For all of you who were brought up on de shaving what was your first thoughts when the first cartridge razor was introduced, was it, no thanks i will stick to my de or, that seems a good idea and will save me some time, i was just wondering when they were introduced were they thought of as gimicky or a brilliant idea.
Question for our senior members.
- Thread starter taffy
- Start date
Good question, I'm very curious to hear the responses.
I'm not a senior member but I imagine you'd have to try it before you dismissed it.
I started on Cartridges and wasn't really disappointed with it but never realized the pleasure of shaving till I started using a DE and a Brush. Made it a chore I look forward to every day (kind of like Tom Sawyer talking kids into white washing his fence maybe).
I'm not a senior member but I imagine you'd have to try it before you dismissed it.
I started on Cartridges and wasn't really disappointed with it but never realized the pleasure of shaving till I started using a DE and a Brush. Made it a chore I look forward to every day (kind of like Tom Sawyer talking kids into white washing his fence maybe).
Whenever I go home my dad always grumbles when my mom makes him shave because "it hurts like hell". Meanwhile, I have my DE and/or SE and take pleasure on it.
My dad learned how to shave with a DE as a kid, but gave it up and refuses to try it out again. I'm not really sure why... Surely a guy who works with his hands all day (transmission mechanic) can't be afraid of a little razor blade...
My dad learned how to shave with a DE as a kid, but gave it up and refuses to try it out again. I'm not really sure why... Surely a guy who works with his hands all day (transmission mechanic) can't be afraid of a little razor blade...
Well I was around when they first came out and if I remember right, because that was a long time ago and you have all heard of "old timers", it was because you saved time. Alot of us had shelved the brush and soap for the can and this was just another step in that direction. It was the new modern way of shaving, you didn't have to worry about getting the used blade out of the razor and getting cut in the process. The ads on TV showed how all the women liked the close of a shave you recieved and loved to stroke your face. Being young and single anything that would want women to stroke my face I was ready for. Funny I kept waiting and it never happened. Then every year or to they would improve the razors so you would try them. Lets face it Gillette has always been in the disposable buisness from day one.
When comming back in to wet shaving, I just could not believe I had ever left. Funny I kept my mug, soap and brush all those years but somehow had lost the razor so had to buy a new one. Yes the soap, Williams, still worked so for all you wondering about the old soap they will still lather after you have had them for long awhile.
When comming back in to wet shaving, I just could not believe I had ever left. Funny I kept my mug, soap and brush all those years but somehow had lost the razor so had to buy a new one. Yes the soap, Williams, still worked so for all you wondering about the old soap they will still lather after you have had them for long awhile.
I started shaving with a Schick Injector, and my first cart use was when I joined the service.
We were all made to purchase a razor at the post exchange as everything we brought with us got boxed and sent home the first day.
After that, I never really thought about it till I got out of the service.
I progressed along in the cart line because I bought what was available at the shop. When a given blade wasn't among the small selection available to servicemen, I made the next razor purchase.
My last Cart was the Sensor, which I used until the point that I switched back to wet shaving and the DE.
We were all made to purchase a razor at the post exchange as everything we brought with us got boxed and sent home the first day.
After that, I never really thought about it till I got out of the service.
I progressed along in the cart line because I bought what was available at the shop. When a given blade wasn't among the small selection available to servicemen, I made the next razor purchase.
My last Cart was the Sensor, which I used until the point that I switched back to wet shaving and the DE.
- Thread starter
- #6
Thanks for a great reply, i can remember my father using a cartridge but he gave that up for electric as he thought that even cartridge razors were messy
Interesting thread. 
I was seduced by the convenience of the cartridge. I hadn't really learned to shave well with the DE and had always had tons of weepers on the neck. Shirt collars were routinely spooted with little bloodstains. Switching to the cartridge didn't help that either. But I stayed with the cartridges until 2006. What a waste.
