The day the porter changed [history of mens shaving]

ladhrann

Hello all,

The thread title is a reference to how those who can recall the day talk of when porter went from being a beer made by hand and matured in wooden barrels to the homogonised muck we gag on these days.

I recently re-introduced my father to a DE razor. He shaved with one up until the mid-1970s I think until he switched to a cartridge. His memory is hazy on the point but he thinks that he couldn't get the DE razorblades any more. He agrees that shaving with a DE razor or straight is the best shave he has experienced.

Given the place of the razor in a man's life this is an event in cultural history not unlike the almost total abandonment of the horse for the motor-car in the first twenty years of the 20th century.

My question is this; how did men go from shaving with a straight or DE razor to using cartridge etc. razors?

How did men unlearn a better, cheaper, more sustainable way of doing something?

BBDBB

through the power of marketing

ladhrann

That's a somewhat simplistic answer and also a truism used for shifts in many cultural behaviours.

I would appreciate the reflections of those who changed themselves along with their reasons, or men whose fathers shaved with a DE or straight and then used cartridges themselves etc. Anyone who lived through the period involved as well.

Its important to note that womens' shaving changed as well from a DE /straight to a cartridge system.

BBDBB

thats a somewhat over complication of a relatively simple answer

Walter Sobchak III

ladhrann wrote: »

That's a somewhat simplistic answer and also a truism used for shifts in many cultural behaviours.

I would appreciate the reflections of those who changed themselves along with their reasons, or men whose fathers shaved with a DE or straight and then used cartridges themselves etc. Anyone who lived through the period involved as well.

Its important to note that womens' shaving changed as well from a DE /straight to a cartridge system.

For me, my father used a DE. I started my shaving life using a GII and as time went by and through slick advertising I graduated to 3 and the 4 blade cartridges thinking the more blades the better the shave. In my late twenties went for a hot towel shave for the first time and as a treat ever since once a year go to the Waldorf on Westmoreland St, Dublin. A couple of years ago my brother who lives in New York gave a gift pack of Art of Shaving products i.e. brush, pre-shave oil & shaving cream. I decided at the time to try using a DE as an experiment and I have'nt gone back. The nuts and bolts of it for me are much better shave for considerably less cash.

MadsL

As my father shaved with an electric, I suspect that a lot of men switched to electric shavers - some, like my father, never switched back. Others were dissatisfied but had abandoned their shaving gear. Cartridges/disposables were heavily marketed.

ladhrann

Thanks for the replies so far. I'd like to hear from more fellas and ladies indeed about how the change happened.

Its interesting Walter how your father shaved using a DE and you started with a G2, any reason for this?

Walter Sobchak III

ladhrann wrote: »

Thanks for the replies so far. I'd like to hear from more fellas and ladies indeed about how the change happened.

Its interesting Walter how your father shaved using a DE and you started with a G2, any reason for this?

Long story short, My father spent some time in his youth in Germany and brought with him a razor for a DE blade. He used it every Sunday morning, but I was warned at all times to stay away from that contraption. When the time arrived for me to start shaving, it somehow coincided with introduction on to the market of the GII. So with teenage spotty angst I railed against any fatherly advice. Advertising won out in the end. The blade companies had or have us like junkies, 2 blades are better 1, 3 are better than 2 and so on. To end I would love to have that old German razor and the man that used it back.