Why did people switch to Cartridges in the 70s?

[Gibson_es]

its amazing what marketing can really do. I truly believe a company could convince the world to eat dog poo for breakfast has part of a balanced diet if they marketed it enough.

 

[YourGunshowTix]

Most men in the past 100+ years want to get over with shaving as quickly as possible.
Why bother handling "dangerous" DE or straight razor blades when you can pop a cartridge of blades onto a handle and never have to worry about correct technique, to the detriment of the user, who will suffer chronic irritation and ingrown hairs?

 

[Catalinbread]

I'm on the other side of "why I switched from carts to DE in the 2010s". I don't talk about shaving outside of B&B cause regardless of the actual reason for using a DE I'd be a "hipster" (well maybe not so much now, few years ago everthing was hipster) but if I grew a beard I'd be a hipster.
I rarely shaved when using Mach 3 due to problems with ingrowns and irritation. So with longer whiskers my razor was constantly clogging. Now with DE I'm not a collector so I actually do save money, I have no ingrowns or irritation, my razor doesn't clog so it's actually faster for me and I enjoy my shaves.
I'd definitely try the new carts if I received a free sample in the mail, hasn't happened yet.

 

[MaineYooper]

Anyone here remember the test in the commercials of a man's shave by running a credit card against the grain on his freshly shaved face and hearing the stubble left behind by the double edge? I'm old!

I found this commercial on the Ewe tube.

 

[BigJ]

I was there! My (distant) recollection is that carts were modern and high tech (also easy)!

 

[FarmerTan]

its amazing what marketing can really do. I truly believe a company could convince the world to eat dog poo for breakfast has part of a balanced diet if they marketed it enough.

My dad used to say that they would if you called it chocolate pudding. Never underestimate the power of human stupidity!

 

[FarmerTan]

When Gillette first introduced the cartridge razor, the emphasis was on speed and safety to change blades, supposedly better shave, speed, and any other gimmick Gillette could think of. Most important was the fact that they sent tons of free cartridge razors to men all over the country. I think I received free cartridge razors of the first three models Gillette introduced. Of course the free razor only included 1 blade. I do remember the credit card commercial. I also remember that Gillette sponsored Friday Night Fights on TV. They also had a catchy jingle and the slogan, "Look sharp, feel sharp, be sharp."

You just made my day! Me and dad would watch those fights Every Friday ! Miss those days. He used to fight back in the day. A lefty. And all his boys were right handed, poor guy.

 

[UncleRJ]

Mass advertising and the perception of convenience IMHO.

 

[TexLaw]

I wonder if the notion of a naked DE blade in the hands of a curious child had anything to do with it. They could still cut themselves with a cartridge or disposable, but not so deeply.

A few folks have mentioned that. I know one man that did switch as soon as he could fit that very reason: my Grandfather.

When my Aunt was very young, she thought she might shave with her Dad's razor. She tried. She's about 70, and she still has the scar on her face to show it.

Electric razors were just coming out, and Papa bought one as soon as he could. When he decided to drop the electric, he went to a cart. After all, he had grandchildren at that point.

 

[Mojo88]

Shaving was something that was considered a chore and the faster you could get it done the better. As far as shaving the only instruction I received from my father was to had me a can of goo and tell me to use hot water. I saved up and bought an injector,but after a few years the only thing readily available were cartridge style razors. My dad switched to an electric in the 70s and never switched back. I tried electric but I never liked it and carts always gave me ingrown hairs. I switched back to traditional DE and have never looked back and have no plans to.

 

[fasa]

Shaving was something that was considered a chore and the faster you could get it done the better. As far as shaving the only instruction I received from my father was to had me a can of goo and tell me to use hot water. I saved up and bought an injector,but after a few years the only thing readily available were cartridge style razors. My dad switched to an electric in the 70s and never switched back. I tried electric but I never liked it and carts always gave me ingrown hairs. I switched back to traditional DE and have never looked back and have no plans to.

How did you procure blades during those days ? Were they still on the shelves ?


Sent from Mars

 

[GoneRetroInOH]

I'd like to see a graph showing cart cost over the years, because they only got ridiculously expensive relatively recently.

As noted, in the Space Age, you couldn't get onboard with the latest thing fast enough... Carts were safer around kids and nobody wanted anything old-fashioned.


AA

I saw a 1976 ad in New York Magazine describing an Trac II handle being sold promotionally at 25 cents, "about what a Trac II cartridge alone costs". That would have been $2.50 for 10, which sounds about right in my fallible memory. If you run that $2.50 in 1976 dollars through the BLS Inflation Calculator, that is $10.57 in 2016, or just over a dollar a cartridge. Ironically, the cheapest you can find genuine Gillette Trac II is over $14.00 per 10-pack so it may have actually gone up in price, even accounting for inflation. At the very least, it has not gone down, and of course the newest Fusion cartridges are even costlier.
Meanwhile, the worldwide market and production in lower-wage countries has brought DE prices down to where they are nearly unaffected by inflation, and in some cases have gone through price deflation.

