Beards to Clean-Shaven II: the Rise of King Gillette

In the previous post about the change in fashion from beards to a clean-shaven look I mentioned World War I as the catalyst. Gas masks required a smooth surface to seal and the smooth-cheeked doughboy look has been the American standard ever since.

How did soldiers in the grimy trenches of France manage to keep themselves shaved? It would have been a real challenge to use a straight razor under those conditions.

King Gillette, perfector of the safety razor.

Enter a traveling cork salesman from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, named King Gillette.

Gillette worked for the inventor of the cork-sealed bottle cap, who encouraged his young salesman to ‘invent something that could be used and thrown away’. Gillette saw how many bottle caps were tossed and knew the idea was sound.

Pondering the idea, he hit on one of those flashes of brilliance that changes the world.

He would market a safety razor with a thin, sheet-steel blade that didn’t need to be sharpened and could be thrown out when it became dull.

Moreover, he knew he could make a good profit by practically giving the razor handle away, then selling lots of disposable blades.

The formula still makes millions for the American Safety Razor Company (now better known as Gillette) to this day.

Gillette founded his company in 1903. After a couple of lean years, he was poised to make a deal with the US Government upon America’s entrance into the Great European War: Every U.S. serviceman was issued a field razor kit bought from Gillette by Uncle Sam.

The clean-shaven revolution was born.