Thread: Straights around the world

just looking at the world map we got here of members. im just wondering about the pervasiveness of straights around the world.

I understand this site is in english so the membership favors those areas where english is more common, but still it is clear that most of asia, africa and central/south america are not exactly well represented.

so maybe my question is in two parts, the first, historically was straight shaving a mainly "western" thing (i assume not) but then where are all these other antique razors from around the world?

and 2. why has it not caught on (in modern times) within these other areas (if thats even true. maybe the russian or mongolian member can inlighten me here).. or even with other say ethnic groups (from what i gather the forum seems rather caucasion biased).

just curious about use and culture.

thanks

edit: maybe the mods can bump this to the general razor discussion section.. sorry

I imagine the reason you see mostly European/US razors is industrialization and colonization. Naturally, people in Asia, Africa et. al. shaved themselves, and they used sharpened metal (among other things) to do it. But there was no real widespread industry there, and with the advent of the industrial revolution in Europe, and colonialization, the razors made there spread worldwide--along with guns, Christianity, smallpox and more.

If you look hard, there will be old shaving implements in places--Japan, of course, and I've seen videos showing Western Chinese Uighurs shaving with enormous, almost hatchet shaped razors.

Well speaking from the perspective of an ex pat who has lived in china for ten years, I would say that at least in China the quality of steel is horrible here and the pace of life is too quick . that and the lovely people of china don't really grow much in the way of facial hair at least the men don't.

I think it´s rather big/common in arabic countries and Tukey, but it never whent out of fashion there and therefor no big deal and nothing to get all obsessed about .

I work with a Thai, he said shaving isn't a big thing over there as Thai men don't grow much facial hair.
I suppose that may also be true for the males in the other countries on that part of the Globe.

Originally Posted by Mikael

I think it´s rather big/common in arabic countries and Tukey, but it never whent out of fashion there and therefor no big deal and nothing to get all obsessed about .

I think that is correct. I've visited barber shops to get me a straight razor shave in Lebanon, Crete and Tunisia. I do not recall about the first two, but in Tunisia it was very fast, cheap and close to perfect. However the razor looked like something we would call trash. Like it has never been cleaned (so did the old barber too). But as i said it was very good shave. However in the shops all shaving gear i saw was just Mach 3's.

JimR is correct when he notes that "with the advent of the industrial
revolution in Europe, and colonialization, the razors made there spread
worldwide--along with guns, Christianity, smallpox and more." This is
certainly true for Polynesia.

In Tonga, for example, shaving was not a common practice until the
mid-19th century, when Europeans (missionaries and merchants mostly)
began to permanently reside in the islands. Judging from the pictorial
archives, it would appear that shaving didn't really become popular
until WWII, when the Allied forces established bases there and a
plentiful supply of DE razors became readily available.

In Tonga today, the vast majority of men shave...using disposable
razors imported from China, Australia and New Zealand. I don't know
of anyone in the country, other than myself, who uses a straight razor.

Other than disposable razors and canned shaving cream, there isn't
much in the way of shaving supplies available, and there certainly is
nothing comparable to a "Men's Store" in the whole country.