-- John Gehman
-- John Gehman
Much of the transition happen in a very interesting point of history-
We were reaching for the stars, man was landing on the moon. The space race and color TV was becoming available. Many families were buying houses and for the first time cars. The true middle class was exploding. It really was a time when "new" was really new and many products were better and more importantly cheaper and more available. Remember Tang?
Progress was the buzzword, old fashioned was seen as uninformed or worse.
A DE is not a magic razor, many men had bad shaves/poor results because of poor technique then as well as now.They were the first to switch.
We were reaching for the stars, man was landing on the moon. The space race and color TV was becoming available. Many families were buying houses and for the first time cars. The true middle class was exploding. It really was a time when "new" was really new and many products were better and more importantly cheaper and more available. Remember Tang?
Progress was the buzzword, old fashioned was seen as uninformed or worse.
A DE is not a magic razor, many men had bad shaves/poor results because of poor technique then as well as now.They were the first to switch.
I started shaving in the early '70s, when cartridges were first being introduced. So that's what I used.
There were still plenty of DE razors around the house, though, because that's what my father and grandfather used. But I didn't really give them much thought, since I didn't realize there was such a big difference.
Down through the years, I tried a few different electric razors, but never stuck with them longer than a month or so, because the shave I got from them hurt so much and sucked so badly.
I did try wet-shaving a few times in the last 40 years, mostly as a novelty. I used my father's and grandfather's gear after they passed away. But I didn't stick with it because I wasn't getting good results. I realize now that I didn't really know what I was doing, and I had no clue as to concepts of lather-building or razor technique.
I returned to DE shaving about 2.5 years ago, and now, with the help and guidance, tips and techniques I've learned here at B&B, there's no turning back.
There were still plenty of DE razors around the house, though, because that's what my father and grandfather used. But I didn't really give them much thought, since I didn't realize there was such a big difference.
Down through the years, I tried a few different electric razors, but never stuck with them longer than a month or so, because the shave I got from them hurt so much and sucked so badly.
I did try wet-shaving a few times in the last 40 years, mostly as a novelty. I used my father's and grandfather's gear after they passed away. But I didn't stick with it because I wasn't getting good results. I realize now that I didn't really know what I was doing, and I had no clue as to concepts of lather-building or razor technique.
I returned to DE shaving about 2.5 years ago, and now, with the help and guidance, tips and techniques I've learned here at B&B, there's no turning back.
I started shaving with a brush, cream and a DE. Once I got past the excitement of "becoming a man" I felt like shaving was just a chore that had to be done. I switched to an electric after a few years to save time, but never had that clean-shaven feeling.
I was going to switch back to wet shaving anyway and Gillette's marketing sold me. I picked up a Trac II when it first came out because it seemed like a good idea.
I shaved with it and canned goo for many years. I don't remember exactly when, but I switched to an Atra (promotional giveaway), Bic disposables, a Sensor (curiousity/marketing), and finally a Mach 3 (christmas stocking stuffer). Shaving was never a pleasant experience, but the results were acceptable.
A little over a year ago I was going through an antique store and spotted a SuperSpeed for $5. It reminded me of what I had started shaving with so I picked it up because of nostalgia. I had just retired from working full time so I figured if I cut myself up it wouldn't matter. I found an Omega boar, Nivea cream, Williams and DE blades at local stores. Another board I frequent made mention of B&B so I came over, lurked for a while and eventually joined since it's such a great community. 45 years after I started, I finally enjoy shaving.
- Peter
I was going to switch back to wet shaving anyway and Gillette's marketing sold me. I picked up a Trac II when it first came out because it seemed like a good idea.
I shaved with it and canned goo for many years. I don't remember exactly when, but I switched to an Atra (promotional giveaway), Bic disposables, a Sensor (curiousity/marketing), and finally a Mach 3 (christmas stocking stuffer). Shaving was never a pleasant experience, but the results were acceptable.
A little over a year ago I was going through an antique store and spotted a SuperSpeed for $5. It reminded me of what I had started shaving with so I picked it up because of nostalgia. I had just retired from working full time so I figured if I cut myself up it wouldn't matter. I found an Omega boar, Nivea cream, Williams and DE blades at local stores. Another board I frequent made mention of B&B so I came over, lurked for a while and eventually joined since it's such a great community. 45 years after I started, I finally enjoy shaving.
