Razor razors were the most common form of shaving before the 20th century and remained common in many countries until the 1950s. Barbers were specially trained to give customers a thorough and quick shave, and a collection of straight razors ready for use was a common sight in most barbershops. Barbers still have them, but they use them less often. Straight razors eventually fell out of fashion. Their first challenger was manufactured by King C. Gillette: a double-edged safety razor with replaceable blades. Gillette's idea was the use of the "loss leader" concept, in which the razors were sold at a
Razor & Tie year. Williams toured with labelmate Baez, who covered one of Williams' songs. In a 1995 interview with "Billboard", Williams noted the similarities in their careers. "There were parallels in choosing a less flashy label over a more flashy label," she said. "Vanguard (Baez' first label) chose to do things more pared down and acoustic, which is what the label I chose is allowing me to do." Each of Williams' first five Razor & Tie releases sold more than 100,000 albums. Razor & Tie also had significant success with Cledus T. Judd, the "Weird Al Yankovic of Country Music." He released