A Short History of the Safety Razor and How It Changed Shaving
The safety razor began as a simple idea: put a guard along the edge of a blade so only a sliver of steel can touch the skin. Early versions appeared in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but the design that changed everything came at the start of the twentieth, when King Camp Gillette and the engineer William Nickerson made a thin, cheap, double-edged blade that you threw away when it went dull. That turned shaving from a skilled job, often done by a barber with an open blade, into a quick daily habit anyone could manage at home. Cartridges and electric shavers followed, and in the last fifteen years the old double-edge razor has quietly come back.
Before the safety razor: the barber’s open blade
For most of history, a close shave meant a straight razor: a single long blade folded into a handle. It is a superb tool in practised hands and an unforgiving one in anybody else’s. Keeping it sharp meant regular stropping and occasional honing, and the shave itself took concentration and a steady angle. Many men simply did not shave themselves. They visited the barber a few times a week, or put up with stubble in between. Our piece on the history of the cut-throat razor covers that era in British barbering in more detail.
The first guarded blades
The French cutler Jean-Jacques Perret is usually credited with one of the earliest written descriptions of a guarded razor, in his treatise on the art of shaving published around 1770. His idea was to fit a guard to an ordinary blade so it could not dig in too deeply. It did not catch on widely, but the principle was right.
Through the nineteenth century, inventors in Britain and America experimented with hoe-shaped razors, where the blade sits at right angles to the handle like a garden hoe. By the 1880s, American manufacturers were selling a “safety razor” with a short, forged blade held behind a comb-like guard. It was safer than an open blade, but the blade still had to be stropped and resharpened, so the maintenance problem remained.
Gillette and the disposable blade
The real turning point was not the guard, it was the blade. Gillette’s insight, developed with Nickerson around 1901 and patented a few years later, was to stamp blades from thin sheet steel, sharpen both long edges, and make them cheap enough to discard. Nobody needed to strop anything. When a blade dulled, you dropped in a new one.
The business model mattered as much as the engineering. Razors were sold affordably, sometimes given away, and the money came from a steady trade in replacement blades. That pattern, cheap handle and repeat purchase, still shapes the shaving aisle today.
War helped enormously. During the First World War, the American military issued safety razors to its troops in very large numbers, and a generation of young men came home used to shaving themselves every morning. In Britain too, the wartime spread of the clean-shaven face is often linked to practical needs, such as getting a good seal on a gas mask. It is a neat contrast with the earlier rule requiring British soldiers to wear a moustache, which we wrote about in our post on the 1916 moustache rule.
The British contribution: stainless blades
Early blades were carbon steel and rusted quickly in a damp bathroom. In the early 1960s, the British firm Wilkinson Sword, better known until then for swords and garden tools, launched coated stainless steel blades that stayed sharp for several shaves rather than one or two. They caused a genuine stir in the market and pushed the larger manufacturers to follow. Long blade life, which we take for granted, is a fairly recent comfort.
How the safety razor was nearly replaced
Three things eroded the double-edge razor’s dominance in the second half of the twentieth century.
- Electric shavers. Available from the 1930s and much improved after the war, they offered a dry, cut-free shave for men in a hurry.
- Cartridges. From the early 1970s, twin-blade cartridges arrived, with the blades sealed into a plastic head. More blades and pivoting heads followed over the next three decades.
- Disposables. Cheap all-plastic razors made shaving as throwaway as a biro.
By the 1990s, many younger men had never used a double-edge razor at all.
Why it came back
From around the late 2000s, the double-edge razor returned, partly on the back of online shaving forums and partly because of a broader interest in traditional grooming. The reasons people give are fairly consistent:
- Cost per blade. Double-edge blades are inexpensive compared with branded cartridges.
- Less plastic. A metal handle lasts for decades, and a used blade is a small piece of steel. Many councils advise putting used blades in a sealed tin or blade bank rather than loose in the bin; check your local guidance.
- Kinder to some skin. A single blade passes over the skin once per stroke, which some men with ingrown hairs or irritation find gentler than multiple blades.
- The ritual. A brush, a proper lather and a slower shave is, for some, a pleasant few minutes rather than a chore.
There are trade-offs. It takes a couple of weeks to learn the angle, and pressing as you would with a cartridge causes nicks. Our comparison of safety razor vs cartridge sets out who tends to suit each.
The anatomy of a modern safety razor
| Part | What to know |
|---|---|
| Head | Holds the blade. Closed comb (a solid safety bar) is the gentler starting point; open comb leaves more of the blade exposed for heavier growth. |
| Blade gap | The space between blade and guard. A small gap is mild; a larger gap is more efficient and less forgiving. |
| Handle | Weight and length change how the razor feels. A heavier handle does more of the work, so you press less. |
| Opening | Three-piece (head unscrews), two-piece, or “butterfly” (twist the handle and the doors open). All shave the same once assembled. |
What the history teaches about shaving today
The one lesson that runs through two and a half centuries of razors is that the blade matters more than the gadget around it. A sharp, fresh edge, a well-softened beard and a light hand will give you a better shave with almost any razor. That is also why a barber’s shave still feels different from a quick morning one: the preparation is longer, the hot towels soften the growth, and the edge is fresh for every client.
If you want to compare, the Highgate Cuts barbers offer a traditional hot towel shave, which takes around 20 to 30 minutes. As with every visit, it starts with a short assessment of your skin and growth before the barber recommends how to approach it.
Questions we get asked
Who invented the safety razor?
No single person. Perret described a guarded blade in the eighteenth century, and guarded razors were on sale by the 1880s, but King Camp Gillette and William Nickerson created the disposable double-edge blade that made the safety razor a mass-market product.
Are vintage safety razors safe to use?
Many shave very well once cleaned and fitted with a new blade. Check the head is not bent or corroded, since a warped head changes the blade angle and can cut you.
Can I fly with a safety razor?
Rules on blades in hand luggage are set by the airport and airline, and loose double-edge blades are commonly not allowed in the cabin. Check the gov.uk hand luggage guidance before you pack.
Do barbers use safety razors?
Most barbers use a straight razor with a replaceable blade for shaves and neck finishes, because it gives precise control. You can ask about the tools on our barber page or by email.
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