I've been wondering lately... what sort of straight razors, if any, were marketed to minority men back in the heyday of straight razor shaving? Especially, were straight razors marketed to black men, or was it restricted at the time to "whites only"? How about Japanese men? Chinese men? And strange as it might seem today, how about Italian men (oh yeah, they were considered "outsiders" before being generally assimilated into "white" American culture). And not to leave anyone out (I can't list all possibilities!), how about any other minority populations?

I was thinking that the claim that str8 shaving reduces razor bumps and ingrown hairs would be of critical importance to black men, who generally have a lot of these shaving related issues. For that matter, are there any black men in the ranks of this forum? I'd love to hear about your experiences with straight shaving. (Me, I'm mostly Portuguese, with a great-great grandmother from Cape Verde... I would never pass for African, but I've got a little bit in my family tree )

Historians, dust off your notes and books and show yourselves!