 

[Ice-Man]

OMG I feel old now.
I first started shaving back in 1979 with an injector then moved with the times till my last one a mac5.
Just over 2 years ago I had an heart attack. And my health went down hill from there on till now. But while I was in hospital the bloke in the next bed had a DE razor, It sat on the locker at the side of the bed drying in the sun. and that's when we got talking about shaving. and I will never forget his words he said to me. I can get a better shave with my single blade where you need 5.
and I started to think about it. As this is when I started shaving when the carts first came into mass production
So when I came out of hospital my quest started that's when I found this place and I must admit I have never looked back. Bought my first DE razor futur thought I had scalped myself on that first shave with a feather blade and on max dial lol now. I get a BBS shave every time as the saying goes look good smells good so it must be good.
And last year my mac5 went in the bin and I just use DE and now starting to learn to use straight

 

[Graybeard57]

What was the reason for people leaving DE in the first place?

Is it because it was difficult to find the right DE/blade combo? I feel like cartridges were more of a convenience factor in which you didn't have to experiment.

I think it was very slick marketing, and our endless search for the perfect shave. Convenience was emphasized in the ads, as was the virtue of the first blade pulling the whisker above the skin line, while the second blade whacked it off, leaving the remaining whisker to settle below the skin. The birth of ingrown hairs!

 

[majorrich]

I was always an electric razor shaver until late last year when my razor crapped out and I found my fathers cache of shave stuff. A fat boy, and a Super speed. and some razors. Being that I am cheap, I tried them and found I liked the DE better than the tug and pull Norelco. Also found a couple of straights that he used. As a kid, I don't remember him ever being anything but an electric man.
Gillette was losing market share due to the expiration of a patent with their foil razors allowing everybody in the world to compete on the DE market so they innovated and invested heavily into new technology that they could make more money out of. Because they owned a huge share of the shaving implements market, where they went so went the market. They introduced the Atra system in 1977 and turned the shaving world on it ear.

 

[stovepipe699]

My father told me he stopped using his DE when the stores stopped carrying his favourite blades. He didn't like the blades they still carried so he switched. With no internet all I can get is wilkenson sword blades and Williams mug soap. My first DE attempt 20 years ago was with that stuff, and it sucked so I went back to carts.

 

[nortac]

I started shaving in the 70"s with the Bic disposable. When I joined the military and had a bit of spending money, I moved up to the Trac II. Later I upgraded to the Atra, which I used until finding B&B, looking for a better shave experience. I never went for any of the higher blade count carts beyond the two bladed Atra. I bought a Norelco electric razor in the late 80's but never liked it and seldom used it. I vaguely remember my dad using a twist to open DE, then a Schick and probably the same Trac II and/or Atra razors. The only thing he taught me was to put the can of shaving cream in a sink full of hot water to warm it up before shaving.

 

[DavidNZ]

I wonder if the notion of a naked DE blade in the hands of a curious child had anything to do with it. They could still cut themselves with a cartridge or disposable, but not so deeply.

The ONLY advantage I can imagine with a cartridge or disposable razor is that the handles are not circular. Before I came back to a DE razor I'd shave in the shower with a disposable, and the rectangular or oval handle made it easy to orient it by feel, without a mirror.

came across this the other day:

View attachment 684324

 

[John Rose]

I see now that many stores keep their carts and disposables on shelves with clear plastic covers and alarms that go off when you open them. When googling "why those products and not many others", the consensus seems to be because they are high-priced easy-to-conceal items.
Emphasis on the "high price". You'd think that people would think that through to it's logical conclusion.

 

[ximhot]

Very well said, indeed. In some way, the food industry saw similar development, too. Fast food industry and industrialized farming expanded quickly because of cheap calories and time saving. But to some point, the minority (population growing, though) become aware that something is lost in this development and now go back to organic and traditional farming and food preparation.

I was there, so to speak. Number of reasons. The vibe in the 60's and 70's was all about technology and convenience. It was the period when our houses got filled with labour-saving devices: automatic washing machines, microwaves, freezers, dishwashers, automatic electric kettles, TV remotes, whatever.

The cartridge was the labour-saving solution for those who wanted a wet shave - just click in the pre-set cartridge and go.

Your point about our grandfathers is well taken - for them (and my father, and me at that time), shaving was a distress activity - you had to do it, but there was no value in the activity itself. Like filling up your car - get it done as quickly and simply as you can, and get it finished. So - clip in a pre-set cartridge and off you go. Can of shaving foam, cartridge razor and you're all set.

And let's be clear - the vast majority of men who shave are perfectly happy with today's equivalents. They do the job well enough and that majority would rather invest its time in other activities. Shaving as a pleasure, and all that goes with it, is a minority taste for those of us that have the time and space in our lives for it.

There are some other reasons why people might be starting to move away from cartridges - in the industrial world, we're becoming less happy about disposable plastic; as someone else pointed out, DE shaving is much cheaper, so it might be becoming more attractive in areas where money is tight. There's also a growing retro movement - vinyl records, photography with film - and DE/straight shaving is part of that