- Peter
I always thought of them (cartridges) as a bit of gimmickry. Particularly the famous/infamous Gillette credit card ad where they scraped the sides of a guys face after shaving one side with a DE and the other with a Trac II with a credit card thus proving the superiority of the Trac II.
I was using a injector at the time and tried the test myself and quickly figured out that Gillette was full of s-s-stuff. It was when the disposables came out that I got suckered in. They were cheap and, readily available. They were I thought, a good field expedient.
It was lousy shaves and simple economics that brought me back to "real" razor blades.
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I started with one of my dad's tech razors and used it until I went to army boot camp where they shipped it home (1970). The plastic ones made sense since we had 30 minutes to sh, sh, and shave; lots of things got stolen so most of us used tolietries that we didn't care if they were stolen.
Got home, finished college, first marriage, second marriage, grad school, business world, career spent traveling 200 nights a year. Somewhere along the way I returned to what is now called wet shaving; but it was the same thing as everyone did when I started in about 1960. Now I look forward to the morning shave instead of it being a chore
I cannot remember the complete demise of the Gillette, et. al. DE razors once I started the "modern way"
I can only remember they weren't there when I switched back, sometimes in the 1980s
In the last 10 years the choices have increased, thanks probably to the internet. Although I keep a few modern Merkurs and Parkers in my current rotation I also include a 1948 Aristocrat, a black beauty, a gillette slim, and a fatboy as well as a few techs that I started with.
ken
Got home, finished college, first marriage, second marriage, grad school, business world, career spent traveling 200 nights a year. Somewhere along the way I returned to what is now called wet shaving; but it was the same thing as everyone did when I started in about 1960. Now I look forward to the morning shave instead of it being a chore
I cannot remember the complete demise of the Gillette, et. al. DE razors once I started the "modern way"
I can only remember they weren't there when I switched back, sometimes in the 1980s
In the last 10 years the choices have increased, thanks probably to the internet. Although I keep a few modern Merkurs and Parkers in my current rotation I also include a 1948 Aristocrat, a black beauty, a gillette slim, and a fatboy as well as a few techs that I started with.
ken
I recall watching my father shave with a Gillette Slim. He used that razor 'till I was ten, and I remember he'd clown around a little, making faces and such while he shaved. I thought that razor was the most fascinating piece of gear, and the blades looked incredibly cool and dangerous.
The big switch came when I was about ten or eleven. As Jim said, this was a time when almost everyone worshiped at the altar of progress, so hanging on to a design that dated from the horse and buggy era when this modern cartridge razor became available would probably never cross my father's mind.
This occurred at about the same time that I was becoming old enough to lose the sense that my father was the center of the known universe. It makes me wonder, looking back, if the DE razor has become entwined in my mind with the simplicity of childhood.
When I became old enough to think about shaving myself about six years later I got a cartridge razor, because that's what everyone used. The Marine Corps, where I learned to shave "the right way" used cartridge razors. Over the years I dabbled with a Brush Plus, Old Spice Shaving soap and at least once a DE razor, but my technique was poor. Nobody ever showed me what was possible.
I eventually fooled around with electrics, liking the convenience, but the shave was never great, even if I tried to convince myself it was.
After my dad died, I came across his old Slim, and in a fit of nostalgia and frustration at the price of Fusion carts and Braun replacement parts I went online to see if was still possible to use that old beast. Thanks, B&B, for showing me the light.
Tucked away with that Slim was a nicked up straight. I'm pretty sure my father kept his father's razor, probably for many of the same reasons I hung on to that Slim, but to my knowledge he never tried using it.
The big switch came when I was about ten or eleven. As Jim said, this was a time when almost everyone worshiped at the altar of progress, so hanging on to a design that dated from the horse and buggy era when this modern cartridge razor became available would probably never cross my father's mind.
