Unexpectedly, advertisements for razor blades appeared in the Shenbao as early as 1934. This suggests that consuming practices had changed since the time when Sanger (1921) could write that shaving creams and tools were not popular among the Chinese, for two main reasons: most Chinese men were almost beardless and the Chinese tended to despise professional barbers.

As they systematically associated shaving with beauty and appearance, these advertisements further suggest a shift of focus from female to male beauty. In a word, beauty was no longer a female attribute or concern in the mid-1930s.