Prior to the introduction of the disposable blade, users of safety razors still needed to strop and hone the edges of their blades. The subsequent consumer demand for replacement blades put the shaving industry on course toward its present form with Gillette as a dominant force. The returning soldiers were permitted to keep that part of their equipment and therefore retained their new shaving habits. The Gillette Safety Razor Company was awarded a contract to supply the American troops in World War I with double-edge safety razors as part of their standard field kits (delivering a total of 3.5 million razors and 32 million blades for them). These models were manufactured under the "Star Safety Razor" brand.Ī third pivotal innovation was a safety razor using a disposable double-edge blade for which King Camp Gillette submitted a patent application in 1901 and was granted in 1904. This differed from the Henson design in distancing the blade from the handle by interposing "a hollow metallic blade-holder having a preferably removable handle and a flat plate in front, to which the blade is attached by clips and a pivoted catch, said plate having bars or teeth at its lower edge, and the lower plate having an opening, for the purpose set forth", which is to "insure a smooth bearing for the plate upon the skin, while the teeth or bars will yield sufficiently to allow the razor to sever the hair without danger of cutting the skin." The Kampfe Brothers produced razors under their own name following the 1880 patent and improved the design in a series of subsequent patents. The first attested use of the term "safety razor" is in a patent application for "new and useful improvements in Safety-Razors", filed in May 1880 by Frederic and Otto Kampfe of Brooklyn, New York, and issued the following month. This also covered a "comb tooth guard or protector" which could be attached both to the hoe form and to a conventional straight razor. The basic form of a razor, "the cutting blade of which is at right angles with the handle, and resembles somewhat the form of a common hoe", was first described in a patent application in 1847 by William S. The earliest razor guards had comb-like teeth and could only be attached to one side of a razor a reversible guard was one of the first improvements made to guard razors. The invention was inspired by the joiner's plane and was essentially a straight razor with its blade surrounded by a wooden sleeve. The first such razor was most likely invented by French cutler Jean-Jacques Perret circa 1762. The first step towards a safer-to-use razor was the guard razor – also called a straight safety razor – which added a protective guard to a regular straight razor. In 2010, Procter & Gamble stated that almost a billion men were shaving with double-edge razors. Since their introduction in the 1970s, cartridge razors and disposable razors – where the blades are embedded in plastic – have become the predominant types of safety razors. Army began issuing Gillette shaving kits to its servicemen. Gillette's invention became the predominant style of razor during and after the First World War, when the U.S. While other safety razors of the time used blades that required stropping before use and after a time had to be honed by a cutler, Gillette's razor used a disposable blade with two sharpened edges. Safety razors were popularized in the 1900s by King Camp Gillette's invention, the double-edge safety razor. The first known occurrence of the term "safety razor" is found in a patent from 1880 for a razor in the basic contemporary configuration with a handle in which a removable blade is placed (although this form predated the patent). Protective devices for razors have existed since at least the 1700s: a circa 1762 invention by French cutler Jean-Jacques Perret added a protective guard to a regular straight razor. The initial purpose of these protective devices was to reduce the level of skill needed for injury-free shaving, thereby reducing the reliance on professional barbers. Jean-Jacques Perret (straight razor guard)Ī safety razor is a shaving implement with a protective device positioned between the edge of the blade and the skin.
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