Clockwise from top: Josh Rigg won our “Good Design Is Long Lasting” competition back in 2011 with this drawing of the Sixtant BN (1967); Cassett (1970); Sixtant Color (1971); Silk-épil EE-1 (1989); SM5 Commander (1963)… read on for more on each one
Shaving has been around for a long time. In the 4th Century B.C. Alexander the Great, an early proponent of shaving, ordered his troops to do it. Alexander had observed that beards were a martial liability for soldiers; if you didn’t remove your own facial hair, your opponent would do it for you—by using your beard to grab your face.
Two dozen centuries later, in 1930s Germany, a fellow named Max Braun was also concerned with removing men’s facial hair, though in a more civilized manner: Using precision-machined blades and a small electric motor. Using an electric machine rather than water and lather to shave your face was a fairly new concept, with the electric razor having been invented only the decade before in America; but Braun knew he had the technological know-how to produce a competitive device.
That was because Braun was already on the cutting edge, if you’ll pardon the pun, of manufacturing; he’d been running his own successful engineering and manufacturing firm since 1921, cranking out radio components and eventually, entire radio sets. By the late 1930s Braun had completed his own novel design for an electric razor, and worked out how it would be produced. Unfortunately, there was also a war brewing, and all German industry was shortly pressed into miltary service. Braun’s electric razor was shelved for the time being. Whereas war had promoted shaving in Alexander’s time, during Braun’s, it temporarily sidetracked it.
Nevertheless Braun stuck to his goals, and rebuilt his factory after it was destroyed in the war. By the late 1940s he had rebuilt his operation, and by 1950, he finally embarked on his mission to see the world filled with clean-shaven men using Braun products. The innovations his company spawned changed men’s shaving forever.
Let’s start at the beginning.
Image courtesy of Sammlung Design
1950
S 50
Max Braun
The S 50, Braun’s first electric razor, was an auspicious start for the category. Max Braun had developed a key design innovation: Whereas competitor’s models had a comb-like metal layer that shielded the user’s skin from the blades beneath it, the S 50 featured a thin, perforated metal foil that covered the cutting blades. When the user placed this surface against his face, his facial hair went through the holes and was trimmed by the blades. This foil was thinner than the metal combs on incumbent devices from Schick and Remington, and therefore provided a closer shave. It was a clear-cut case of superior design and better manufacturing techniques providing a better product, and Braun’s foil innovation in shavers persists to the current day.
1951
S 52
Max Braun, Artur Braun
Though the S 50 was a hit, Max Braun was not a man to rest on his laurels; working with youngest son Artur, who had apprenticed in the engineering department of the company, they quickly followed up with the S 52. It featured a wider shaving head, a more powerful motor and an aluminum casing. Sadly, Max Braun passed away shortly after completing this design.
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