# Styptic

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/styptic/717352>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [April 10, 2015, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/styptic/717352 "2015-04-10T17:40:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![David\_Ehrlich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/958977/32.png) [@David\_Ehrlich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Ehrlich)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/styptic/717352/1 "2015-04-10T17:40:28Z")

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Back in the days before monotonically increasing numbers of blades were used in safety razors, even very adept shavers suffered occasional nicks. The usual thing to do was touch a styptic pencil to the wound to stop the bleeding. Styptic pencils were sold in every drugstore – I don’t doubt that they still are. So closing small wounds with alum was both common and effective, and if you were shaving with a single bladed razor today, I daresay you’d use alum, too, rather than sport a large Band-Aid on your face. By the way, most young men would for some reason touch the styptic pencil to their tongue, and discover just what ‘astringent’ really meant.

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**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/styptic/717352/2 "2015-04-12T04:32:21Z")

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I presume this is the Staff Report referred to:

[What is alum, and will it make someone’s mouth shrink, like in the cartoons?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1397/what-is-alum-and-will-it-make-someones-mouth-shrink-like-in-the-cartoons)