Q: Who invented the electric razor? A: Jacob Schick.

I don't know about you, but every morning I shave. It's a ritual -- shower, comb hair, shav­e, brush teeth, dress.

Showering is easy to understand. If you don't shower, you start to stink. Combing the hair is easy to understand too, because it would be a mess if you didn't comb it. If you don't brush your teeth, they rot and fall out. And dressing, obviously, is a necessity.

But why is it that, for a majority of men, all facial hair must be removed? There certainly isn't any health reason to shave it off. Why would we spend the time and money to go through this ritual each and every day?

And what about the technology of shaving? A number of companies in the United States and around the world make billions of dollars off of the simple act of shaving. These companies release new products constantly. Is all of this technology really necessary?

In this article, we will look at the social phenomenon of shaving. Then we'll learn about the evolution of shaving technology, starting with the straight razor and advancing through today's multi-bladed technology and electric razors.

Why Men Shave

For most of human history, men have had beards. And it is easy to understand why. Cave men had beards because they had no choice -- they lacked any kind of blade to shave their beards off.

Image courtesy Amazon Can you imagine trying to shave with a knife?

Many religions also have prohibitions against shaving. For example, in Leviticus 19:27, the Bible contains a specific prohibition against shaving your beard and the hair on the sides of your head. Some orthodox religions still practice this today.

Once metallurgy has been refined in any civilization, however, the technology of knives and scissors follows soon after. These cutting tools become more and more refined, and these refinements lead to the development of the razor -- the sharpest knife possible. With a very sharp knife, it is possible to begin shaving.

Even with these developments, however, men preferred beards. This may be because shaving with a straight razor is a somewhat dangerous activity better left to a professional. Unless you live in a city and are wealthy, being able to find and afford a shaving professional is difficult. And so, all the way up to the 20th century, beards were fashionable and most men wore them.

But during World War I in the United States, that all changed. And there were two reasons for that change:

1. Gillette had released the "safety razor" in 1901, and it was steadily gaining popularity because of a massive ad campaign. The safety razor made it possible and inexpensive for men to shave daily.

2. Soldiers in the United States army were required to shave.

Image courtesy George Grantham Bain Collection/ Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Some clean-shaven "doughboys"

Certainly one reason for shaving during WWI is the fact that it was the first war to see chemical agents used on the battlefield. Soldiers had to use gas masks for the first time. In order for a gas mask to fit properly, you need to be clean-shaven. The army bought millions of Gillette razors and blades to make shaving possible.

When all of the soldiers returned from WWI with their clean-shaven faces, they were heroes. They appeared in their home towns, and they also appeared in newsreels in the new movie theaters that had sprung up everywhere. Combined with ad campaigns from companies like Gillette, it became the fashion to be clean shaven. Between 1920 and 1960, beards were definitely unfashionable. That taboo has eased somewhat since the 60s, but it is still far more common for men to shave than not. And as you can see, it is strictly a fashion statement, and largely the result of advertising by companies like Schick, Norelco and Gillette.

Or, to put it another way, No one makes any money if you have a beard...

The Straight Razor

Straight razor

All images courtesy Amazon Leather strop

In order to shave, you need a sharp knife of some sort to do the shaving. Although you can use an ordinary knife to do the job (see, for example, the movies Tarzan and Dances with Wolves, among others), the best knife for the job is a straight razor.

(See How Sword Making Works for many more details on the metallurgy and technique of making fine blades.)

If you have ever watched an old movie or cartoon that features a straight razor, you have probably seen the sharpening stone, and you have certainly seen the leather strop used to hone the blade to razor sharpness. Sharpening a straight razor is actually a fine art, as you can see if you look through the sharpening instructions on this page.

A blade goes from sharp to dull because the sharp edge wears away. Atoms of metal at the keen edge of the blade chip off. The sharpening stone recreates the wedge shape at the tip of the blade. You actually abrade the metal with the stone to bring the edge of the blade to an atom-slicing point. By pushing the edge of the blade into the stone, the stone can carve away the metal and create a sharp wedge.

However, the stone will leave a bit of microscopic roughness on the sharp edge of the blade. You take this roughness out by using the strop. Here you run the blade on the leather in the opposite direction that you used on the stone. The idea is to align the microserrations on the edge of the blade and bring the blade to maximum microscopic sharpness.

Doing all this honing and stropping is an art, and it takes a lot of time. Creating a smooth, razor-sharp edge is not easy. Add to this the fact that using this long, exceedingly sharp razor blade on your skin is inherently dangerous. If all you have is a straight razor, it is no wonder that people preferred to let their beards grow.

The development of the safety razor changed all of that. We'll talk about it next.