The expert guide to the world of shaving Dr Shave’s Book of Shaving Contents 03 Introduction 05 Chapter 1 History of Shaving 10 Chapter 2 Shaving Creams 13 Chapter 3 Shaving Tools 23 Chapter 4 How to Shave 28 Chapter 5 Head and Body Shaving 32 Chapter 6 How to Groom Your Beard and Moustache 35 Chapter 7 Shaving Problems 2 Dr Shave’s Book of Shaving Introduction Dr Shave aka Brian Mulreany getting good wet shaving results. I will Sales Director & Co-Owner of personally reply to every enquiry by The Executive Shaving Company ‘phone or email. A lifetime wet shaver, previously using In most cases simply moving from an Gillette cartridge blades, I began using a electric shaver or multi blade cartridge razor Merkur safety razor, shaving brush and to a safety razor will solve problems such shaving creams and soaps for the first as ingrown hairs, razor burn and excessive around 1993. sensitivity. Sometimes it is poor shaving technique that’s causing the problem, either Since then I have test shaved more than way Dr Shave has a solution. 100 different razors, Merkur, Feather, iKon, Above the Tie, Timor, Muhle and a Dr Shave knows that being clean shaven selection of vintage safety razors too as is only part way to being recognised as well as a few cut throats. a ‘well-groomed gent’, other important matters to consider include dressing I’m personally responsible for the appropriately for the occasion, choosing successful launch of the Executive the right clothes for your age and personal Shaving own brand range of razors, hygiene is of paramount importance. brushes, balms, soaps and creams. Few things irritate Dr Shave more than unsightly, protruding ear and nose hair, Dr Shave loves to hear directly from bushy, unkempt eyebrows and dirty or Dr Shave men who are yearning for the ‘perfect bitten fingernails. The worst crime is body shave’ and from men who have problems odour, there is simply no excuse for that! 3 Dr Shave’s Book of Shaving Dr. Shave’s Book of Shaving welcomes Then it’s time to put it all behind you. Let Shaving Tools – By this I mean you into his world.This book will tell you Dr. Shave take you through his shaving razors, brushes, strops and everything everything about the world of shaving and process, explain the do’s and don’ts and else associated with shaving. provide the best ways of improving your help you to take proper care of your skin. shaving experience. Achieve the ultimate shave! How to Shave – Step by step guide containing the best hints and tips for For many, the introduction to shaving Let me take you through: shaving using various types of razors. involved watching their father slap foam on his face, painfully scrape a safety razor History of Shaving – A fascinating Head and Body Shaving – A more across it, and then go through the eye- subject but if you want to skip this and common practice these days, so you watering ritual of applying aftershave. Keep find more pertinent needs I won’t hold should know how to do it properly. those treasured memories but let Dr Shave it against you. You can always come give you some better shaving advice. back to it when your partner has left How to Groom Your Beard and you for not knowing about flint razors Moustache – Look after your facial If you’ve ever: from 30,000 BC. forest or neat ‘tache and style it the way you want. Tried various shaving fads like a 5 In this history lesson I’ll tell you about blade vibrating razor with built in light, early shaving tools, the reasons why Shaving Problems – Serious stuff. sideburns trimmer and Flexball glide being clean shaven has its advantages Shaving sensitive skin, razor burn, technology only to be disappointed. in the battlefield and also how it ingrown hairs and razor bumps are Ripped your face to shreds using a cut helped prevent nasty diseases and all things that can be avoided with throat or safety razor. infestations. the right technique, products, care Found yourself disillusioned with the and attention. Let Dr Shave take your vast array of shaving products that Shaving Creams – I’ll tell you about pain away. claim to take you to the promised land the various types of lubricants, creams, of ultimate shaves. soaps, foams and gels and share my Been overwhelmed with the amount of valuable recommendations. useless shaving advice out there. 