I am 32, and remember shopping for razors, gels and cartridges at the drug store. I often wonder what it was like to shop for safety razors, blades and soap before cartridge razors. What was it like when wetshaving was king?
When safety razors were common
- Thread starter Wetshavemike
- Start date
Hi.. that's an interesting question. As far as shopping for stuff is concerned, wasn't anything more remarkable than today. Maybe things might have been a bit easier to afford in comparison but I think there was still a fair amount of scalping going on and oddly enough, not that much of a selection. It was all sort of a great big yawn really and my shaves didn't enjoy the benefits of all this Internet goodness...
would there have been far less selection blade-wise in your local shops in those pre-internet years?
i imagine that there would not be as much in the way of imported blades.
i was born in '86 and started shaving in 2000. There was no choice but to buy the crap on offer! Mach3 . . .
It was all I knew
The horror.
i imagine that there would not be as much in the way of imported blades.
i was born in '86 and started shaving in 2000. There was no choice but to buy the crap on offer! Mach3 . . .
It was all I knew
The horror.
oh nostalgia
funny how time/regression make things new again.could the desire for things of quality be playing a part in this new obsession?
funny how time/regression make things new again.could the desire for things of quality be playing a part in this new obsession?
I started shaving in the early 80's (with a DE), and don't recall a lot of selection at the time. I've heard it said a few times on the forum here that *now* is the golden age of wet shaving, and I think that's very much true. Think about it...we have access to over a hundred years of razor tech, all at the same time. Because of the Internet, we can communicate about the art, in ways never before possible. And of course, we can order supplies from pretty much anywhere. For any one person, I don't think it was every any better than it is right now.
This is fascinating. It seems hard to imagine a community of people anywhere at any time in history as knowledgeable and as readily talkative about shaving than this place (B & B) at the moment.
I remember running shopping errands for Mom in the late 50's. In the drug store and "grocery store" I recall the usual shaving section with Schick injector and double edge blades. Most of the razors were part of a blade and razor combo and the choice was whatever was hanging on the rack. My Dad used a Schick injector and when he needed a new one it was whatever the drug store had. I remember the nearest drug store carried Old Spice AS, Cologne, powder and shave soap and later their canned goo. The supermarket had Rise, Barbasol, Noxema, and other canned stuff, Aqua Velva, Witch Hazel-I'm sure others but I recall those. Shave brushes were the usual ones we see being reconditioned here. At Christmas the Avon Lady had all there stuff. So really, not much different. In many ways this is the Golden Age given the wonderful online vendors we see alluded to on BandB-we really have access to a far greater variety so stuff than the average Joe had then!!
I strongly suspect that there must have been men who insisted on using only a certain brand of blade. In the golden age before the Internet, I suppose he ordered them from a catalog or from some specialty shop if his local drugstore didn't have his blades.
I Like that term "brotherhood" Island Dreamer. Nope.. not much selection and no shaving brotherhood lol. Used the Wilkies myself and lots of toilet paper lol again...
Things are different today with all the social networks, internet, and the different media access things are expressed and communicated within minutes. I can talk to a Australian, Italian Chinese person right here on B&B just within minutes. Back then it took weeks and months just to communicate. Shaving and grooming was a personal art and wasn't communicated like it is today. Today everybody knows my shave gear and what cologne i wear because i communicate it here on B&B. Imagaine if there was B&B back then, then every person would tell what gear they had or what cologne they wear, things would be passed on to future generations and we wont have to wonder how it was like back then.
AoS uses "brotherhood"
I'm not "old"...well I don't think so at 48.....BUT my twin brother and I were adopted.....our Parents were older...Dad was 43 when we were born....He was a WWII Vet...old school....always used a DE.. For our Dad he had his yearly sojourn to our local drugstore..there he would take my brother and me....buying his aftershaves...I remember mostly old Spice, Brut, Canoe, English Leather...sometimes others...but those were normal gifts from mom.......maybe a new razor...his fav's seemed to be a Flair tip and a Slim...but he also had a Schick.....blades....I remember mostly Gillettes....not much of a choice back then.....he was a canned cream man mostly.....Barbasol... always would buy a new timex......he had some nice watches...but he loved those drugstore Timex watches!
