On a mostly unrelated note, the NY Yankees have long maintained a similar policy for its players. Speculation has it that this was inspired by Steinbrenner's time in the Air Force.
I don't understand Gillete's madness.
- Thread starter JasonJT
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On a mostly unrelated note, the NY Yankees have long maintained a similar policy for its players. Speculation has it that this was inspired by Steinbrenner's time in the Air Force.
I have a Gillette Heritage, I have been using it over a year straight, and coming into my second year with it, I love the razor, it's a great daily driver.
Onto the blades, many here know that I love Gillette blades, all varieties, doesn't matter. I bought a 10 pack of the King blades from my local Walgreen's because I needed some blades and didn't grab any from the house, to make a long story short, they are bloody sharp, very flexible, and work great in the Heritage razor. I can go two weeks on one blade no problem. So $10.99 to shave for almost 20 weeks, at 5 days a week...........that's a great deal in my book.
Hannah's Dad
I Can See Better Than Bigfoot.
Man, that was such big news back then, even outside of NY on the other side of the continent.
rbscebu
Girls call me Makaluod
Could it have something to do with being clean-shaven and womens' thighs? Just a long-shot guess.
Very late to the party here, I know, but while facial hair fashions have come and gone over the millenia up until recent times shaving was a matter of hygiene. Lice being the principle adversary. While cultures mentioned here like the ancient Greens and Romans had cultures featuring daily bathing (at least for city folk) for much of history this has not been a luxury for most people. Because of this lice have always been a problem for people and having lice crawling around on your face is particularly gross and itchy. Shaving solves this issue.
The "founding fathers" have been mentioned here and indeed they shaved regularly and also kept their hair trimmed very short. That's what the white wig thing was about - they'd keep the hair super short so lice wouldn't want to live in it and then wear a fashionable wig that they could wash easily since they were only bathing once a week or whatever.
Likewise, the "Mountain Men" of the American West are today often pictured with long hair and a big bushy, carefully manicured beard. But a man would be totally miserable like that out in the wilderness for long periods only occasionally bathing in a creek or a river. The lice would go nuts! So they'd go out with short hair and try to shave regularly for as long as possible to keep the lice at bay. Spending a year in the wilderness alone they'd often have to abandon these habits due to lost or damaged equipment but that would only act as incentive to get back to civilization and rid themselves of the damned lice with a shave and a haircut.
People talk about WWI and the gas masks and perhaps there's some truth in that, but having a beard in the trenches would have been miserable for the exact same reason as above. I mean, it was miserable anyway with the mud and the rats but beard lice was one thing that was easily avoidable.
The "founding fathers" have been mentioned here and indeed they shaved regularly and also kept their hair trimmed very short. That's what the white wig thing was about - they'd keep the hair super short so lice wouldn't want to live in it and then wear a fashionable wig that they could wash easily since they were only bathing once a week or whatever.
Likewise, the "Mountain Men" of the American West are today often pictured with long hair and a big bushy, carefully manicured beard. But a man would be totally miserable like that out in the wilderness for long periods only occasionally bathing in a creek or a river. The lice would go nuts! So they'd go out with short hair and try to shave regularly for as long as possible to keep the lice at bay. Spending a year in the wilderness alone they'd often have to abandon these habits due to lost or damaged equipment but that would only act as incentive to get back to civilization and rid themselves of the damned lice with a shave and a haircut.
People talk about WWI and the gas masks and perhaps there's some truth in that, but having a beard in the trenches would have been miserable for the exact same reason as above. I mean, it was miserable anyway with the mud and the rats but beard lice was one thing that was easily avoidable.
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This article suggests you have the cause and effect of powdered wigs reversed:
The Reason People Wore Powdered Wigs
Perukes would have never become popular if it hadn’t been for a venereal disease, a pair of self-conscious kings, and poor hair hygiene.
www.mentalfloss.com
While the article focuses on Europe, given the American colonies at the time took their fashion cues from the English (and other Europeans), it made sense that the American elite wore wigs for the same aesthetic reasons; not because they were concerned about lice.
