Most men these days, generally speaking, Shave with a safety razor. I remember learning to shave with a Gillette Mach 3. The best a man can get! Or is it?
In the 18th century, Jean-Jaques Perret, invented the wilds first safety razor by attaching a wooden guard to a regular razor blade, and circa 1880 the Kampf brothers patented a design which had a wire guard along the edge of the blade, enabling men and women think I o shave without the help of a professional barber.
In 1901, King Camp Gillette, with the assistance of William Nickerson patented the first razor (invented in 1895) combing the hoe shaped razor with a disposable blade. And the razor as we know it was born.
It’s had many guises over the years, but the thing is, the straight razor never went away. Today it’s more popular than it ever has been since the safety razor took hold of the market, and they come in traditional forms, where the blade needs to be honed and stropped to maintain its cutting edge, to disposable blades models such as the one I use on many of my clients.
Personally, I enjoy shaving a client. Most people see it as just a service, but for me, ever the history geek, it’s a direct link to our past.
it shows a level of trust between the barber and a client. It requires a steady hand, a consistent pressure and angle and a keen eye for detail.
Aside from that, with the traditional, fixed blade razor, it takes hours and hours and hours of practice to learn to hone and strop the razor to make it serviceable enough to cut hair. I’m pretty sure there aren’t many Barber’s That can do it these days.
I have many clients that tell me they have used a “cut-throat” razor and hacked their face to bits. Well that’s understandable. Without carful training, that would have been a skill passed down from father to son, cutting your face for trial and error seems a bit extreme.
for anyone interested in learning to do it properly, I do offer self shaving tuition.
The safety razor has its place though. In today society of rushing around, the safety razor in any one of its guises with all its gimmicks allows a certain amount of low skill convenience. Certainly before my days as a barber, Her Majesty would not allow me to grow a beard, and I used the quick and easy method.
For me, with my sensitive skin, I could never avoid razor burn, even with the various potions on the market but now I would never go back.
The thing is, the straight razor, when shaving my own face, makes me concentrate. It makes me slow down. To much pressure? Nicked me face mate! To little? Won’t cut.
Too quick? Slicey slice! Too steep or wrong angle? Bloodbath!
sound horrendous right?!
Well maybe it is, but when you slow yourself down and concentrate, it results in a super close shave, with minimal irritation.
For me, I pick the straight razor every time.
If if you want to learn how to do it without cutting yourself, let me know! I’m happy to help. Visit www.hedinghamcuts.com for more info.
if you don’t fancy doing it yourselves, pop in for one of our straight Razor Shaves!
stay sharp.
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