Thread: Straight razor vs Mach 3 or disposable

The old curmudgeon speaks!
I guess that for me straight razor shaving is much like being able to disjoint and waggle my thumbs. Awesome to folks that can't, or don't!
That said, I enjoy the time that I focus on what I am doing. That may be the only few minutes of the day which I am "Right Here and Now!" Fortunately, I am retired and, so, am able to give the hobby artisanal part of straight shaving and razor restoring more attention than I would were I holding down a 50 hour week such as I used to. I still find Schick, Gem and Gillette type blade shaves nice and close. The blades are now about $1 each at retail. Up 20 times since I were young

On a cost basis, I believe that the onset of cartridge madness has put us behind in shave quality. Being an old fogy, I started and continued with injector razors for lo those many years. The original cartridges and the Schick and Gillette Techmatic band razors were in some ways a really good thing and at that time and the cost per shave was close to equal the regular individual blades which lasted about a week to two.

But, a new cartridge in usual retail buying mode is now about $4 and more in specialty shops. One cartridge gives a week's shave~ Back when, a pack of blades was $0.25 to $0.50 and contained 5-10 blades. That meant about 5 to 10 weeks of shaving! I made ~$100 a week then. Now have about double that as a geezer. So for me the cost of a week's cartridge shave has gone 40 or greater times more while my income has gone double. I don't see many common folks making $4000 a week!

As always, there are folks that find a cartridge shave makes their day and repels the 5 o'clock shadow for them. Who am I to tell them they are wrong.
Then again, I have had some old buddies ask "Who polished your face?" A couple now straight razor shave! And some still electric and cartridge shave!
YMMV
~Richard

What I have experienced shaving with a straight versus a disposable or, actually, anything other than a straight is...I enjoy it. It's not a chore or task to be completed. There's an art to it. I have learned new skills. And there's anticipation rather than just another shave. That's reason enough for me.

I haven't been at this long but I don't miss smacking that little plastic thing against the sink to clear out the hairs so I can go on. Add new razor every 6 months from abuse to my cost :<0). The SR shave is better and I can feel it. I have already been asked " somethings different. You get a haircut or something? " Now, when I am done I look in the mirror and say, " Mirror mirror on the shelf, who's more handsome than myself ? "

Going back to the blade longevity topic....

I was doing some reminiscing about my cartridge days, and I recall I was getting 3-5 (lousy) shaves per blade BUT I only did a single pass in those days. I didn't even consider multiple passes until I started SR shaving, which I think is the norm for your average brainwashed-by-Gillette male. Following that logic I'd probably use up a blade in 2-3 shaves if I did three passes each time. Last time I checked, and I'll admit it's been awhile, a 5 pack of Mock 3 blades was upwards of $15 in Canada (more for the Fusion blades). That's about 10-15 shaves per 5 pack! I'm sure you guys can figure out the extended cost from there.....

There was a former member here who must have been bored and started a thread about how many shaves he could get from a Mach 3 blade. IIRC he claimed he got around 24 - 3 pass shaves from a single blade. Definitely not my experience with them, quite the opposite actually. And yes, I have tried using a cartridge again since shaving with a SR and yes the shave was still crappy.

A friend of mine is quite happy using his cart razor for 3 to 5 months with the same blade in it. I shake my head at him and he at me. I don't understand how he can do it and he can't understand how I would waste a half hour on a daily shave routine. At least he uses a brush and Proraso. Each to his own.

Bob

Originally Posted by Airportcopper

Ok I'm a big believer in the straight razor since I switched . Here comes my questions, how is one razor better than three being passed over your face? I love the whole art behind the straight, It allows me time for myself to relax and shave. Straights require maintence and costs, cost of the razor strop hones and time to learn the skill of doing these things. You can just throw out a disposable or change the head on a Mach three. So what's are argument my friends how do we justify the benefits and costs of the straight razor Art how do we preserve this art..???

The multiblade razor caused me 40 years of misery, and in early 2010 my dissatisfaction grew to the point that I searched on the internet for alternatives to what was being sold in stores.

I think multiblade razors get the whisker with one blade and scrape your face with the other two. Or all three miss the whisker so you run the blades over your face again. Two passes over one spot is like six passes with a single blade razor. At least that's what my face told me.

I also think the canned goo does not sufficiently protect your face during shaving. For all the complaints about modern Williams, it was better than any canned foam I had ever used. Canned gel gunks up your razor, causing you to have to press harder against your face and causing more irritation.

That's my story. I grew up in an era when a man shaved every day unless he had a beard. In the case of a beard, the man still trimmed it and shaved certain parts of his face. It didn't just grow wild. I don't feel ready to face the world if I don't shave.

It has become fashionable for men to shave once every few days. One guy told me that his face couldn't take daily shaving. Well guess what. He used a cartridge razor. I think that the shaving equipment offered today is a reason infrequent shaving came into vogue.

I don't think you can convince most people to change the way they shave. They have to decide for themselves that what they're doing isn't working. When they do they find sites like this one that can close the deal on traditional wetshaving.

As a VERY recent convert, I should point out that while I had never eschewed SR shaving - I just didn't know how. I was watching "How It's Made" on Discovery and saw the Dovo razors being made. Pretty cool! Then, as oddly as these things happen, I go see the new James Bond movie and there he is with a similar razor in a fairly provocative scene, as it turned out... At the same time, we've been watching "Doomsday Preppers", where it was pointed out that about 50% of the country fears an economic collapse of a sort that would bring day-to-day corporate/utility infrastructure to a halt. Well, this is causing a lot of people to reevaluate their lifestyle a little bit and think about how dependent they are on consumable corporate products, as opposed to more self-sufficient options. It's just the aggragate of all this that inspired me to do some Internet searches and finding out that there REALLY ARE resources now for all sorts of preparedness concerns, including developing the art and skill of shaving with a straight razor. Now, it's ironic that this is all becoming it's own new corporate market sector, but hey, there's "corporate dependence" and then there's "leveraging capitalism". I'm all for the latter!

Listen I love the sr shave just wanted an opinion from u guys , I love the learning curve and actually getting past cutting urself and learning how to strop. I have figured these things out and realizing the pleasure in straight razor shaving, i look foward to my next shave and the so called brotherhood ..

I'm a real newb - haven't gotten passed six passes yet, have terrible burn at times, and can't strop properly if my life depended on it! Still buying crummy eBay razors for the name just to realize now I have to have them restored and to boot I got a great shave with a cartridge razor! But I won't go back to the cartridges never! Its the nostalgia and the art for me. I can't wait for my next shave now! I know I'll learn and get better so I keep up with it. That's why I switched. Just my two cents.Tony

I hope you mean six shaves, not six passes for one shave. That is definitely a reason for razor burn. Stick to one or two passes to begin with and 3 at the most when you get good at it. I do a north south pass and then south north pass and touchup across the grain in places. Sometimes a single with the grain pass is good to go.

You need a good edge, good wet lather, skin stretching and attention.

Originally Posted by anthogia

I'm a real newb - haven't gotten passed six passes yet, have terrible burn at times, and can't strop properly if my life depended on it! Still buying crummy eBay razors for the name just to realize now I have to have them restored and to boot I got a great shave with a cartridge razor! But I won't go back to the cartridges never! Its the nostalgia and the art for me. I can't wait for my next shave now! I know I'll learn and get better so I keep up with it. That's why I switched. Just my two cents.Tony