I know that a few of my readers and friends enjoy the “wild man” unshaven look as it seems to go hand in hand with the outdoors fishing lifestyle. Personally I like putting off shaving for a week and then feeling all smooth for a while. Plus my work is not a big fan of my looking a bit…..well, scruffy!
Recently (as in the last 20 years) I have been become pissed off with a few things about shaving:
- The cost of those cartridge blades.
- Putting blue chemical based gloop on my face.
- My wife using those expensive blades on her legs resulting in them being ruined.
- Environmental impact.
I also read that the little blue line on the cartridge razors are designed to fade before they are blunt to ensure you buy more of them before you actually need them. I find that shady and dishonest!
Consequently I took the leap into (or should that be back into) using a double edge safety razor. You see when I was younger and my bum fluff moustache needed to be shaved my father got out his shaving gear which comprised of a razor, brush and soap and lathered up my face before scraping off the whiskers. For a year or so this is what I did as well – I cannot remember when I was first conned into buying the multi blade cartridge contraptions however it is what I have used ever since.
Anyway, so after Christmas I bit the bullet and bought myself some shaving gear off Amazon..(Pics are links to Amazon)
The reason you cannot buy good safety razors in Supermarkets it seems is that they would rather have you buying the more expensive cartridges called lots of techno speak like “Quantum” and “Max Power”
Of course in addition to the gear I linked to on Amazon you need to buy some razor blades however they are pretty cheap – you can buy 100 for around £8 – one blade lasts around a few shaves. There is nothing manlier than using a brush to lather up your face to shave like yer Dad (or some folk their Grandfather). Don’t get me wrong there is a learning curve as your face gets used to it however do a bit of reading and you will be fine.
Other than disposing of the razor blades there is a lot less environmental impact involved in wet shaving – you are not pumping some chemical out every other day and the packaging that the razor blades comes in actually doubles as a container to discard the razors.
You can thank me in flies!
…been using one of those since I needed to start shaving all those years ago. No Girly-Man plastic wands for me! I remember as a wee lad watching my Nebraska farmer grandpa strop up and use a straight razor to shave…Brrrr,gave me the willies then and now….
We are in the real men club 🙂
Alistair, you are spending to much time worrying about weird stuff! Roll on the trout season! In the mean time buy an electric razor for £30 and chuck out all that other shit 😉
Save yourself some time and money!
I’ve only ever used a double sideed razor because a single point cutting blade is better than 3 in a row.
Got to admit Clayton I have always wondered about the double, triple, multiblade razors – I mean they cost a lot to produce right? Also they cannot be good for you face!
Think yourself lucky Ally that you don’t have to shave your head ..costs a few quid on blades…i did try to shave my head with the double sided razor..but it looked like something from Freddy Kruger..liking the razor you bought..
Davie – and here was me thinking you were naturally….you know:-)
I always cut myself with ‘safety razors’ but the Merkur in the picture was about the best of the bunch. But if you REALLY want to do the Man Thing take the plunge and by a straight razor.
1) The most ecologically friendly (1,000,000 shaves per blade)
2) I cut myself much, much less with a straight blade.
3) It wakes you up INSTANTLY, because you really do have to focus on what you’re doing. You can’t really just scrape one of those up and down while you’re in the shower. Actually you could, but you might die.
The only snag is sharpening – they don’t sell them ready to shave so you need a stone to get them ready, and if you leave them a couple of days they lose their edge so you have to strop them. But that’s all part of it.
Just do the manly thing and do it, but don’t get a stainless one off eBay – they’re much harder to sharpen.