THE QUEST FOR A CLOSER SHAVE

THE QUEST FOR A CLOSER SHAVE
Stone Age: Sharpened flint-blade razors edge out the earlier Neanderthal method of hair removal: seashells as tweezers.
3,000 B.C.: Egyptians obsess over hair removal, seeing a clean-shaven face as a sign of good breeding. They use razors, depilatory creams and pumice stones.
330 B.C.: Emulating the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans shave heads and beards during reign of Alexander the Great.
A.D. 1300s: In England, barbers provide not only shaving services but surgery and dentistry.
1500: Aztec Indians shave with razors made from the volcanic glass obsidian.
Late 1600s: Steel blades are made in Sheffield, England.
1700s: French barber Jean-Jacques Perret writes an advice book on shaving and proposes a "safety razor."
1901: Traveling salesman King Camp Gillette develops first double-edge safety razor with disposable blades. By age 55, he's a millionaire.
1915: A marketing executive with Wilkinson Sword Co. campaigns to convince women that underarm hair is unhygienic and unfeminine. He succeeds brilliantly.
1929: Col. Jacob Schick introduces the first electric shaver. It flops.
1960s: Disposable plastic razors that can't be sharpened or replaced hit the market.
1971: Gillette markets a twin-blade razor.
1998: Gillette introduces the Mach3 triple-blade shaver after spending a reported $750 million to develop it.