A safety razor is a shaving implement with a protective device positioned between the edge of the blade and the skin.

[1] The invention was inspired by the joiner's plane and was essentially a straight razor with its blade surrounded by a wooden sleeve.

This also covered a "comb tooth guard or protector" which could be attached both to the hoe form and to a conventional straight razor.

[8] The first attested use of the term "safety razor" is in a patent application for "new and useful improvements in Safety-Razors", filed in May 1880 by Frederic and Otto Kampfe of Brooklyn, New York, and issued the following month.

A third pivotal innovation was a safety razor using a disposable double-edge blade for which King Camp Gillette submitted a patent application in 1901 and was granted in 1904.

The subsequent consumer demand for replacement blades put the shaving industry on course toward its present form with Gillette as a dominant force.

These are not trivial skills (honing frequently being left to a professional) and remained a barrier to the ubiquitous adopting of the "be your own barber" ideal.

Although these brands of single-edge razors are no longer in production, they are readily available in antique trade, and compatible modern designs are being made.

In 1962,[13][14] the British company Wilkinson Sword began to sell blades made of stainless steel, whose edge did not corrode nearly so quickly and could be used far longer.

As a result, American Safety Razor, Gillette and Schick were driven to produce stainless steel blades to compete.

The purported benefit of the aloe strip is to ease any discomfort felt on the face while shaving.

In direct response to Wilkinson's Bonded cartridge, during the following year Gillette introduced the twin-blade Trac II.

The 16 January 1999 episode of Mad TV ran a parody commercial advertising the "Spishak Mach 20" with blades that variously "cut(s) away that pesky second layer of skin" and "gently smooth(s) out the jawbone" culminating in a blade that "destroys the part of the brain responsible for hair growth.

"[22] In 2004, a satirical article in The Onion entitled "Fuck Everything, We're Doing Five Blades" predicted the release of five-blade cartridges,[23] two years before their commercial introduction.

[29] Salts from human skin also tend to corrode the blades, but washing and carefully drying them can greatly extend their life.

[7] Better known manufacturers include Edwin Jagger, Feather, iKon, Lord, Mühle, Merkur, and Weishi, with several of them producing razors that are marketed under other brands.

The butterfly safety razor utilizes a twist-to-open mechanism head to make changing the blade easy and convenient.

The slant bar was a common design in Germany in which the blade is slightly angled and curved along its length to make for a slicing action and a more rigid cutting edge.