By Wally WachterRetired Herald Managing Editor
A RECENT FEATURE in The Herald on the cleverly poetic ``Burma Shave='' signs that once spotted the highways from coast to coast brought back memories of the advertising gimmick that changed men's shaving habits.
As well as being humorously entertaining, they pretty well marked the gradual demise of the old shaving mugs and straight razors. They signaled that easier, safer ways of removing facial hair were on their way.
We remember fathers adeptly using straight razors. Dads first wet down round cakes of special soap in their mugs and worked up rich lathers with round long-bristled brushes. This they applied generously to their water-soaked faces.
Then the straight razors were put into play. They had to be conditioned first by sharpening them on canvas-lined leather strops which generally were hung from the sides of medicine chests.
It took a steady hand to manipulate the pearl-handled razor properly, an art that today is rarely practiced by anyone but professional barbers. Dads had to be careful not to cut into the handsome mustaches that many of them sported in those days, leaving enough on the ends to curl up with mustache wax.
Trying to shave with shaky hands after a rough evening of partying was another story. Bloody facial nicks occurred frequently. But there always were supplies of styptic pencils in the medicine chests to draw the wounds together and stop the bleeding.
Fascinated by the shaving expertise of our fathers, we often tried to imitate them when we were kids. We would lather up with bath soap, then stroke it off with the dull sides of kitchen knives. It gave us a grown-up feeling of masculinity.
Full beards were a rarity back in those days. Most of those who sported them were farmers or others who were exposed to the winter elements and wore them to protect their faces. There were some who just didn't relish the idea of shaving and trimming every day. Their beards were unkempt, Santa Claus style, and you couldn't tell where the mustaches and hairlines ended and the beards began.
Many of the clean-shaven men sported mustaches, many of the handle-bar variety.
Come payday, the well-groomed sports would make regular visits to barber shops and treat themselves to professional shaves and haircuts. At 25 cents, the twin operation was cheaper than the cost of a single plastic razor today. It gave rise to the oft-expressed saying: ``Shave and a haircut, two bits.''
The growing popularity of the safety razor made the shaving process quicker and less bloody. Thick one-sided blade insertions soon gave way to two-sided blades which guaranteed more shaves out of a single razor. The round shaving-soap cakes became obsolete.
Creams and lathers began to make appearances in tubes. Some of the tubed products were rich creams, others gelatin-like substances which served the same purpose. Shaving was made so easy that even mustaches began to disappear.
Later, aerosol cans which ooze lather much like the soapy foam our fathers used, forced the tubed stuff to the back of the shelves and practically out of existence.
The coming of electricity, a rare service in many of the homes when we were of pre-shaving age, brought the electric razor which also improved as competition demanded.
The first models, regarded as a fad, were difficult to adapt to the different textures of men's facial skins and beards. They were soon set aside for a return to the reliability of the safety razors. But engineering has made today's models capable of shaving as closely as any razor. Popular models are now operated by rechargeable batteries.
For those who still prefer safety razors, new developments have been made to suit the varied tastes.
There are plastic disposable razors which can be discarded after three or more shaves. Some have double blades so that the second can cut the stubble that the first one missed. Some have tiltable heads so that the razors can follow the contours of the faces.
It's hard to imagine how anything in the future can make the daily chore of shaving any easier than it is today. It would have to be a scientific discovery that would make the hair drop off when it reached face-level.
At any rate, shaving will never again provide the entertainment equal to sitting on the rim of of a bathtub and watching our dads contort their faces to different positions to provide level surfaces for the oft-errant straight razors.