He did do pretty regular barber visits...every 2-3 weeks...Our Dad was a Blue collar guy...but most of my earlier childhood memories is of my father dressed up. Almost all the photos I have of my Dad he is in a shirt and tie....he liked being well groomed.
I don't think he put any real though into it.....not like us today....to him it was simply a daily task. He enjoyed shaving...you could tell......but I don't think he would be reading for hours on end like I do the subtle differences in blades
If there is a "Golden Age" of DE shaving...I think that time is NOW.....between Vintage razors, modern classics...the HUGE selection of creams, blades, soaps, etc.....we have it made.....plus we have this really cool forum
He did do pretty regular barber visits...every 2-3 weeks...Our Dad was a Blue collar guy...but most of my earlier childhood memories is of my father dressed up. Almost all the photos I have of my Dad he is in a shirt and tie....he liked being well groomed.
I don't think he put any real though into it.....not like us today....to him it was simply a daily task. He enjoyed shaving...you could tell......but I don't think he would be reading for hours on end like I do the subtle differences in blades
If there is a "Golden Age" of DE shaving...I think that time is NOW.....between Vintage razors, modern classics...the HUGE selection of creams, blades, soaps, etc.....we have it made.....plus we have this really cool forum
I'm two years older than BlueBishop. My father used an electric, as did his father. My mother's male relatives all were DE users.
I can remember visiting her Uncles and Aunts in Bridgehampton, NY (back in the potato farm days). The men all WWII vets, were all immaculately shaved and wore aftershave. I have no idea what razors, blades creams or soaps they used.
When it came time for me to start shaving in the late 70's. I was fortunate to find an almost unused super-adjustable, some Schick Platinum blades and a can of Barabasol in the back of the medicine chest. When my birthday gift electric razor seemed to dull within days of first using it, I began experimenting with the super ajustable and was after some initial nicks, was able to get good shaves pretty easily.
Later on in High School I fell prey to siren song of disposable razors before I grew a full beard for many years.
Binowatch refers to going to drug stores for shaving products. Drug stores back then were not CVS/Walgreen stores, but they were small pharmacies that carried a small selection of personal hygiene products. I much prefer the level of service that those stores provided, but am appreciative of the fact that I can buy shave products from all around the world.
I can remember visiting her Uncles and Aunts in Bridgehampton, NY (back in the potato farm days). The men all WWII vets, were all immaculately shaved and wore aftershave. I have no idea what razors, blades creams or soaps they used.
When it came time for me to start shaving in the late 70's. I was fortunate to find an almost unused super-adjustable, some Schick Platinum blades and a can of Barabasol in the back of the medicine chest. When my birthday gift electric razor seemed to dull within days of first using it, I began experimenting with the super ajustable and was after some initial nicks, was able to get good shaves pretty easily.
Later on in High School I fell prey to siren song of disposable razors before I grew a full beard for many years.
Binowatch refers to going to drug stores for shaving products. Drug stores back then were not CVS/Walgreen stores, but they were small pharmacies that carried a small selection of personal hygiene products. I much prefer the level of service that those stores provided, but am appreciative of the fact that I can buy shave products from all around the world.
I was born in the early 80's and my dad was 50 when I was born. I remember his black handle Super Speed. He abandoned DE's all together in the late 90's and succumbed to cartridges because blades became hard to come by. It's funny because he picked it up again about 6 years ago when he discovered American Personna's and Dorco's in the "hair" shops. A few years ago, when I got tired of paying so much for the cartridges I remembered what my dad was using and this was what ultimately peaked my interest in DE shaving. He loves Astra's now. He didn't think there was so much selection. It's funny because I've given him Proraso, TH samples, VDH, Mama Bears and the old man goes back to....................Williams. You can't teach an old dog new tricks.
This.
Before the internet, there was always mail order, and that went way back into the 1800s with the Sears catalog!
Dad built up a pretty fair '74 K5 Blazer.
