hot water, a sharp blade and no distractions to hand.
I have a fresh single razor blade in my old-fashioned Safety Razor. The blades originally were made by Gillette in America, but nowadays they are made under licence in Vietnam –not as sharp as the originals but still useful for up to 3 shaves. The blades are not easy to find, so when I do find them I buy several packets at one time.
I prefer my heavy, nickel-plated safety razor, as my skin is too sensitive to use the modern lightweight, plastic, disposable, 2 or 3- bladed razors, which I find scrape my skin painfully and get clogged with shave cream and stubble far too easily. My razor has a nice weight in the hand and can cut firmly and precisely. I prefer shaving cream to shave foam, shave gel or shaving soap – usually I use Nivea Men or Old Spice, or something similar, with a nice masculine smell from a fat tube.
I prepare a pot of freshly boiled water. This is used mainly to rinse the razor, as cold water is not effective. The light is most important for a perfect shave – either a good overhead mirror light, or the mirror must be facing a window letting in lots of natural daylight. The light enables me to examine every corner of my face.
I wash my face in hot water in a flannel – the hot water is supposed to raise the stubble on my skin, and also soften the bristles. I spread the cream with my fingers over my face and neck, covering all the stubble with a thin layer. I don’t have a shaving brush, although long ago I was given a badger-hair brush for a Christmas present – now lost. Then I dip my razor into the recently-boiled water, and hold it firmly at the right angle to my right cheek, just below my right sideburn, where I always start my shave. My first shaving sweep is a short way downwards, tentatively testing the sharpness of my blade against my stubble – if it seems not sharp, I have to repeat the movement until the blade runs through the stubble reasonably cleanly.
By these short movements I work my way down my cheek to the line of my jaw where it turns inwards towards my neck. By rinsing my razor clean, I am now able to attack the neck bristles, which are not so sensitive to my blade. I make a rapid shave of the whole way round my neck, so that within a minute I have a clean shaved neck. The upper part of my face I can now separate into 4 distinct areas – the left hand cheek, the chin, the area below my lower lip and the corners of my mouth, and finally the moustache area of my upper lip.
I know the areas of my skin that can take a sharp cut without nicking the skin. I pull my cheek-skin tight with my left hand, and rapidly finish the left-hand cheek to a smooth finish.
Now I am left with my chin area and the areas above and below my mouth. The chin stubble is tough and needs careful shaving as the area is rounded, so this is where nicks and cuts are more likely to appear. I take my time over this area, working methodically from right to left. I use the smooth area of skin where no stubble grows to begin my shave, allowing the blade to enter the stubble at a brisk pace, and this makes short work of that area of the face. When done, it should look and feel a clean smooth chin.
For the delicate area below my lower lip, in the centre grows a small patch of stubble very close to my lip. I have to wield the razor more firmly still and apply consistent pressure across the skin. I turn the razor against the grain of the stubble growth so it is cutting back towards the lip. I have to be very careful.
When this is finished, I am left with the most difficult and sensitive areas to shave – the little tiny bristles that grow in the very corners of my mouth, where my lips meet, and along the moustache area of my upper lip, between the lip and the base of my nose. This calls for dexterity of the razor in my hand, rapid changes of angle of the razor to the skin and frequent short sweeps repeated over the same area, as the skin is too sensitive for the stubble to be cut in one stroke. Again, I turn the razor blade against the direction of growth, so that I am cutting back towards my lips – I have to be very careful as this is a sensitive process, and potentially painful. These areas, the corners of my mouth and just underneath my nose, are the areas most likely to get a cut or nick, especially if I am using a new sharp blade – the skin is curved and difficult to shave smoothly. If I get a cut, I have to quickly apply a piece of toilet paper or cotton wool, and then apply a smear of styptic pencil, which gives me a sharp sting. After a clean shave, I am lucky if I don’t have one or two nicks somewhere around my mouth.
When all this has been accomplished, I feel my skin smooth and glowing. I use my tongue to feel inside the corners of my mouth, to check if there are any little short hairs still annoyingly present. Often these tiny hairs are growing inwards towards my mouth, and my first shave has missed them, so I have to make one or two more passes of the razor to eliminate them and make my mouth corners more comfortable. I run the outside of my fingers across my face skin and jaw line to see if there are any hairs left uncut. I peer closely in the mirror. I wash my face with warm clean water on a flannel, and step back to see the result. If it is a perfect shave, there are no nicks or cuts, no bleeding, and a smooth taut skin that is cool to the touch. And I get a compliment from my wife.
C. Tim Taylor 2017