6 Reasons you should start using a traditional double-edged safety razor
Recently started wet shaving with an old style double-edge safety razor and I’ve gone from hating – absolutely hating – shaving to loving it.
Here are six reasons why you should consider it:
1. It’s fun
Shaving is a chore. I mentioned to my buddy John – who’s also Asian – that one of the perks of being Asian, generally, is that you don’t have to shave a lot. Unless you’re a member of my family or his. At which point, it’s a lot like that Simpsons episode where Homer shaves only to instantly get a 5 o’clock shadow.
I can shave on Monday and have a full beard by Wednesday, I can sport all the beard styles 2017, I know you are jealous.
When you start wet shaving with a safety razor, you realize that it’s a skill you have to learn again. And there are these rituals before and after that make it interesting.
2. You get to get cool new stuff
The safety razor’s a heavy piece of metal that feels solid in the hand. It’s not some piece of exuded poly-anything. Even the double-edged razor I have, which is less than $6, is a machine made of steel and chrome.
Now granted, the only thing you really need is the double-edged safety razor itself and blades but it’s also a good excuse to get some cool – male – things for the bathroom, like a shaving brush and shaving mug, but more on that later.
All this brings us to:
3. It’s insanely inexpensive
So, take a look at your razor. How much do you spend for each blade? I’m guessing it’s like $1.50 to $3 per blade.
Again, what’s for sale? Does anyone really need two, three, SIX blades? That’s just stupid – read Number 5 below. Here, you can get 200 blades for $12.93 – or $0.064 each. Figure you get about four shaves from each, that means each shave is about $0.016.
Unless you have a super thick beard, at which point you’ll need the far more expensive Feather Blades, at a whopping $0.08 a shave.
As an IP lawyer, my guess is that once the patent for the double-edged razor went away, the razor companies needed to convince you that the old way wasn’t working and that two-blades were better.
After a while, three. Then four. I’m waiting for the 16-blade razor to come out.
4. It’s better for the environment
My double-edged razor is 100% metal. I can give it to my great-grand kids – if you wanted to, you could buy an vintage one on Etsy or ebay. And it’s also 100% recyclable. As are the blades.
And if you decide to get the shaving mug and brush as well, you don’t even have shaving cans to throw away. I can also give my shaving mug to my great-grand kids, providing my clumsiness doesn’t destroy it first.
When I’m done with my razor, it goes into the recycling bin with zero plastic.
5. It’s better for your skin
If you watch the commercials of the razor companies, they say the multiple blades lift up – aka pull – your hair (ouch!) and cut it so that the hair falls below the skin.
Hair below skin equals ingrown hairs (ouch X2!). That’s the last thing you want. Women get to use the best epilator equipment to prevent this, we just need to be skillful.
Research has proven this out that two blades are actually worse for your skin than just one blade. And six blades are just a marketing excuse no different than the Stella Artois marketing itself as “reassuringly expensive” here in the US, when it’s called “wife beater” in Europe.
Once you get used to shaving with a double-edged safety razor, there’s no going back.
6. Not everyone does it – so you should do it
It’s like knowing how to tie a bow tie, wearing a suit with working buttonholes sleeves, fencing, or cooking.
It’s not like you’re the guy that carries around an iguana so that people say, “Oh, he’s that nutjob with the iguana.” It’s something small and subtle that becomes part of who you are, slightly different than the rest; a skill that no one can take away from you.
It’s not something you need to know to be a man, but it’s something that makes it fun to be one. Note also that it makes a unique gift for a man.
Here’s what it’ll cost you if you decide to start wet shaving:
That’s pretty much it to start. It comes with a cheap blade and you can see if it’s for you. If not, toss it into the recycling bin, chalk one up to: “Dammit, I listened to some idiot blogger online,” and call it a day.
If you decide you like it, here’s some more stuff you might wanna consider (I’m an Amazon Associate, btw but that’s not why I put up these links):
Ladies, this Christmas, if you have no idea what to get your fella, get him the above. Like I said, it’s a unique gift and something that will look nice around the house.
Because men like sharp, rugged stuff made outta metal. While you’re at it, toss out that Stella Artois in his fridge and get him a bottle of single-barrel aged rum.
If you’re not totally bored by this post by now, here’s the second part of this post. Blame my injury for all this posting…
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I also wrote a book about first dates with information I just haven’t seen in other books that I learned from three solid years of dating in NYC.
It’s just $2.99 at at Amazon, BN.com, and the Apple Store.
Location: still home with a bum leg
Mood: pensive
Music: slashed in the face, you’ve been left there to bleed
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