Shaving habits before safety razors

I'm curious how common self-shaving with straights was in the days before safety razors. I read somewhere that most men visited a barber once a week or so for a shave, though wealthy men might have straights on hand (and a servant who was handy with them). Recently, I was watching a BBC historical documentary called "Edwardian Farm", where a historian and two archaeologists live and work on a farm as people would have around the turn of the 20th century. Though they visited a barber at the beginning of the series, later we see one of them shaving with a brush and straight before he starts the day. I wonder if barbershop shaves were mostly an urban thing, with men in the country more likely to shave themselves (or not at all). Anyway, it stoked my curiosity.

By the way, the show is great. Definitely worth checking out!

The accepted technique at English boarding schools was to plug the nostrils with clay and with the mouth tightly closed inhale repeatedly until the whiskers were sucked through the cheeks and into the mouth were they were bitten off a swallowed. Then the headmaster would administer enemas till the beard was cleared. This is absolute historical fact.

In countryside they may not have had time to visit barbers or even shave more than once a week. I assume men have to do it themselves.

My grandfather was a farmer and died in 60s before my birth. Mom told recently he used to shave with straights because he said he had too strong beard for safety razors. As a farmer he had not time to shave every day. Mom remembered knives, strop and lather.

She assumes that some gave the straights to a collector of junk metal after the death of grandfather.

To the best of my knowledge, my forefathers in the agricultural communities in sweden would mostly shave before going to church or before some special celebration, if they shaved at all.

Didn't most guys shave with a block of obsidian I actually think shaving was reserved for the weekly bath.

Not pre-safety razor as I'm talking 50s or 60s but a cousin of my mother's remembers an old guy who lived in a cottage near him and he used to go to nearby stream every morning and shave with a straight (no running water in house), even in the middle of winter.

Cold water shaving? It's been done before

that man said:

In countryside they may not have had time to visit barbers or even shave more than once a week. I assume men have to do it themselves.

My grandfather was a farmer and died in 60s before my birth. Mom told recently he used to shave with straights because he said he had too strong beard for safety razors. As a farmer he had not time to shave every day. Mom remembered knives, strop and lather.

She assumes that some gave the straights to a collector of junk metal after the death of grandfather.

Click to expand...

That's a shame regarding the likely fate of the razors, but probably not entirely uncommon. My great-grandfather was a German barber. I've been wondering what happened to his straights.

Alec79 said:

Not pre-safety razor as I'm talking 50s or 60s but a cousin of my mother's remembers an old guy who lived in a cottage near him and he used to go to nearby stream every morning and shave with a straight (no running water in house), even in the middle of winter.

Cold water shaving? It's been done before

Click to expand...

THAT, my friend, is one hardcore MF'er.

I bet you I'm not half the man that guy's daughter is.

The part of the story you didn't hear was that he would stick his head in the stream to wash off, and bring up a 4-pound brown trout in his teeth for a nice lunch!

If I can achieve a third of THAT level of manliness, I will die happy.

I've actually been wondering wether the design of razors didn't coincide with the prevalence of indoor plumbing, and corresponding increase in frequency of bathing.

Basically my line of thought goes something like this. Prior to safety razors shaving was a chore. Some men visited the barbershop for a shave, and some men did it themselves, but I assume most men were not doing it every day. Early saftey razors were an oen comb design, and are generally considered more aggressive shavers, I assume part of this is the comfort level of men who are used to shaving with straights. To tem a relatively agressive straight would actually seem rather mild, but I think a larger factor is that open combs and wider blade gaps tend to work a lot better on longer growths.

I've noticed early Gillette ads, stating that you can get a good shave in 5 minutes with their safety razors, so I don't think most early safety razor users were as concerned with faceturbation as they were with efficiency. Then again outside these forums, that's still true, and one can get every bit as fast a shave with a safety razor as with a cartridge if that's the goal.

