Article #46 Billboards and Burma Shave

According to www.wikipedia.com: Burma-Shave was an American brand of brushless shaving cream, famous for posting humorous rhyming poems on small, consecutive highway billboard signs. Usually there were six little signs painted with red and white colors. The last sign always said Burma-Shave. Here’s some examples….No matter / How you slice it / It's still your face / Be humane / Use / Burma-Shave OR Your shaving brush / Has had its day / So why not / Shave the modern way / With / Burma-Shave OR Shaving brushes / You'll soon see 'em / On the shelf / In some / Museum / Burma-Shave

As a child I never knew what Burma Shave was all about, but in writing this article I’ve come to understand more about the process of shaving. In my grandpa’s youth there was no shaving cream available. He had a cup with shaving soap and a brush he used to add water to the cup. Stirring the soap with his brush, he made lather to apply to his face. Evidently, this made the whiskers on his face softer and easier to cut. A new product was developed that eliminated the need for a brush and cup to make and apply lather. All you needed was a tube of Burma Shave. Squeeze some on your fingers, put it on your face then shave.

Then there were old fashioned razors-grandpa used a straight razor and sharpened it on a leather strap. Imagine what a handy invention it was when the first razor blades came along in the early 1900s. Making a safe, inexpensive and disposable blade was an idea developed by King Gillette. It took awhile for his idea to evolve and to be able to produce steel that was thin yet hard and inexpensive enough to be used for shaving. Soldiers during World War I were supplied Gillette safety razors and became converted to this new way of shaving. Progress was coming to the aid of American men.