There are a number of interesting razors held in the collections at the museum at Kiwi North, one in particular caught my eye in its bakelite case.
Shaving has been around for about 100,000 years. It is believed that Stone Age men started shaving, using clam shells like tweezers and pulling out their beard hair, then gradually moved to use sharpened obsidian and clam shells to shave their facial hair.
In Ancient Egypt, shaving was associated with status, wealth and one’s standing in society. This could also be true in modern times where a clean shave is linked with professionalism and success.
Around 300 BC Alexander the Great set the tone for being clean-shaven and shaving even became law in some Greek cities. In Julius Caesar’s time, shaving had a spiritual connotation. When boys entered puberty the hair from their first shave was offered to the Gods to ensure good health and fortune.
In 1762, Frenchman Jean Jacques Perret designed the first safety straight razor with a wooden safeguard. In 1847, William Henson revolutionised shaving with the modern T-handled razor which persists to this day. Then along came Mr K Gillette in 1900 with his disposable razor cartridges, a well-known brand today.
Then of course there are electric razors, first patented in 1930 by Colonel Jacob Schick.
The razor we are looking at today is an English razor, a Valet Auto Strop Safety Razor which comes in a nifty little compartmentalised brown swivel-hinged bakelite case. This razor was popular in the 1930s and 40s. A single-edged safety razor with a very unique selling point.
Carbon steel disposable blades at this time were not as reliable as a genuine barber’s straight razor, but men began to prefer shaving at home. The Valet razor head accommodates a leatherette strop (neatly folded in the bakelite case) that can be stropped in much the same way as a barber does, thus keeping the blade sharper for longer. A paper envelope holds a replacement blade. Inside the lid is stamped ‘Made in England’.
The bakelite case has a history all of its own. Bakelite was first introduced in 1907 – the world’s first synthetic plastic. Early examples of bakelite are keenly sought after by collectors. An inventor, Leo Baekland, living in New York and working in his home laboratory, after much experimentation came up with a plastic material that was strong and could be moulded, which he patented, thus bakelite was born.
Valet razor with leatherette strop.
At first, it was used for electrical insulators but was soon to be found in early radios and in the automobile industry. Its properties of resistance to heat and chemical action made it very popular even branching out into jewellery.
Bakelite bangles were very popular. Its only drawback was because of its chemical makeup, it was almost always a brownish colour and it was almost impossible to add colouring. It wasn’t long before bakelite began to be replaced by other plastics capable of absorbing colour.
History shows us that shaving versus beard growing has ebbed and flowed depending largely on fashion trends. It was interesting to find that soldiers in both the First and Second World Wars were required to be clean-shaven. How they managed this given the nature of war is an example of human fortitude.
