Most of the ongoing aim of the Victorian Shaving Soap Project is to look at the recipes and paraphernalia of shaving, but it would be wrong to completely ignore the psychological aspects entirely. I've had the following blog post recommended to me and I must confess its a way of looking at shaving that I hadn't considered before.
In it, Justin Bengry explores the idea that advertising for shaving products increasingly make use of images and connotations of sexuality at a time when many men are starting to move away from the idea of beardedness as an expression of virility. http://notchesblog.com/2014/04/10/the-erotics-of-shaving-in-victorian-britain/
Well worth a read, there are also a couple of very nice shaving soap adverts used to illustrate the post.
