An Easy Shave

1895

"An easy shave?" The words come trippingly, as if the art, or rather mystery, of shaving were facile. From the very earliest ages the problem of shaving, like all really great problems, has perplexed thoughtful men. Why our Paleolithic ancestors began to shave is unascertained. It seems so easy to let the chin alone. There may have been some religious reason, or sexual selection may have intervened. Woman may have preferred a beardless wooer. Yet this is contrary to all analogy.

When Alma Venus behaved in the manner so poetically described by Lucretius, "the most eloquent of blasphemers," then the wanton lapwing procured for himself another crest, and the peacock spread abroad the splendors of his tail. The beard in man is averred by philosophers to have a corresponding moral. But man, being reasonable, must needs cut his beard off. To run in the face of nature has ever been his way of asserting his independence and demonstrating the lordship of reason.

Ere metals were invented, ere fire subdued the copper to his will, man plucked his beard out, or he tooled with a sharp shell. A soapless shave with a shell — it cannot be called easy, and travelers have described the agonies of the brave. Conceivably, man shaved because the beard might be caught hold of by an enemy with the left hand, while with the right he drove the pointed flint under the fifth rib. For whatever reason, man in the bronze age shaved with a bronze razor, as if we should do so with a paper cutter. The process must have been slow and painful, as much so as tattooing, but fashion was all powerful. — Saturday Review.