Shaving Behind the Iron Curtain

[Day Tripper]

Hey,

I've recently been wondering about shaving culture behind the Iron Curtain. In the West we had Gillette and numerous other manufacturers, but I've never heard of Soviet or other Eastern European razor manufacturers. Does anyone know how folks shaved in Warsaw Pact countries during the Cold War?


Thanks for any responses.

[cooncatbob]

From what I understand like everything else the Soviets copied Western technology and like everything else they copied the quality was inferior to it's western counterpart.
I believe they copied the slim adjustable.

[Sailorman]

I've heard of various manufacturers in E. Europe and the Soviet Bloc, State-owned and otherwise. They didn't do a lot of advertising here during the Cold War so we've never heard of them. Besides, they all have funny, hard to remember names.

It's an interesting segment I'd like to learn about but I'd imagine many of the specimens from that era shave like crap. Or, were blatant copies of Gillettes.

I know there are members here from E. Europe. Speak up. Any famously good or collectible razor mfgs. there? Ask your dad if he still used straights in the 60s.

[SevereWX]

I actually asked my friend in Russia that very question a little less than a week ago. His response wasn't as detailed as I had hoped, as he just said he has always shaved with whatever he could find cheapest, but didn't offer up any brand names or anything. So I'm still curious myself as to what was available there during that time period.

[MichaelG]

I did a quick search and found some info on another, older wetshaving site - one that cannot be named on this site.

Anyway, he references an e-book by a Robert Waits where he mentions Soviet razors manufactured under the name Luch or Lych.

Originally Posted by Day Tripper

Hey,

I've recently been wondering about shaving culture behind the Iron Curtain. In the West we had Gillette and numerous other manufacturers, but I've never heard of Soviet or other Eastern European razor manufacturers. Does anyone know how folks shaved in Warsaw Pact countries during the Cold War?


Thanks for any responses.

[Dharion]

Sometimes reports and images of razors from the German Democratic Republic pop up in German shaving boards. They and their Soviet counterparts are much like cooncatbob said.
I've seen Soviet straight razors but I don't know how to categorize them as you cannot see how they shave and how they perform on a hone.