This occurred at about the same time that I was becoming old enough to lose the sense that my father was the center of the known universe. It makes me wonder, looking back, if the DE razor has become entwined in my mind with the simplicity of childhood.
When I became old enough to think about shaving myself about six years later I got a cartridge razor, because that's what everyone used. The Marine Corps, where I learned to shave "the right way" used cartridge razors. Over the years I dabbled with a Brush Plus, Old Spice Shaving soap and at least once a DE razor, but my technique was poor. Nobody ever showed me what was possible.
I eventually fooled around with electrics, liking the convenience, but the shave was never great, even if I tried to convince myself it was.
After my dad died, I came across his old Slim, and in a fit of nostalgia and frustration at the price of Fusion carts and Braun replacement parts I went online to see if was still possible to use that old beast. Thanks, B&B, for showing me the light.
Tucked away with that Slim was a nicked up straight. I'm pretty sure my father kept his father's razor, probably for many of the same reasons I hung on to that Slim, but to my knowledge he never tried using it.
I have nothing to contribute really but this is a good read, thanks. Yes Tang was the best thing in the world lol. Beep was a good one as well.
I started shaving in the mid 70's (loved the 70's show). Shaving was done with things that were bought at the grocery store . . . I think dad was happy to shave with whatever was brought home. Shick injectors had been around for a while and you stopped seeing the various silo top razors being offered. There were still the DE blades for quite a while with some variety Gillette Blue, Wilkinson Sword, being fairly predominant. If you wanted a new brush you went to the drugstore. The business model has not changed much over the years. Bring out a new handle and blade . . . drop support for the old stuff by not selling the handle any more, as people convert jack up the prices . . . repeat.
When I attended college we could buy a student kit for $8 at the bookstore. It had several track II disposables, Noxzema foam, some form of roll on deodorant, a condom and a few other goodies. I always had a brush and soap on hand and mostly used this but occasionally would use foam and quite enjoyed some of the menthol gels.
Track II evolved into a Sensor at some point as you couldn't find Track II blades locally . . . when cartridges hit over $3 each I pulled the plug . . . thought I'd start shaving with a straight razor not having seen anything to do with a DE for many years. I was looking at straight razors on the Internet when I found DE razors and bought one from Fendrihan and through that website found B&B.
I fiddled around with straights for a year or so while enjoying the DE then took the plunge to straight shaving only mid January.
When I attended college we could buy a student kit for $8 at the bookstore. It had several track II disposables, Noxzema foam, some form of roll on deodorant, a condom and a few other goodies. I always had a brush and soap on hand and mostly used this but occasionally would use foam and quite enjoyed some of the menthol gels.
Track II evolved into a Sensor at some point as you couldn't find Track II blades locally . . . when cartridges hit over $3 each I pulled the plug . . . thought I'd start shaving with a straight razor not having seen anything to do with a DE for many years. I was looking at straight razors on the Internet when I found DE razors and bought one from Fendrihan and through that website found B&B.
I fiddled around with straights for a year or so while enjoying the DE then took the plunge to straight shaving only mid January.
As an aside, both my kids love Tang, but I'm pretty sure they associate it with Costco, and not the space program. 
I started with a DE back in the mid-late '50s. Tried a str8t but never got comfortable enough with one. Toyed with a SE Gem as well. Then injectors a few years into shaving which I really enjoyed.
When the twin blade thingees came out I figured what the heck and tried 'em. Clogged up quicker than dirt and dulled too fast giving a uniformly lousy shave. Classified them as gimmicky and tossed 'em going back to my single bladed injector where I've been ever since.
Tang just never tasted "right" to me
When the twin blade thingees came out I figured what the heck and tried 'em. Clogged up quicker than dirt and dulled too fast giving a uniformly lousy shave. Classified them as gimmicky and tossed 'em going back to my single bladed injector where I've been ever since.
Tang just never tasted "right" to me
Someone was a marketing genius. I bet those sold so fast they left scorch marks on the counter!
