Originally Posted by
jbcohen
The words you are getting from peopple around you is a product of 100 years worth of marketing. The first job of marketing is to sell you a product regardless of its the right product for you or if its in your best interests to buy that product - their three most important rules are: SELL, SELL, SELL. If its not in your best interests to buy or if its really not the right product for you thats not really relevant.
When the safety razor first made its appearance on the market in approximatly 1900, King Cap Gilette (the man who started the comapny called Gillette) and Col Jacob Shick (now owned by Enigizer) couldn't sell their product and with good reason. Men had an excellent product and were getting great shaves from it and the razor was often passed from generation to generation along with the necessary schooling to do the job. Costs were minimal and the return was very high. Men had no need for the product called a safety razor and the two were quickly going out of business. They had to do something and what they did was called marketing (today we call it spin (outright lieing and the twisting of reality to the point that it does not resemble reality any more)). They framed their competitiors products as dangerous, which in truth they were no more dangerous then Gillette or Shick's products were at the time. They had to get people to believe it since their products cost a lot more in the long run then the straight did. So they conned people into believing it.
The problem with their sucess was in the details, which is where the devil typically is. They were able to conn the public into buying a product that cost significantly more and gave less in return for the dollars but there was a problem. Competition was the problem. A lot of other comapnies saw an oportunity to make a bundle by making the blades and thus there were hundreds of companies making the blades and costs dropped for the blades.
What were Gillette and Shick to do they had a product that that could make millions but the compeition was eating into their business. They had to eliminate the competition. The answer came in the form of exploiting copyright laws. The cartridge razor offered a way to eliminate competition, by producing a razor that required repeated buying of blades that were available from only one source they could control the market and charge anything at all.
Today this is best seen when you look at the costs of cartridges as oposed to double edge blades. Currently CVS is selling Proctor and Gamble Gilette Fusion Pro Glide cartridges for $4.50 each and double edge blades for $.50 (they are Personna blades).
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The people you are talking to are listening to the marketing. Don't, think for yourself. The straight is no more dangerous then the ProGlide. I saw The Silence of the Lambs and saw Hanibal Lecter hack victims with a straight. Look closer, the devil is where he typically is, in the details. Look at the way Lecter is holding that straight, look at the sawing motion he makes when the blade comes into contact with the skin. Of course he cut up his victims with a straight. These are two things a straight shaver never does.