Fact or Fiction: Shaving

Leviticus 19:27 forbids men from shaving their beards and the hair on the sides of their heads. Some orthodox religions still practice this today.

Alexander the Great was apparently a little obsessed with shaving, never going into battle unshaven.

Roman men were clean-shaven -- they either had servants shave them every morning or went to the barber.

It was World War I that turned the tide for shaving.

Gillette invented the safety razor and bombarded the public with a massive ad campaign.

World War I was the first war in which chemical weapons were widely used, and bearded soldiers couldn't safely wear gas masks. And then when the clean-shaven heroes came home, suddenly it was fashionable to shave.

Gillette made a hefty profit after spending just a cent on each razor blade. All the more money for advertising, my dear.

The Procter & Gamble acquisition is proof of just how big a business shaving is these days.

The model's bare gown was shocking, but her armpits are what really made an impression on American women, who started shaving en masse. Also helping was an ad campaign by the Wilkinson Sword Company, which said that hairy underarms were unhygienic and unfeminine.

It was Schick, but the year was 1928.

Schick's first design was rather unwieldy -- the grapefruit-sized motor was in a case that connected to the shaving head with a flexible drive shaft.

Men didn't exactly flock to stores to snap up the electric razor. It was more of a slow builder.

The twin-blade was introduced (and endlessly advertised) in the '70s.

Shaving companies had been attempting three-blade systems for years, but it wasn't until 1998 that Gillette finally hit the nail on the head.

Schick's four-blade Quattro was soon outdone by the Gillette Fusion.

Sorry, the Platinum Mach 14 is available only in a 'Saturday Night Live' commercial parody.

Shaving aficionados swear by badger-hair brushes. If you want to go really over-the-top, get one made with only badger neck hair.

Most are the same -- glycerine-based, with lanoline, stearic acid and triethanolamine.

Shaving should always happen after a shower. The layer of hot water between your skin and the lather keeps the blade from dragging on your skin.

The razor has definitely made its mark, so to speak, but the tweezer -- in various forms -- has been around longer and is arguably more versatile.