Early cave paintings from the stone age show us prehistoric men (and women too) scraping their hair away with crude sharpened weapons such as flint, shells and stones and plucking out hairs using two shells as tweezers. The earliest shaving razors made from flint were discovered as far back as 30,000 B.C. Flint provided an extremely sharp edge for shaving but became dull rather quickly. Thanks to the development of metalworking, permanent metal (such as copper) razors began showing up in India and Egypt around 3000 BC. Ancient Egyptians considered it unsophisticated to possess any visible hair at all. This trend went to such an extreme that the entire head was shaved, resulting in the use of wigs.

During the time of Alexander the Great, shaving became widespread, reaching Greece and eventually Rome. Alexander was so conscious of his appearance that he would not enter battle without a preliminary shave. Subsequently a short haircut and a smooth face were considered necessary as well as aesthetically pleasing. As the Greek and Roman civilizations experimented with bronze, copper and iron razors they also adopted the ancient Egyptians’ custom of shaving their entire beard and head. This wasn’t for aesthetics, but as a defensive measure for soldiers preventing the enemy from grasping their hair in hand-to-hand combat. Throughout most of the world, men of unshaven societies began to be known as barbarians meaning "un-barbered".

With more advanced metalworking in the Bronze Age came more advanced razors made from iron, bronze and even gold. Rome and Greece developed iron blades with a long handle and developed the shape of the ’open’ razor. With the improvements in manufacturing these blades were really sharp and capable of re-sharpening. These razors were called "cut-throats" and required considerable skill to use.

During the 16th century a trip to the barber could result in more than a trim and a shave. Barbers during these times did the majority of surgeries including bloodletting and teeth pulling and even some primitive operations for cataracts, gallstones and hernias. King Henry V111 was a patient of one of these barber-surgeons, Thomas Vicary. Vicary persuaded the king to declare those of his profession officially "surgeons". On July 12, 1540 King Henry VIII established the United Barber-Surgeon Company. This group’s symbol, the familiar red and white barber’s pole, signified bandaging and bleeding.

In the Middle Ages shaving surged in popularity as women began shaving their heads to accommodate fashionable headdresses. Men were expected to possess neatly trimmed facial hair or none at all. In 1770 French barber JEAN-JACQUES PERRET wrote a treatise called "The Art of Learning to Shave Oneself (La Pogonotomie)", which gave men advice for using various shaving products and equipment. His book was also the first to originally propose the idea of a safety razor (a razor where the skin is protected from all but the very edge of the blade). It wasn’t until the 19th century however that the first safety razor was actually invented.

The idea of a use-once, disposable blade came from the American King Camp Gillette in 1895. However, producing a paper-thin piece of steel with a sharpened edge strong enough to remove a beard was a near technical impossibility at that time. Although patents were filed in 1901, it was not until 1903 that Gillette was able to get the technical assistance and financial backing he needed to go into business. This began Gillette's legendary climb to the top as king of the U.S. shaving market, thanks to his shaver's high quality and low cost. In 1903, his total sales were 51 razors and 168 blades. By 1908 Gillette was making 300,000 razors and 14 million blades. Gillette also had a keen approach to marketing. During World War 1, Gillette worked out a mega-deal with the U.S. Armed Forces, which provided his safety razor and blades to every enlisted man or officer on their way to Europe as a regular part of their standard issue gear. This created a tremendous worldwide promotion and publicity opportunity for Gillette's company and products.

The concept of a powered razor was unknown until its invention by the Canadian Jacob Schick in the 1930's. Schick was obsessed by the notion that a man could extend his life to 120 by shaving correctly everyday. While the electric shaver has gained immense popularity due to its ease of use and speed at getting the job done, the downside is that it requires the skin to be dry in order to function and it is very harsh on the skin. During the 1960’s, the one-piece plastic completely disposable razor by Bic was introduced. With the invention of disposable blades men could be guaranteed of a close shave every time.

Women and Shaving