Disposable blade straight razors, sometimes referred to as shavettes, are similar in use and appearance to straight razors, but use disposable blades, either standard double edged cut in half or specially made single edge.
Disposable bladed straights are used in the same way as straight razors but do not require stropping and honing.
Although the blades of disposable razors wear quickly, useful blade life can be extended with proper care, including drying the blade after use.
Safety razors
The first safety razor protected the skin from all but the very edge of the blade and was invented in 1762 by a Frenchman, Jean-Jacques Perret,who was inspired by the joiner's plane. Perret's design was essentially a straight razor with its blade surrounded by a wooden sleeve. Around 1875 a new design with a smaller blade placed on top of a handle was marketed by the Kampfe Brothers as "the best available shaving method on the market that won’t cut a user, like straight steel razors."
In 1901, the American inventor King Camp Gillette, with the assistance of William Nickerson, invented a safety razor with disposable blades. Gillette realized that a profit could be made by selling an inexpensive razor with disposable blades. This has been called the Razor and blades business model, and has become a very common practice for a wide variety of products.
Many other brands of safety razors have come and gone. Much of the competition was based on designing blades that would fit only one style of razor until the blade shape was more or less standardized.
There are also safety razors that are made of inexpensive materials that are meant to be wholly disposable. One device was invented in 1963 by American entertainer and inventor Paul Winchell.
The term safety razor was first used in 1880 and described a basic razor with a handle attached to a head where a removable blade may be placed. The edge was then protected by a comb patterned on the head which is used to protect the skin. In the more modern-day produced safety razors, the comb is now more commonly replaced by a safety bar. There are two types of safety razors, the single edged and the double-edged. The single-edged razor is essentially a 4 cm long segment of a straight razor. The double-edged safety razor is a razor with a slant bar that can be used on both sides, with two open edges. The blade on the double-edged safety razor is slightly curved to allow for a smoother and cleaner shave.