To quote the article you linked:
"Perukes remained popular because they were so practical. At the time, head lice were everywhere, and nitpicking was painful and time-consuming. Wigs, however, curbed the problem. Lice stopped infesting people’s hair—which had to be shaved for the peruke to fit—and camped out on wigs instead. Delousing a wig was much easier than delousing a head of hair: you’d send the dirty headpiece to a wigmaker, who would boil the wig and remove the nits."
"Perukes remained popular because they were so practical. At the time, head lice were everywhere, and nitpicking was painful and time-consuming. Wigs, however, curbed the problem. Lice stopped infesting people’s hair—which had to be shaved for the peruke to fit—and camped out on wigs instead. Delousing a wig was much easier than delousing a head of hair: you’d send the dirty headpiece to a wigmaker, who would boil the wig and remove the nits."
Right, but that was a happy side effect of the wig wearing, which was to hide the signs of venereal disease among the aristocratic elites. This then became a fashion trend that continued into the 18th century. As a happy accident of this, the Europeans who wore wigs discovered that it reduced the lice on their heads. However, this latter issue was the effect, not the cause of wearing wigs. That is, they wore wigs for (1) to hide signs of venereal disease and (2) for fashion, which ultimately led to a reduction in the lice problem.
I'd be careful if I were you. You really don't want Martha Washington to rise from the grave this Halloween and come looking for you!
Whenever I think of Martha Washington, I always think about her freeing George Washington's slaves after he died out of fear they would kill her given the terms of his will granted their freedom upon her death. I'm sure she did more in her life, but that's always what springs to mind for me.
JCinPA
The Lather Maestro
@hairless wonder Thanks for that post, I always wondered why the wig thing started, but never researched it. Now I'm wondering why the tradition has stuck around in British (and Hong Kong, and certain African courts). Fascinating.
people.howstuffworks.com
Interesting P.S. on why they died out in American courts.
In America, Charlton's (a wigmaker) records in the Colonial Williamsburg Archives showed that between April 15, 1769, and April 25, 1773, Founding Father and 3rd US President Thomas Jefferson purchased multiple wigs.
However, due to the following 3 events, wigs were not a fashion necessity in America:
Why Do British Lawyers Still Wear Wigs?
In the late 17th century, wearing wigs became a common practice in law. But why has it endured for so long?
Interesting P.S. on why they died out in American courts.
In America, Charlton's (a wigmaker) records in the Colonial Williamsburg Archives showed that between April 15, 1769, and April 25, 1773, Founding Father and 3rd US President Thomas Jefferson purchased multiple wigs.
However, due to the following 3 events, wigs were not a fashion necessity in America:
- British imposed a tax on hair powder in Duty on Hair Powder Act 1795 that made wearing wigs even more expensive.
- American Revolution led a desire to break with many British traditions and wigs were among the rejected fads.
- There was a disagreement between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson about whether any of the British traditions should be kept. Robes stayed, wigs didn’t.
Well when you are younger say teens or twenties your hair isn’t very hard nor is it the same as when you start getting slightly older …..when you dip around 30+ your beard or at least mine gets thicker …harder….more pronounced….and a cart just doesn’t do the trick anymore …so I reckon maybe carts are not so bad for younger people …and people like near 30 or above should probably use a DE or sr etc (not to say you can’t younger but you know)…oh also with the lubrication strips they do kind of suck in some ways they can hinder your shave (I’ve had some that did glide ok but not many) because when it does go on your face you will notice it’s pretty damn thick and creates resistance therefore going against what it’s actually meant to do in the first place making it pointless to have on them …
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If your beard got tougher when you turned 30, just wait until your turn 40, 50, 60, and 70. I have an old-man, white beard that is like steel wool. Cartridges still work well for shaving the back of my neck where the hair is fine, but I have not found a cartridge sharp enough for my face.
O_O it gets worse ….lord help me
I'm afraid so, at least up to a point. Once you reach full geezerhood, it will stop getting worse.
I've used the one from India, get's the job done.
There's also one sold in Russia/CIS countries (not certain if it's still being sold):
When I saw the KCG first for sale, I bought one. I haven't used it yet, but it looks as good as any other low priced modern DE. I bought it because I wanted to chip in on the effort to show the big manufacturers that there's a market for traditional wet shaving. I also figured I'd give it to my college age son to get him to use a DE, since it's branded Gillette and has kind of a sleek look about it and the packaging.
