Military Shaving History

Bakelite DE Razors were the most common in WWII

I'm interested what the soaps during WWI were, what the troops were issued with. Would be nice to know if some manufacturer are still alive today.

I was not issued any shaving kit by the Air Force in '67 when I went through Basic. I brought a Schick injector with me to Basic and I bought canned foam from the BX.

The depilatory was Magic Shave Powder. It might still be. You can find it in most shaving sections.

I found this under Wicked Edge on Reddit:

Vintage Gillette WW1 WW2 military issued safety razor sets : wicked_edge

Here's the link, from the above, to the text of the First Deficiency Appropriations Bill, 1919:
First Deficiency Appropriation Bill, 1919

Turns out that Pershing ordered only Auto-Strop and Gillettes to be supplied to troops, with Ever-Ready, Gems, Durham Duplex, and Penn razors as sales items in various locations in the US. It lists the government cost of $1.14 per Gillette and $1.50 per Auto-Strop.

Perhaps fitting for April 1, it also notes that a housewife was supplied one to every eight men, at a unit cost of $0.46. I had to look it up: This refers to container for sewing articles.

The Reddit post also mentioned this article in Everyman's Magazine on what to take going into the service:
Everybody's Magazine

It states that toilet items in WWI were taken out of the clothing allowance, and you could save that part by bringing your own.

Zatx Woopyoax said:

When I went to Army Basic Training in 1990 I was forced to purchase Gillette Mach 3 cartridges and Edge Shave Gel. Well not really forced, it was what I was already using, but there was no alternative. We had to buy that specific brand. The Black guys got out of this requirement and were able to get some kind of powder and a sharp piece of plastic for scraping the powder off their face. I had a buddy of mine try explaining it to me but I didn't really understand the concept.

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I went through Basic and AIT at Fort Sill in 1991.

Yeah, no such thing as "issue" shaving gear by that time. Recruiters gave you a "things to bring" list before you shipped off and everybody showed up at Replacement Company with enough spare cartridges to see them through Basic, mostly.

The MACH 3 was my razor all through my enlistment as well, with Afta aftershave lotion.

But everybody also kept one spare, pristine, unused disposable razor. That was your "display" razor. The one you laid out for inspections.

Recall buying a cheap razor at the PX for inspection/display. This was '69. I shaved with a Tech and bar soap.

Macfrommichigan said:

Recall buying a cheap razor at the PX for inspection/display. This was '69. I shaved with a Tech and bar soap.

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What I can see clearly now, through hindsight, is that none of us 18 or 19-year-olds really knew what we were doing when it came to shaving.

And the idea that boys that old need to shave everyday is patent nonsense! But orders are orders. And tradition is tradition.

At some point I must've figured out that blades work better when they aren't clogged with stubble and Barbasol. And that rinsing alone wasn't getting that crud out from under the blades. So you have to bang the razor on the sink edge to clear it properly.

Heck, we did not know anything about anything, truly.

Macfrommichigan said:

Heck, we did not know anything about anything, truly.

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Which is what made us valuable as new soldiers!

Soldier, take that hill! Yes, that one, with all the machineguns pointing at us!

And just out of Basic...yeah, we'd charge that hill. Or storm Omaha Beach.

But when I was 30? It was more like, "Sir...maybe we can go around the hill? It looks awfully steep. And it's so humid today."

Just one more razor memory...sort of. In Iraq, our unit was deluged in "care packages" from families and organizations. Toiletries. Razors. Shaving cream. Toothbrushes. Mouthwash. Toothpaste. Deoderant. You name it. And it was more than we could possibly ever use in a year's deployment. We had two Iraqi civilian nationals who were contracted to work for us operating cranes in our materials yard (concrete Jersey barriers, stuff like that) at Camp Liberty.

Good couple of guys. And taking a risk. So we "supplemented" their pay with trunk loads of toiletries from the care packages. And cases of bottled water. They were probably shaving with all those razors for five years.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. '69: Morale was low, we were mostly draftees with ltd. options.

i'm interested also in military related shaving gear
i served in the 80's nothing issued, usually used disposables

i also have a complete khaki set

G123XXX serial number (1918?) old style