A rudimentary form of shaving cream was documented in
Sumer around . This substance combined wood alkali and animal fat and was applied to a beard as a shaving preparation. Until the early 20th century, bars or sticks of hard
shaving soap were used. Later, tubes containing compounds of oils and soft soap were sold. In 1919 Frank Shields, a former MIT professor developed the first shaving cream. The innovative product appeared on the American market under the name
Barbasol and offered men an alternative to using a brush to work soap into lather. When it was first produced, Barbasol was filled and packaged entirely by hand in Indianapolis. The brand still exists and is currently available worldwide. The first can of pressurized shaving cream was
Rise shaving cream, introduced in 1949. By the following decade this format attained two-thirds of the American market.
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were used as
propellants until they were banned in the late 1990s for
their effect on the ozone layer. Gaseous hydrocarbons such as mixtures of
pentane,
propane,
butane and
isobutane took their place. In the 1970s, shaving gel was developed. In 1993,
The Procter & Gamble Company patented a post-foaming gel composition, which turns the gel into a foam after application to the skin, combining properties of both foams and gels. == Contents ==