Home › Hairdressing Both for Men and Women › Hairdressing Both for Men and Women: Razors

Hairdressing Both for Men and Women: Razors

The more time spent in softening the face by the application of lather the better. The razor should be dipped in hot water before using. are Safety Razors. -The modern custom of using safety razors is most commendable. These convenient little implements have now been so perfected as to give entire satisfaction. A number of separate blades sold with each razor, and additional blades can be had at a very low price. These blades can be stropped by means of a special device, or returned by mail to the manufacturer to be honed, or thrown away when they become dulled by use. The luxury of having a set of seven razorsone for each day in the week-has often been suggested in books and otherwise to persons who have felt that they were hardly able to afford it. But the safety razor is a means of bringing this luxury within the reach of all. It is always ready without honing or stropping, can be used without the best of light, is entirely safe, is economical, and has made a multitude of friends for itself within recent years. Millions of these little implements are being manufactured, and the problems of how to get a good razor and how to HAIRDRESSING BOTH FOR MEN AND WOMEN 599 keep it in good condition have thereby been greatly simplified. It is advisable to buy only the best-known make of safety razor, patronizing the makers who advertise most extensively in leading periodicals, so as to insure obtaining a thoroughly satisfactory article. To Strop Razors. - Comparatively few persons seem to understand the theory of stropping a razor. The cutting edge of a razor should be in the form of a V, the sides of the V being perfectly flat and not round.

The object of honing to produce this angle, and that of stropping, is to keep the edge perfect in overcoming its tendency to become round as a result of wear. The strop, therefore, should be held in such a way that the leather will bear with equal pressure on every part of the straight sides of the V which terminates in the edge.

Barbers are able by constant practice to hold a loose strop in such a way as to accomplish this purpose with little apparent effort, but novices are very apt to allow the strop to move and to strike it with the razor in such a way as to round the edge, and do more harm by stropping than good. Hence a novice will usually accomplish the best results by means of a strop glued flat on a piece of wood. The razor should be stropped carefully both before and after using until it will cut a hair held loosely in the fingers, and before it is put away in its case it should be wiped dry with a clean, dry towel.

If any moisture is left on the edge the steel will rust and may be ruined.