What Am I? a Featured Mystery Object of the Month
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What Am I? A featured mystery object of the month Print a “What Am I?” sign. Add a “clue” in the text box, print, and post on your bulletin board. Post a different clue every day or so and see who can identify the mystery item. Then plan a “What Am I?” discussion and other related activities. Do you know what I am? Here are some clues: 1. I’ve been around in one form or another since 3000 B.C. 2. The ancient Sumerians made me out of animal fat and wood ashes. 3. A product similar to what’s used now was first developed in England in the early 19th century. 4. Through the years, I’ve been made into tablets and cakes. 5. I was first packaged in a tube in the 1920s. 6. After World War II, I was put into an aerosol can. 7. I was made into a gel in the 1970s. 8. These days, I’m most often found in the bathroom or shower. 9. Once used almost exclusively by men, I was formulated specifically for women in 1986. 10. I’m similar to soap, but I’m not exactly soap, and I have a different purpose. 11. One of the most important things I do is provide lubrication. 12. The majority of men in the United States use me in the morning, although some use me again in the evening. 13. I’ve been the subject of many national advertising campaigns; one particularly successful campaign featured roadside signs. 14. About 90 percent of American men use me at least once a day. 15. The average American male starts using me between the ages of 14 and 16 years old. ©Activity Connection Care Package - approved for free distribution - What Am I? - June 2014 - Page 1 16. Using me is something of a ritual symbolizing one’s manhood. 17. Some people use me for pranks, but I have a number of other “good” uses in addition to my main purpose. 18. Even though I look like something you’d put a cherry on top of, don’t try and eat me. 19. I am white, foamy, and generally smell good. 20. Men with both moustaches and beards avoid using me altogether. Can you guess what I am? With all these hints, you’re probably just a whisker away from guessing what I am. That’s right—I’m shaving cream. Print a copy of the pictures to pass around as you share and discuss the information in the article with your group Introduction Do you remember the saying “Shave and a haircut, two bits”? It is so familiar that even when tapped out with your knuckles most people can supply the words. There was a time when men routinely congregated at their local barbershop for shaves, haircuts, and good ol’ male bonding. The barber would lather his customer’s face with liberal amounts of shaving cream and then expertly apply a straight razor at the peril of every last whisker. Let’s learn more about the razor’s companion— shaving cream. History Cave paintings show that people have been altering their appearance by growing and removing hair since prehistoric times. Sometimes our ancestors plucked hair, but most often they shaved. Thousands of years ago, Sumerian men used oil or a combination of animal fat and wood ashes to create a lubricating concoction that lathered slightly and made shaving a bit easier. Ancient Romans also used a crude form of soap made from animal fat and lye to shave. But none of these very basic soaps provided the thick, stiff lather and lubrication that comfortable shaving requires. While soap and soap-making techniques improved throughout the world, and beards were sometimes more popular and sometimes less popular, shaving methods and tools really didn’t change much until after the 17th century. In Europe, fashionable men—and occasionally women—were shaving their heads to accommodate elaborate wigs and wanted something that would make the process less painful. But it was not until the 1800s that high-lathering preparations made especially for shaving, rather than soaps adapted for the purpose, began to emerge. ©Activity Connection Care Package - approved for free distribution - What Am I? - June 2014 - Page 2 Truefit and Hill, the world’s oldest continually operating barbershop, created a special lathering formulation for use in its London shop in 1805. But the first shaving soap product that could be purchased for use at home was Vroom and Fowler’s Walnut Oil Military Shaving Soap, sold as foaming tablets beginning in 1840. Can You Guess 1. How fast does a man’s facial hair grow? About half an inch a month. 2. How many whiskers does the average man’s face have? Between 5,000 and 25,000 whiskers. 3. How much time does the average man spending shaving? About 60 hours a year. 4. How much of their lives do men spend shaving? The average man spends about five months of his life shaving. 5. How many men worldwide shave with a blade or a razor? About 1.3 billion. 6. When does facial hair grow faster—day or night? It grows faster during the day. 7. Where do the majority of American men shave—at the sink or in the shower? Over 80 percent of men shave at the sink. 8. About how long does it take the average man to shave his face? About 3.5 minutes. 9. Do American women prefer a man to be clean shaven or have facial hair? About 70 percent of women prefer a clean-shaven man. 10. Who shaves more often: men between the ages of 18 and 24 or those over 35? Men between the ages of 18 and 24 shave an average of four times a week; those over 35 shave about six times a week. 11. Where is the greatest concentration of hair on a man’s face? The greatest concentration is on the chin and upper lip. 12. How many whiskers are removed from a man’s face when he shaves? The average shave removes 20,000 to 25,000 hairs. Shaving the Modern Way By the early 1900s, manufactured shaving cream applied with a brush was widely used. Scientist George Washington Carver created a shaving cream with a peanut oil base that lathered well and had a long shelf life. Iconic Burma-Shave shaving cream got its start in 1925 when liniment, the Burma-Vita company’s original product, wasn’t selling well and owner Clinton Odell decided to formulate a brand of brushless shaving cream. The shaving cream used many of the same ingredients as the liniment, including oils and scents “from the Malay Peninsula and Burma.” ©Activity Connection Care Package - approved for free distribution - What Am I? - June 2014 - Page 3 Originally sold in a red and white tube packed in a red and white box, Burma-Shave was later available in half-pound jars. At its peak in the 1930s, it was the second-best-selling shaving cream in the United States. Its popularity was fueled by the roadside signs that were at the heart of the Burma- Shave advertising campaign until the company was sold to Philip Morris in 1963. Burma-Shave Minneapolis, Minnesota, was the site of the first Burma- Shave signs in 1925. Six small consecutively reading signs, with the last one naming the product, were placed at the shoulder of the highway, where they could be easily read by motorists passing at speeds under 25 miles per hour. Burma-Shave signs could be found in almost all 48 states. The exceptions were New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada. In those early days, advertising executives determined that these three Western states didn’t have enough automobile traffic to warrant inclusion in the campaign. Massachusetts also missed out on Burma-Shave signs because of the state’s high- priced land rental and overgrowth of roadside bushes and trees on roadsides. The original signs were created in red and white (to match packaging) and orange and black. The orange and black signs were discontinued after a few years. Special white and blue signs were produced for South Dakota because, in that state, red and white roadside signs could only be used for official traffic notices. The signs generally featured all capital letters because they were considered easier to read. For the first few years, two to four sets of signs were created each year and rotated throughout the country. By the late 1920s, the humorous messages usually rhymed: Every shaver / Now can snore / Six more minutes / Than before / By using / Burma-Shave Your shaving brush / Has had its day / So why not / Shave the modern way / With / Burma-Shave Sales Pitches and Safety Messages Later, with major company growth in the 1930s, 19 different sets of signs were developed. Some mocked soap and shaving brushes as old fashioned, and some were specifically targeted toward wives: Shaving brushes / You’ll soon see ’em / On the shelf / In some / Museum / Burma-Shave Does your husband / Misbehave / Grunt and grumble / Rant and rave / Shoot the brute some / Burma-Shave Burma-Shave was the first advertiser to provide a road safety message along with its sales pitch: Hardly a driver / Is now alive / Who passed / On hills / At 75 / Burma-Shave Past / Schoolhouses / Take it slow / Let the little / Shavers grow / Burma-Shave If you dislike / Big traffic fines / Slow down / Till you / Can read these signs / Burma-Shave As interstate highways and faster speeds made reading a sequence of six signs difficult, Burma- Shave cut back to one, two, or three in a row.