Thread: Straight razors verses safety razors, circa 1906.

The battle between straight and safety razors, raging since way back in 1906, as displayed in this early version of Popular Mechanics. The link takes you to an advertisement for the Radiumite straight razor, which declares:

"Throw away your "safeties" and other unnatural, amateurish, scraping, smarting, ripping, inhuman shaving devices. Shave in the natural way with a standard razor"...

and if you scroll up to page 502, you'll find and ad for Gillette safety razors which argues back:

"No stropping, no honing, no waiting, nothing to learn, nothing to adjust, always ready, always sharp, absolutely safe"...

I wonder how many shavers came to fisticuffs over this.

Popular Mechanics - Google Books

Both arguments pretty much sum it up....

I still think is it a shame to give up such a fine shave just because one is impatient.... Makes me wonder what kind of lover they are....

Probably the same kind of person that posts "(insert whine here) I didn't bother to do any research nor read and my first straight shave wasn't like the mock 3".

No fisticuffs.

Like everything else the youngans were the first to switch over with the older folks slow to change and the old-timers highly resistant and of course those troglodytes who remained with the straight.

I read somewhere that WW1 was the progenitor of the demise of the straight in favor of the safety. IIRC Gillette gave the US armed forces safety razors and all of those servicemen got into the habit. An easier softer way I guess.

One thing that folks miss is during that era there was the idea that it was modern times and with great advancement in technology many things of old fell by the wayside because they weren't high tech enough for the times. Razors were one thing and the change from pocketwatches to wristwatches were another. There were many changes like that going on. Horses were being used less and less too.