4 Chapter 1 History of Shaving 5 Chapter 1 History of Shaving having can be traced back to minimise breeding grounds for lice and Early Fashions prehistoric times when early man other parasites first started to pull hairs from his to avoid the beard being used as a Before AD 100, the Greeks and Romans Sface. In the following centuries various hand hold in combat continued to shave their faces and tools were employed to scrape hair from vanity since the beard was associated heads, probably as a hygienic measure the faces and bodies of both men and with old age and death. to minimise infestations of lice and women. It wasn’t until the 19th century, other parasites. with the industrial revolution, that the art Early Tools and Creams of shaving became possible. In the military, shaving the head and face Archaeological evidence shows that the had the additional benefit of preventing Early Days next step was due to the metallurgical the enemy from using hair as a hand hold. developments of the Bronze Age. Copper Evidence of shaving in prehistoric times razors were discovered in India and Egypt comes from cave paintings which show dating back to 3,000 BC. Various other that sea shells were used as tweezers to tools, creams and potions were used pluck the facial hairs. Flint razors have over the next millennia and in 500 BC been found from as early as 30,000 BC. the first barber shops began to appear in Rome, where the tonsors (barbers) It is thought that shaving was done for used iron razors. many reasons: Women had to resort to using lamps hygiene to singe off their leg hairs as well as to avoid food becoming caught up in razors, creams, tweezers and even the beard pumice stones. 6 Chapter 1 | History of Shaving Around AD 100, when the Emperor straight razor, allowing only a small Hadrian rose to power, it became portion of the edge to protrude. Perret fashionable for men to wear beards. never patented his invention. AD 476-1270 – during this time, the trend Early Safety Razor Improvements was for ladies to painfully remove all and Shaving Soaps hair from the body including eyebrows, eyelashes, temples and neck in order to In Sheffield, England in the 18th and 19th look chic. century, they produced steel straight razors. Their main drawback was that The Twelfth Century saw radical changes they became dull quickly, and so had to the way many societies dressed and to be honed and stropped frequently to groomed. At the start of the century maintain a sharp edge. nearly all French men, for example, wore full beards, but by 1400 most were France. Perret was a master cutler In 1847 a significant invention was made clean-shaven. and famed author of Pogonotomie, au by Englishman, William Henson. Henson L’Art D’Apprende à se Raser Sol-Méme created the first ‘hoe type’ razor with the In the mid to late 1700s - men and (Pogonotomie, or The Art of Shaving blade perpendicular to the handle, just women began to remove all hair from Oneself) in 1769 and L’Art du Coutelier like a garden tool - similar to what we’re their foreheads in order to wear artificial (The Art of the Cutler) in 1771. The familiar with today. press-on mouse skin eyebrows. original Dr. Shave! This design made it easier to shave Early Literature and Perret described a device he called a oneself, reducing the need for a barber Safety Razor Evolution ‘rasoir à rabot‘– a plane for the beard, and became an overnight success. which he had invented in 1762. It was It is believed the honour of devising inspired by a carpenter’s plane, and The earliest known soap recipe was the first safety razor goes to Jean consisted of a wooden sleeve that found in the Egyptian Ebers Papyrus, a Jacques Perret (1730-1784) of Paris, enclosed the blade of an ordinary folding medical document from about 1500 BC, 7 Chapter 1 | History of Shaving The first patent for a safety razor was to 2.5 million blades in the second year filed by the Kampfe brothers in the US of trading. Continual improvements have in the 1880s. This featured a wire skin ensured that the company he founded guard along one side of the razor’s edge. remains the leading supplier of shaving Only one side of the actual blade was goods in the world today. used and because it was made of forged steel it had to be removed frequently for 20th Century sharpening. In 1910 an American, Willis G Hockey, Despite this the Kampfe razor was the received a patent for the first mechanical best safety razor on the market at the shaver. The ‘wind up safety razor’ which describes combining animal and time and it would take the intervention incorporated a pull cord to drive a flywheel vegetable oils with alkaline salts to form a of the most famous name in shaving to that operated for a short period of time soap-like material.