Razor (tool)

A razor is a type of tool that has been in use, in one form or another, for thousands of years. Its primary purpose is to remove unwanted hair from the body. A razor consists of a blade or similar object with a sharpened edge, which is then scraped along the skin. The sharpened edge cuts each hair or whisker down to the level of the skin, with the remainder of the follicle left behind, below the level of the skin, to regrow later. Razors in ancient times were usually made out of natural materials such as seashells, sharks’ teeth, or stone (flint or obsidian in most cases). As cultures began to develop the means to make metals from ore, these were used to fashion razors as well. Archaeologists have uncovered razors made of bronze, copper, and even gold. In modern times, most people use disposable razors containing multiple blades.

Brief History

Beginning in the eighteenth century, a small number of craftspeople began using high grade steel to manufacture razors, primarily in England. People were slow to adopt them, although their use did spread to France. At this time in history, many people did not shave regularly, or at all. Among those that did, some chose to shave themselves at home, while others preferred to visit a barber’s shop and have themselves shaved there. Shaving remained a matter of personal preference rather than an expected norm all the way up until World War I. Soldiers needed to be able to wear a gas mask tightly enough for it to prevent poisonous gas from seeping through and reaching their lungs. This made regular shaving a necessity, and the habit of shaving formed during the years of fighting stuck with many of them, long after peace had been won. Because such large numbers of men were involved in the war, shaving became the norm.

The type of razor used during the eighteenth and nineteenth century is known as a straight razor because it consists of a long, straight piece of metal, which is sharpened on one side, usually with a leather strop. Straight razors are considered difficult to learn how to use, which is another reason that many men chose to have themselves shaved by a professional barber. Toward the end of the 1800s, a French inventor named Perret devised the safety razor, so named because almost all of the razor blade was encased in a protective housing, with only a narrow part of the edge protruding. This design was much safer than a straight razor, which had its entire blade exposed and was every bit as dangerous as running a sharp knife along one’s throat. With a safety razor, only a millimeter or two of the blade sticks out of the safety housing, so it would be almost impossible for a person to inflict a serious cut with it, whether accidentally or otherwise.

Overview

Just after the start of the twentieth century, a manufacturer named King Gillette began producing his own design of safety razor in the United States, with a noteworthy twist. Gillette designed his razor to use disposable blades—after a few uses, it would wear out and need to be thrown away. Even if the blade was not used after opening, the material used to make it would cause it to rust into uselessness before much time had passed. Gillette purposely designed his razor this way in order to increase his profits, because once a customer purchased his razor, that customer would need to continue coming back to Gillette’s company for more blades.

Gillette devised a clever marketing scheme to convince customers to begin using his razor. Realizing that the initial purchase of the razor was the main hurdle he needed to help customers get past, and that after accomplishing that they would be "hooked," Gillette deliberately set a very low sale price for the safety razor. He did this knowing that he did not need to make much profit from the initial sale of the razor, since he would collect plenty of revenues from the sale of blades. This approach proved to be extremely successful. Sales were boosted by demand for ladies’ razors, as fashions began to expose more underarms and legs. Gillette marketed the Milady Decollete specifically to women in 1915.

The next major innovation in the development of razors came near the time of the Great Depression, in the form of the electric razor. The electric razor’s design varies from one manufacturer to another, but in general they share the property of having multiple razor blades moving rapidly beneath a protective grille. The grille is passed over the surface of the skin to be shaved, and the whiskers or hair pass through the openings in the grille. As they do so, they are exposed to the moving razor blades and severed.

Manufacturers of electric razors frequently introduce small, incremental improvements in their product design in order to compete with other designers. One such innovation involves an additional set of moving razor blades that moves slightly in front of the main set of razor blades, so that the first blade catches the hair to be cut, lifting it up slightly before the second blade severs it. The purpose of this design is to provide a closer shave by leaving less of the hair follicle attached to the surface of the skin. Such innovations are generally well-received, but the market for razors remains strong for the more traditional, nonelectric models as well, in part because they have no need of batteries or of an electrical outlet. The practice cynically referred to as "giving away the razors, selling the blades" is still prevalent across all razor manufacturers as well, and has even been adopted by marketing departments of totally unrelated industries—eloquent testimony to its effectiveness.

Bibliography

Bloomfield, Louis. How Things Work: The Physics of Everyday Life. New York: Wiley, 1997. Print.

Fitzpatrick, David. Sharp: My Story of Madness, Cutting, and How I Reclaimed My Life. New York" Morrow, 2013. Print.

Herzig, Rebecca M. Plucked: A History of Hair Removal. New York: New York UP, 2015. Print.

Miodownik, Mark. Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World. Boston: Houghton, 2014. Print.

Norman, Donald A. The Psychology of Everyday Things. New York: Basic, 1988. Print.

Panati, Charles. Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things. New York: Perennial, 1987. Print.