#947 Little Shavers

If you’re too young to remember when young men were called little shavers, you’re probably also too young to remember a time when razors had only one blade.
Back then, guys would actually go into a barbershop and have someone else shave them. That someone else would take out a large and really, really sharp blade, strop it on a piece of leather and then scrape it over your face.
The times I watched a barber do it to my father seemed like a horror movie waiting to happen.
How could anyone place so much trust in another person for such a delicate operation, involving such a sharp instrument, next to his most vital neck arteries?
Perhaps that trust was what the makers of the first twin blade men’s razor were counting on. For years, home shavers had gotten along fine with single-bladed safety razors. Then came the Gillette Trac Two. They told us the first blade lifted the beard hair and stretched it so the second one could lop it off even closer.
No one asked why if the blade was so supposedly sharp it was doing any lifting and stretching when it should have been cutting. Numerous independent scientific tests confirmed there was no basis for the twin blade shaving efficiency claim. But trust isn’t about science.
Trust is about belief.
So instead of retreating from the field, Gillette brought out the Atra, that had two blades, a swivel head and a comfort strip, which slightly lubricated your face, and presumably your beard hair, possibly making it more flexible and even less stretchable.
The other day I saw an ad for the Fusion razor. It’s really high tech. It has a built-in flashlight. It vibrates when you shave. I suppose this is so your whiskers can dance when they’re done stretching. And it has five blades.
The commercial announced that it also has a new warning strip, telling you when to change your blade for maximum comfort. I’m sure the strip is accurate.
I trust them.
Just because changing the blade more often means more sales, and increases their market share, why would they lie?
For some reason the words cutthroat competition come to mind.
America, ya gotta love it.