Some recent excellent posts by mblakele have got me wondering:
We often kick around the "puck vs. stick" question in regards to what we prefer or how to use them.
What I'd like to explore in this thread is the history of pucks, or mug soap, and shave sticks.
When did soap first meet mug and brush? Were the early soaps pucks, or rounds? When was the first soap marketed as shave soap? When was the first shave stick marketed? Was there a crest in shave stick popularity in the US around the time of WWI? Did other alternatives (brushless creams or powders) ever make a serious dent in the market? How quickly did the aerosol can take over the vast majority of the shaving market?
How different is our use of shave soap and sticks from what our ancestors did 50 years ago? A century? Two centuries? We've all seen the old brushes that have taken a set "swoop", did they leave them wet and loaded between shaves? How well off did you have to be to have a mug at the barbershop? Was there a community mug for the non-regular customers?
Most of my knowledge is anecdotal at best, picked up from reading old ads, some vintage barber's books, or just in the "I dunno, never thought of that" category.
Let's kick this around. I'm pretty sure some of our members were around when some of this stuff started!
We often kick around the "puck vs. stick" question in regards to what we prefer or how to use them.
What I'd like to explore in this thread is the history of pucks, or mug soap, and shave sticks.
When did soap first meet mug and brush? Were the early soaps pucks, or rounds? When was the first soap marketed as shave soap? When was the first shave stick marketed? Was there a crest in shave stick popularity in the US around the time of WWI? Did other alternatives (brushless creams or powders) ever make a serious dent in the market? How quickly did the aerosol can take over the vast majority of the shaving market?
How different is our use of shave soap and sticks from what our ancestors did 50 years ago? A century? Two centuries? We've all seen the old brushes that have taken a set "swoop", did they leave them wet and loaded between shaves? How well off did you have to be to have a mug at the barbershop? Was there a community mug for the non-regular customers?
Most of my knowledge is anecdotal at best, picked up from reading old ads, some vintage barber's books, or just in the "I dunno, never thought of that" category.
Let's kick this around. I'm pretty sure some of our members were around when some of this stuff started!