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As the meat market monopolizes, it allows the big four companies dictate the price of lard—a necessary component to making soap. So P&G will need to find a substitute for lard.

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Producing soap and candles their sales are mostly coming from candles. Despite less-than-ideal soap sales, the young Procter and Gamble see a promising future in their cleansing product. They'll make a new soap.

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James N. Gamble makes a bold bet on the future and convinces his father to procure an extremely large order of vital pine rosin which is needed to make their soap. While the competition laughed, believing they overbought more supply then they could ever use, Gamble wants to be the biggest soap supplier for the Union Army.

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With their pine rosin supplies having dwindled and no suppliers readily available after the war, Gamble  experiments with substitutes. But as soap sales plummet, candles don't have a future and they have no choice but to turn to their soap to save their business. But even though soap use was catching on with civil war veterans, soap use is still not wide spread.

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In Boston, a traveling hardware salesman, takes a few nicks and cuts while shaving and becomes absolutely fed up. There must be a better way to shave. But in his discouragement, he gets a radical idea: what if you just threw away the razor blades.

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Not content to let his candle and soap business be resigned to the dust bin of history, Gamble is attempting to create a new type of high quality soap affordable to everyday Americans. One morning he discovers a batch of soaps been left in running mixer overnight, and can’t afford to discard materials. He’ll have to make use of the over-whipped batch and hope the quality won’t suffer too much.

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SCHICK: MAKES A DISPOSIBLE RAZOR TO RAISE CAPITAL FOR DESIGNING A MECHANICAL RAZOR

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SCHICK: MAKES A DISPOSIBLE RAZOR TO RAISE CAPITAL FOR DESIGNING A MECHANICAL RAZOR

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To realize his dream of an electric razor Schnick will make a new type of safety razor similar to Gillette's, and pour the profits into R&D of his electric razor. His new safety razor design is inspired by WWI weaponry, Schick develops what he calls the “Magazine Repeating Razor”.

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It’s the world’s first disposable blade system razor— a thin, sharp double-edge blade attached to a reusable handle

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In 1901, M.I.T. graduate William Nickerson agrees to work with Gillette. Seeing potential in the idea and confident in his ability, Nickerson accepted an offer of stock options and $5,000 to start production.  But it’s looking like an impossible ask.

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Gillette designs longer lasting blades which  are made with chromium and manganese, and called  the “Kroman”. While product isn't ready for production Gillette sees Schicks Magazine Repeating Razor as a threat; so he rushes the Kroman to market.

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In this batch Gamble discovers something interesting. When Gamble uses this batch to create soap the soap actually floats. The company trademarks the name “Ivory” on July 18, 1879 and begins selling them at 5 cents for a 10 ounce bar.

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The problems with Kroman are soon confirmed and its very rough shave turns off users. Complaint letters pour in and many Gillette customers respond by leaving the company for other brands. The release is seen as the biggest disaster in Gillette’s history.

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While Gillette's razor blade system has been revolutionary, most shavers don’t yet know they need it.  With sales growing to over 90,000 units Gillette needs to do something to turn America on to disposable razors.

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Colonel Jacob Schick and envisions an even more convenient way to shave. While electricity is still in its infancy, Schick believes electric power is the future.  Schick’s wild idea will go on to modernize shaving once again.

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Today P&G is the biggest beauty and personal care company in the world, with an annual revenue of over $42 billion dollars, nearly half of the entire market. And thanks to a century of innovations, Americans live, feel and smell a whole lot better.

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Gillette envisions a blade that doesn’t need to be taken care of—one so cheap that can be discarded when not sharp enough. But to achieve this, Gillette needs the blade to lose mass. A much thinner blade could be cheaply produced; but the problem is it would have to be thinner than anything else on the market.

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Gillette’s fumble is a win for Schick. With his profitable magazine repeating razor Jacob Schick sells the company and puts all of the profits into designing an electric mechanical razor. Jacob Schick knows this is the right time for his once-radical notion of an electric shaver… and change the shaving world dominated by Gillette, forever.

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When war breaks out in Europe, the Germans start using poison gas on the battlefields, so the US Army issues gas masks to their soldiers. But for these early gas masks to fit properly (and save lives), the men need to be clean-shaven. Suddenly, being clean shaven becomes a requirement.

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Seeing an incredible opportunity to help the boys overseas (and make a nice profit) the Gillette Company begins producing compact shaving kits with their patented disposable blades. When US Soldiers return from war, they buy Gillette razors in droves, catapulting it to an industry juggernaut.

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Blades required bulk to maintain a rigid shape. But Gillette envisions an inexpensive and extremely thin double-sided blade that could be discarded. He’s invested what little money he has to hire local machinists to help him, but the thin, cheap steel is extremely difficult to work and the machinists are losing steam, unable to create a thin enough blade.

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With the continued proliferation of electricity, Retired Colonel Jacob Schick believes the time is now to get an electronic mechanical shaver to market.  But when he attempts to get investors on board for his new product, he is constantly rejected.

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In 1929, Schick's electric shaver finally goes on the market in New York for $25. It requires no water, no soap and no lather.  And while Schick felt consumers would gladly fork over five times as much for his razor to never have to buy replacement blades, his timing couldn’t be worse. Within months of the pricey razors’ release, the stock market collapses and the Great Depression begins.

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Much to the surprise of everyone, the depression’s hold on the country turns out to be….good for Schick’s business. Many men were now deeply concerned about losing their job… or landing one at all if they were unemployed. Now unprofessional grooming could ruin your career. By 1937, 1.5 million of Schick’s electric razors are in use around the country.

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The hydrogenation process results in hardened shelf stable oil with all the same uses as lard. They don’t know it yet but they’ve just invented a crystallized cottonseed oil or Crisco, the first vegetable shortening. A revolution for not just the production of soap, but also a product that will broaden P&G’s product line and turn them into a $20 billion dollar company selling everything from soap to peanut butter.

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As dry shaving with electric razors grow in popularity, Gillette begins to bleed market share. By 1938 Gillette’s profit slips by $2 million. But soon Gillette's Blue Blade, so-named because it was dipped in blue lacquer, is introduced. It becomes one of the most recognizable blades in the world. It comes with a "twist to open" (TTO) design was instituted, which featured butterfly-like doors that made blade changing much easier than it had been, wherein the razor head had to be detached from the handle.

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After the development of partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil, P&G releases Crisco in 1911. Paving the way innovations not only in soaps, but vegetable shortening, margarine and even peanut butter.