ONE-SHAVE RAZOR REVOLUTION

It’S a bit odd, when you think about it, for a company’s two best-known products to be a razor and a pen. But such unlikely portfolio-mates make a lot more sense when you consider their common defining feature: cheap chuckability.

Bic pens arrived first — a fabulous moment in company history, coming after the war when Mr Bic (actually Marcel Bich) bought the patent for the ballpoint pen from Mr Biro. Bich improved the design of the pen and dramatically lowered the price through mass production — and Bic’s brand value was born.

So when the company launched the iconic white and orange plastic disposable razor in 1975, it was a shrewd move by a company who knew how to make cheap stuff out of plastic and had spotted a way to make shaving one step less fiddly.

Up to that point, cartridges had evolved to become both safer and more easily exchanged, but Bic’s disposable razor was the first that invited the user to bin the entire device. A minimalist design classic, the featureless t of the Bic razor offers no comfortable grip, no reassuring weight, no decoration.

But long superseded as it may be by multiple blades, multi- directional tilting heads and gel strips, there’s still an undoubted appeal to a razor you can buy in big bags like potatoes, grab one as needed, use once and throw way with minimal guilt.

the more expensive and many-featured the modern blade, the greater the obligation to rinse and re-use, to tease out stubborn shavings and convince yourself that there’s still two good shaves in it.

Bic’s one-shave stand was nothing short of revolutionary — one of the greatest single inventions of all time.