History Of Shaving Cream

The removal of unwanted hair is known as shaving. Keeping the question of brain aside, it is probably shaving that stopped man, from looking like Neanderthals. And, the shaving cream encouraged more and more men to shave off their hair as it made shaving smooth and free from irritation. Although the electronic razor does not require any shaving cream, it is not as popular or widely used as the manual razor. Shaving cream moisturizes the skin, and swells and softens up the hair root ,for an easy and deep cut. People have been shaving since ancient times, but the standard use of shaving cream is fairly recent. Throughout the last hundred years shaving and shaving cream enjoyed enormous popularity as the beard, mustache, and whiskers went out of fashion, to bring in the clean trim look. It was then that several companies seriously started promoting the men’s personal hygiene segment by launching several saving cream products. Read on to know more interesting and amazing information on origin and background of shaving cream.

 

Before the invention of the razor, humans used egg or nutshells, to pull out their beard. As such, the use of a lubricant was never thought of, as shaving was still not that prevalent. Ancient Egyptians were known to use animal fats as a lubricant to shave. The Egyptian priests were the first ones to give importance to shaving as a part of personal hygiene. They used sharpened copper tools and animal fats to achieve a decent shave.

It is believed that during the 4^th century B.C, Alexander the Great, strongly advocated shaving. The Russian czar, Peter the Great, hated beard so much that he supposedly taxed anyone who was not clean-shaven. He considered beardlessness as a sign of civilization and westernization, and particularly a sign to show off to the Europeans. During the cold war, shaving cream tubes were used to smuggle secret codes and messages. The codes or messages were put in a balloon, and kept inside the tube. It was then filled with cream and carried along with the luggage, without arousing any suspicion. 

The first documented evidence of the use of shaving cream was in the Sumerian civilization in Iraq, during the 26^th century, B.C. The shaving cream they used, was very rudimentary, that involved the mixing of alkali from wood with animal fat. This mixture was applied to the beard before shaving. 

During the 20^th century, bars of soaps were used to shave. Sometime later compounds taken from oil and an extract from natural oils were sold in tubes. This was used as a substitute to shaving cream. The first foam-based shaving cream was available in America from 1925 onwards and it was advertised as the “first brushless cream”. In the 1940s, the various shaving creams produced did not require any brush to spread. They also did not form any lather, and was simply used as a lubricant. Aerosol shaving creams appeared in the market, during the 1950s. It was a can based pressurized shaving cream. During the 1980s shaving gel was developed and in 1993, a shaving cream was developed by P&G that combined both the characteristics of gel and foam.