10. Safety Razor

Shaving with a sharp razor was a tricky and dangerous business. It was even more so, for self-shavers. People would rather grow mustaches, whiskers and beards than get shaved!

In 1828, Sheffield Company produced a razor with a guarded cutting edge. Shaving had become relatively easier and safer but the main problem still persisted–that of sharpening the razor’s hard edge for a smooth shave!

A Boston salesman named King. C. Gillette had a brain storm in 1895. He wondered as to why not produce razors which were so cheap that people would rather throw them away after using them, than try to get them polished for reuse?

He hit on the idea of using wafer thin slivers of steel, which could be held comfortably in a safety clamps and used. It took eight long years to solve the difficulties and start mass production.

When the safety razors were first introduced in 1903, only 51 razors and 168 blades were sold. The following year the figures boomed to 90,000 razors and 1,24,00,000 blades!

At last, the Shaving Revolution had caught on!

Visalakshi Ramani