Oh the Blade

So it is curiously timely that I happened to run across this article on old-school style wetshaving today. Basically wetshaving is the method of shaving used in the past with the lather brush and either a double-bladed safety razor or a (gulp!) straight razor. According to this guy and a bunch of other people whose writings I tracked down after reading it, wetshaving is the way to go for smooth, burnless shaves especially if you’re among those with coarse or thick facial hair.

My first instinct might be to dismiss these people as lunatics because in a certain mathematical sense the modern multi-blade razors seem more logical. But on the other hand I’ve long suspected that Gilette et al are really not too concerned about the closeness of their customers’ shaves and just want to have something new to peddle to a blindly accepting population. Hi, my name is Paul and I’m kind of cynical.

But one thing that does give a bit of anecdotal support to the assertions these people are making is that I’ve actually had a real barbershop shave with a straight razor in the past (back when visiting a barber wasn’t completely pointless for me) and I have to say, it was the most comfortable, closest shave I’ve ever had before or since and, as the article mentions but which is otherwise apropos of nothing, it was possibly in my top five most relaxing experiences of my life.

After some additional thought I decided that it is perfectly reasonable that old style shaving may be just the ticket for me, and I have to try something different since my once-per-week method may be okay for some hack working the graveyard shift but doesn’t become someone who might ever wish to appear professional somewhere down the line. As it is I try very hard to schedule my weekly shaves around events where it is most appropriate to be fully shaven and if it falls that I need a shave before my allotted time has past, I resort to the half-shave where I clean up my neck and cheeks and appear as though I’m in the early stages of growing a full beard. A questionable workaround at best.

But before I dive in I needed to evaluate the relative costs. I may have shaving issues, but I’m also a cheapskate, especially when it comes to annoying personal grooming expenses. So I figured that it costs me roughly $1.60 per week to shave. Of course that is with me shaving once per week, and one of the ideas here is to shave once per day instead. For the sake of simplicity I’ll round the numbers to about $1.00 per day with my current set up stretched out over six days (I probably won’t ever consistently shave on Saturdays) for a weekly total of $6.00 using the cheap sensitive skin formula shave foam and the generic triple blade disposables that have been my staple for three or four years now.

Now if I go with the recommendations from the article, the Merkur Safety Razor (I actually think I’d prefer the “Classic” model over the bigger “Hefty” one) is $26.00 plus shipping. A pack of 10 double edged blades is roughly $5.00 and a jar of nice European shaving cream runs about $15.00 plus shipping. I’ll assume the total shipping costs are fairly small and infrequent since only the razor and the shaving cream need be shipped (assuming I can find someone who sells the blades at a brick and mortar somewhere), so to compensate I’ll just add an additional dollar to the blade costs.

I can’t be sure how many shaves you get out of a double edged razor blade but I’ll go with the same formula as the disposable and say once per blade (double-edged blades then get two uses each). The total therefore comes to $0.85 per day for the razor and blades which leaves the cream. Unfortunately I have no idea how far a 5.3 ounce jar of European shaving cream goes. Is that five shaves worth? Fifty? The amount is slightly less than a tube of toothpaste and those usually last a month so I’ll guess it’s roughly the same. After the math that means the daily cost for wetshaving would be roughly $1.50, so obviously there is an increased cost factor for wetshaving, by about a half a magnitude.

So here is the question: Is it worth it? Are these people on crack? Have you ever tried wetshaving on yourself? Does it make a difference?

My inclination is to give it a shot. I figure one month would be reasonable and would more or less recoup the investment cost in the razor and shaving cream. Plus that would give me a better idea of how often the materials need to be replaced which might adjust the cost factor up or down and give me enough time to get used to adding a few extra minutes to my daily routine.

If you have insight or suggestions, by all means, leave a comment or drop me an email. My face thanks you.

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