Is it actually more affordable than a normal dual blade razor + shaving cream etc?

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Originally Posted by Ryan82

When you say "dual razor blades" do you mean old style DE safety or disposable Gillette Sensor Excel type blades?

A few things to consider here. Start up costs for straight razor shaving are high, but if you can control the related acquisition disorders then over the span of a lifetime it is cheaper than using cartridge systems. However, DE would be hard to beat cost-wise, considering the very low cost of blades. It would take many many years to catch up to cost using a DE vs a SR. JMHO.

As for soaps/creams, it might seem like a steep price at first when comparing traditional products over canned goo, but you can buy mid-priced products that really aren't that much more than a can of Gillette that will a) last MUCH longer and b) are better for your skin. So in that regards you actually save money buying, say, a puck of Tabac.

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Agree with Ryan and also, the wet shaving method of using real soaps and creams will give you a much better shave than the canned foam.

On affordability, I can make a pretty good case. I bought my last cartridge blades (Mach 3 etc) in 2006, when I first found this site and straight razors. Since then, I've purchased:

* a new Dovo 5/8 for about $65
* a used Wester Bros Fraternity 5/8 on eBay for about $30
* a new Norton 4k/8k waterstone for about $70
* an Illinois #206 strop for about $30
* a new Merkur double-edged for about $50
* a handful of packs of blades for same

Most of my creams/soaps and my good brush were Christmas and birthday presents. So, over 7 years, I think I can safely say I've saved money by ditching the cartridges. But much more importantly, I've had _a lot of good shaves_, and have enjoyed learning to shave and to keep and hone my tools.

I'm likely to go nuts at some point and splurge on some beautiful, high-quality straights. Maybe soon! But you can definitely have a long-lasting great experience with a simple kit and time to learn.

I think if you know what you are doing on your face, you can have a DFS with a cheap double edged plastic razor with two passes.

A pack of 10 double edged plastic razors are about 0,5 GBP in any supermarket. A cheap mixed bristle brush is about 10 GBP delivered, and it will last for a looong time for you. I live in Hungary. Here, the cheapest shaving cream costs 1 GBP and it lasts for about 2 months. As a bowl, I use an old cereal bowl, so it was "free".

So I repeat: if you know what you are doing on you face, you can get 5 DFS (2 passes) shaves out of a plastic razor.

That makes per year:
- 8 packs of plastic razors: 4 GBP
- 6 tubes of shaving cream: 6 GBP
- 0,3 brush: 3 GBP

All together: 13 GBP per year = about 21 dollars

I can have a DFS shave in two passes with this setup. I need nothing else. Only downside is, that I have already acquired stuff worth hundreds of dollars (DE razors, straight razors, brushes, strops, etc) till I got to this level and knowledge about shaving and almost two years of continuous experimentation and hundreds of hours of reading all about it.

My conclusion is that it doesn't matter which road you choose, it will cost you a lot anyway.

You need to find out what you enjoy most and follow that path. Nothing else matters.

Cheers :-)