He had a subscription to Four Wheeler (back when hobby magazines were worth their price), and while he wasn't a member of a 4x4 club, he had friends who were and "users groups" were the equivalent in the computer world before Fidonet and Usenet provided us with a nationwide (and finally global) support network.
I was born in '63, and honestly can not imagine life without the net.
I know what we used to do, but I can't imagine going back to that life.
Phones? One phone... two if you were really rich... and it was hard-wired to the wall in the kitchen.
If you were "just rich" you actually had your own private line and didn't have to share with a neighbor.
We'd get home from school, change, then go ride bikes and play with friends.
Mom knew where we were because moms ALWAYS knew EVERYTHING.
We knew that we'd better be home at 5 or 6 for dinner or we'd go hungry.
Pagers were something only doctors had, and they just beeped, no display.
Car phones were something only movie stars and bigtime corporate executives had.
Then we'd do our homework and maybe listed to the radio or watch TV.
We had an encyclopedia, and a local library.
If our parents were really rich, our encyclopedia was from the 50s or 60s.
I think mine was from before a Polio vaccine existed.... One thing that stands out is a photograph of Los Angeles with the caption "City Hall towers above downtown Los Angeles"
It was from 1933.
Fax machines? That was much later. Even in the 80s we had "Telex" which was not unlike a Teletype but used thermal printing.
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I grew up in a small prairie town the drug store had razors, blades and soap, I don't remember brushes but they must of had them to, and the barber shop had razors, Zippo lighters. Missouri Meerschaum pipes. When I was 14 my grandfather bought me a gold Aristocrat original price I think was $7.50, nothing but the best for his grandson, it was a 50's razor but I got it in 71 or 72, so still on the shelf 20 years later. What I do remember is that in the barber shop which had pool tables in the back that the old guys would come in for a shave, there was a towel steamer in the middle of the barbershop, and two barbers. When they got a shave they were wrapped in hot steamed towels, while the barber stropped the razor and whipped up the lather. The barber would take a sheet of an old newspaper and fold it into a strip lay it on the guys shoulder and remove the towels, and would lather him up. As the barber (Lenny or Harry) would shave them they would wipe the lather off the razor on the newsprint. I'm sure they wiped them down after but I don't remember. Then they would grab a bottle of aftershave the bottle was the size of a 26 of whiskey, and pat their face down a wipe of the towel and and remove the cape. the final thing was to ring in the 25 cents or what ever it was they charged.
As for buying razors, well once you had one all you needed to do was buy razor blades and maybe every four to six months or so bought a new puck of Old Spice. It was not a big thing. I think I was one of the few the used soap and a brush, most used the spray foam which I didn't like, anyone that knew what I did thought I was a bit backwards. I Do remember buying my Schick injector which I thought was pretty cool.
As for buying razors, well once you had one all you needed to do was buy razor blades and maybe every four to six months or so bought a new puck of Old Spice. It was not a big thing. I think I was one of the few the used soap and a brush, most used the spray foam which I didn't like, anyone that knew what I did thought I was a bit backwards. I Do remember buying my Schick injector which I thought was pretty cool.
I'm 50.
I recall when the Trac II was born in 1971 when I was 10.
The way I think about it, virtually everyone shaved with a DE before 1971 because there was nothing else.
I don't think people saw the T2 as the devil incarnate and recognized that Gillette was on a mission to escalate the cost of shaving exponentially for the love of Wall Street at the time. It was just another "plastic" thing coming out of US manufacturing at the time. My first razor purchase was the brand new original Atra which I still have and still works.
Put the world into perspective that virtually everyone shaved with a DE prior to 1971 and shaving was considered mundane. Nicks were considered normal and shaving cream was sold on the basis that it reduced nicks.
While everyone I remember used a DE razor in my youth, nobody used a brush. It was always a can of foam.
DE razors were at every 7-11, corner market, grocery store and anywhere you see razors sold today. Prices were all over the map.
I recall when the Trac II was born in 1971 when I was 10.
The way I think about it, virtually everyone shaved with a DE before 1971 because there was nothing else.
