Instapundit today links to Ralph Kinney Bennett’s charming article about the history of shaving equipment. Anyone who still – even after being subjected to the cry of “dentistry!” – doubts that modern comforts are really as comfortable as all that, really should read this hymn of praise to just what capitalism and its attendant attention to detail can do for human happiness. I mean, imagine having to shave with an uneven, hand-made cutting edge. Bleedin’ hell, as we English would say.
The heart of Bennett’s article is a short account of the life and works of – and this really was his name – King Camp Gillette. Gillette was a salesman, and his achievement was essentially to ask a question. What if, he asked, you could separate the bit of a razor that gets quickly blunted, and needs to be either sharpened or replaced, from the rest of it? Thus the disposable razor blade.
Like so many creative endeavours, the Gillette empire had another guy heavily involved, an engineer who actually made everything. But here there was a problem.
A grateful Gillette wanted to incorporate both his and Nickerson’s names into the company that was established. Nickerson felt his name sounded too much like what the new product was designed to avoid.
We are now deep into the age of three-bladed, four-bladed, and even, now, the five-bladed razor. But the first blade was the one that really made the difference.
Gillette himself, at any rate according to this, was himself some kind of socialist:
Gillette was part of a broad socialist movement in the USA in the 1890s, who wanted to use the profits from his safety razor to finance his beliefs in a new socialist system.
Which only goes to show that people who are clever at one thing are not necessarily so clever at other things.
Pah! I still use a straight (cut-throat) razor at the grand old age of 28, and have done ever since I was 23.
Who needs a disposable?
I use one of those persona “shaper” setups that the barbers use to shave hairlines. It has a replaceable blade so no stropping. And the best part, no razor bumps for the first time in my shaving life.
Multibladed safety razors are a ripoff. they are horrid on your skin. I will be using a straight razor for the rest of my life.
A socialist trying to ‘spread the word’ with profits from one of the ‘sharpest’, (as in ‘rip-off’), capitalist corporations in existence.
All quite ironic, now that Gillette – the company – has been aquired by none other than the King of Capitalism – Warren Buffet, via his Hathaway Holdings.
Mind you – he too has socialist leanings… does that make him a hypocrite?
A lot major industrialist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries had collectivist leanings. Henry Ford, Edison and others also leaned that way.
I think this had to do in part with their experiences with the great boost in productivity that vertically integrated mass production gave. Many fell prey to the idea that if a factory could be run efficiently by a small technocratic elite then perhaps all of society could be as well. They desired to impose upon the rest of the world the order and efficacy they had created in their own domains.
What many forgot was that it was the freedom to experiment and fail that created the efficiency in the first place, not clever planning. The great industries were the result of a darwinian process instead of a conscious design.
I have always wet shaved. I dont care how many blades, one or five.
A few years ago my wife came home from shopping with this tiny phial of Somerset’s Shaving Oil.
The instuctions say:-
Wet face, put three drops of oil on your palm and massage in.
So I did and thought to myself, This is crazy.They saw her coming! I’m going to cut myself to ribbons here! Phone an ambulance just in case.
Finest shave I ever had. Forget foam and stuff, Shaving oil is the business.
You have to be DT’s hungover to even dream of nicking yourself.
I think one thing about collectivist tendencies is that some people are so busy doing what they mainly should be doing – getting on with their own business – that when it comes to helping others (a very admirable desire) they take fashionable views at pretty much face value and just don’t have time to consider the matters very deeply. In fact maybe this is one of the great ironies of civilisation – while intelligent productive people are getting on with what they mainly should be doing i.e. their own business, interfering power-hungry parasites are taking over.
“Nickerson felt his name sounded too much like what the new product was designed to avoid.”
I suppose “Nickerless” wouldn’t have been a good alternative…!
Running out of shave foam one day, I borrowed some of the wife’s gel (designed, presumably for legs, underarms and sundry fluffy bits). Got great results; a much closer shave and none of the sting that guy’s stuff slaps you with – proving once more there’s no such thing as equality of the sexes LOL
“King Camp”, eh? No doubt in Danish it’d be “Camp King”?
One of the most interesting things (from an economic point of view) about Gillette’s separation of razor and blade is also a key to its commercial success. The “rest of it” (as you call it) was sold at a loss, while the replacement blades were sold with a substantial mark-up. But if you want to use the handle, you need the blades and hence a strong revenue stream (especially if no one else can manufacture blades that are compatible).
Discussed in business schools the world over as the “Gillette razor and blade strategy” and the marketing model for everything from games consoles to photocopiers.
Lindsay writes:
“Discussed in business schools the world over as the “Gillette razor and blade strategy” and the marketing model for everything from games consoles to photocopiers.”
Indeed – today’s best example being inkjet printers, the ink in which can, allegedly, cost more than Dom Perignon.
Why shave at all? Having one’s beard trimmed every few weeks by the gentle touch of a lady hairdresser is far more enjoyable than laboriously scraping one’s face every morning while half asleep. One’s skin stays softer and less lined or cracked, and one looks more like a Muslim, therefore likelier to annoy ‘Verity’.
Laboriously removing facial hair every day is a hangover from the age of military conscription. All true libertarians should sport a full set of whiskers, like the mountain men of Freedom’s Own Country.
The age of Military conscription Luniversal!!?
Er what age was that then?
The Romans were pretty clean shaven sort of coves, and I believe their army was all volunteer.
The more blades they put in, the faster they seem to clog up. The Mach3 I’m using now doesn’t seem to have THAT much advantage over the dual-bladed Atra model I was using before.
The only really cool innovation I’ve seen in shaving lately is the headblade; and of course, it’s got a rather limited target market.
RAB: “The Romans were pretty clean shaven sort of coves, and I believe their army was all volunteer.”
Not invariably so. Many great Romans were hirsute. So was the founder of the Christian religion and his late majesty King George V. That is good enough for me. Besides, one gets an extra five minutes in bed every morning.
Shaving is an affectation, like circumcision and tonsillectomies.
Luniversal, each to their own, I guess. I once toyed with wearing a beard but looked an utter prat and it itched.
And, ahem, let’s not forget that a lot of women – at least the ones I have lusted after – hate beards. A not unimportant consideration.
i like eating chicken on occasion… i tried shaving the top layer off w/ a razor…then the razor tasted funny n made my race smell like chicken…
i like eating chicken on occasion… i tried shaving the top layer off w/ a razor…then the razor tasted funny n made my race smell like chicken…
i meant face…made my face smell like chicken…
Every dark night is followed by a bright sunny day. So, patience and attention is required and things will be fruitful in near future.
seibert
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