Anyway, when I look at the progression of razor design, it seems like solid safety bars and milder angles came about in the 1940s and were commonplace by the 50s, and the designs became milder in the same time frame. If you think about it that roughly coincides with the widespread adoption of hot and cold running water in homes. I'm thinking that when you have hot water coming out of the walls in your house you're much more likely to use it to shave daily, especially when you also have a handy dandy device that allows you to do it in a short period of time. When you're shaving off yesterdays growth, a mild comfortable razor works a lot better than it would on a weeks growth, and when you're doing it every day, chances are you want it to be comfortable.

Now I've really been enjoying my Old type and New Gillettes, but I can easily see how a mild smooth shaver like the Superspeed, or the EJ DE89 would be appealing to the masses when the goal of every day shaving is primarily to look presentable in the minimum amount of time, with the minimum amount of discomfort. I guess what I'm getting at is that I think the frequency of shaving has influenced the design of razors, and that one can make some inferences about the frequency of shaving based upon these designs.

mattface said:

I've actually been wondering wether the design of razors didn't coincide with the prevalence of indoor plumbing, and corresponding increase in frequency of bathing.

Click to expand...

That's a good point. Sounds likely to me.

From what I've read, it was fairly uncommon for men to shave themselves with a straight razor. The upper classes had valets that would shave them. Most everybody else went to the barber periodically. If you could not afford that or you lived out in the country, you most likely went bearded.

Being an older and retired member myself, I remember my mother telling me that her father would go to the barbershop for shaves. At that time each customer had their own shaving mug that the barber would use. I still have his own personal mug, but I don't use it, its a nice antique. I'm sure that it dates from the late 1800's or early 1900's.

dpmtherrien said:

Being an older and retired member myself, I remember my mother telling me that her father would go to the barbershop for shaves. At that time each customer had their own shaving mug that the barber would use. I still have his own personal mug, but I don't use it, its a nice antique. I'm sure that it dates from the late 1800's or early 1900's.

Click to expand...

That is interesting that each customer brought their own mug to the barber and extremely cool that you have your great grandfather's.

shrubble said:

THAT, my friend, is one hardcore MF'er.

I bet you I'm not half the man that guy's daughter is.

The part of the story you didn't hear was that he would stick his head in the stream to wash off, and bring up a 4-pound brown trout in his teeth for a nice lunch!

If I can achieve a third of THAT level of manliness, I will die happy.

Click to expand...

- Aaron

GFreg said:

That is interesting that each customer brought their own mug to the barber and extremely cool that you have your great grandfather's.

Click to expand...

Actually, the customer left his mug at the shop. Here is a link to a page with a picture that shows the mugs on shelves.

http://whiskeyjacks-tpost.blogspot.com/2009/03/collectible-shaving-mugs.html

A google image search will find others, too.

At least in cities men often did not know how to shave. They would go to the barber whenever they felt they needed a shave. Shave talc was designed to be used on non-shave days to cover up the beard. It was "flesh"colored. I knew an old barber years ago who was a young barber when Americans were going to WW1. He told me they came into his shop to be taught how to shave. Gillette and other manufacturers supplied razor kits to the military and it was after these men returned from war that self shaving became widespread.

binowatch said:

The accepted technique at English boarding schools was to plug the nostrils with clay and with the mouth tightly closed inhale repeatedly until the whiskers were sucked through the cheeks and into the mouth were they were bitten off a swallowed. Then the headmaster would administer enemas till the beard was cleared. This is absolute historical fact.

Click to expand...

You mean hysterical fact!

That was the best laugh I have had in a long time. Thank you!

GFreg said:

That is interesting that each customer brought their own mug to the barber and extremely cool that you have your great grandfather's.

Click to expand...

I find it interesting that every man had his own mug, but presumably the barber used the same razor on everyone. Nowadays barbers have to use a fresh blade with every customer, which is why they now are forced to use disposable blade razors. I suppose people could bring their own razors, but as far as I know that's not common.

mattface said:

I suppose people could bring their own razors, but as far as I know that's not common.

Click to expand...

Interesting idea. I wonder how that'd fly.