I don't think people saw the T2 as the devil incarnate and recognized that Gillette was on a mission to escalate the cost of shaving exponentially for the love of Wall Street at the time. It was just another "plastic" thing coming out of US manufacturing at the time. My first razor purchase was the brand new original Atra which I still have and still works.
Put the world into perspective that virtually everyone shaved with a DE prior to 1971 and shaving was considered mundane. Nicks were considered normal and shaving cream was sold on the basis that it reduced nicks.
While everyone I remember used a DE razor in my youth, nobody used a brush. It was always a can of foam.
DE razors were at every 7-11, corner market, grocery store and anywhere you see razors sold today. Prices were all over the map.
Injectors and electrics.
Dad was an electric man. I tried many times over the years, but even the best (modern rotaries) still leave me with the equivalent of a 2-day growth.
When out camping, dad used an injector.
Of course, single edge has been around about as long as DE... but you're right, before the T2, most people were using some form of safety razor once they replaced the "golden age" of straights.
Yup.
Shaving was not a hobby. Just as SE/DE/Injectors replaced the straight (and for good reason), the T2 began the replacement of the "not as safe as we thought they were" safety razors.
Born in '59. As a school teacher my father was required to stay clean-shaven for the first decade of his job. I think he would grow a beard during the summers at least by the time I was born and then shave it off when school started again. As soon as they would allow it, he switched to a beard full time so by the time I started shaving he was only shaving maybe once a year except for occasionally cleaning up the edges. So my first shave was with his twist-to-open DE. A Gillette I would imagine. I guess it must have been about 1971 or '72 when I was 12 (the start of a heavy dark growth that I have been struggling with ever since). Got a nasty cut under my lower lip when the razor slid sideways. Still have the scar today. Trac Two was the new big thing and seemed safer so I asked my parents to buy me one instead of continuing to use the DE. It did feel safer and did an okay job including getting under my nose much better than the 3 blade and 4 blade cartridges I tried later. I was surprised when I wanted to switch back to the Trac Two after a few years with the bigger carts that I couldn't find any two bladed razors anywhere except disposables which were so dull out of the box that they literally just bounced off the whiskers.
I'm not "old"...well I don't think so at 48.....BUT my twin brother and I were adopted.....our Parents were older...Dad was 43 when we were born....He was a WWII Vet...old school....always used a DE.. For our Dad he had his yearly sojourn to our local drugstore..there he would take my brother and me....buying his aftershaves...I remember mostly old Spice, Brut, Canoe, English Leather...sometimes others...but those were normal gifts from mom.......maybe a new razor...his fav's seemed to be a Flair tip and a Slim...but he also had a Schick.....blades....I remember mostly Gillettes....not much of a choice back then.....he was a canned cream man mostly.....Barbasol... always would buy a new timex......he had some nice watches...but he loved those drugstore Timex watches!
He did do pretty regular barber visits...every 2-3 weeks...Our Dad was a Blue collar guy...but most of my earlier childhood memories is of my father dressed up. Almost all the photos I have of my Dad he is in a shirt and tie....he liked being well groomed.
I don't think he put any real though into it.....not like us today....to him it was simply a daily task. He enjoyed shaving...you could tell......but I don't think he would be reading for hours on end like I do the subtle differences in blades
If there is a "Golden Age" of DE shaving...I think that time is NOW.....between Vintage razors, modern classics...the HUGE selection of creams, blades, soaps, etc.....we have it made.....plus we have this really cool forum
You had brought this up, i too remember how Dad would like to go to Walgreens and look at the Timex watches and Gillette Razors that where kept behind the counter close to the photo area. He would always look at one that was in a leather case and then give it back to the gentleman behind the counter.
What I recall most that dad never did three passes, always a two pass guy....and with those two passes, he always had a BBS. Shaving to him was as a natural part of his daily routine...think about it, by time we where old enough to pay attention to him shaving, he had been using a DE for probably 30 plus years!!!
I also remember that dad seemed to always use the Schick Plus Platinum Blades. I think that was due mostly to the fact, that at every checkout lane they where displayed for the wives to pick up without having to look for them in some aisle.
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