The phantom menace

Kriston Capps explores the world of continuously accelerating razor development.

Update Ryan Avent, on the other hand, will not throw any more money into the rapacious maw of Big Razor . . . at least until spring, that is.

Comments

Then again, there's also the backlash to the razor arms race leading many men (myself included) to the world of the old-fashioned straight razor or single replaceable blade safety razor. There's nothing better than a good badger hair brush, a Merkur safety razor with a good blade that costs 10% of one of those Gillette monstrosities, and some nice shaving soap.

It's an interesting personal tradeoff -- using the old fashioned stuff is significantly less costly, especially in comparison to the ridiculous price of replacement blades for new razors -- however, it's also more time-consuming to shave and the first few times with even a docile razor can leave your face looking like you've been sexually harassed by Freddy Krueger.

Still, there's something nice about knowing that for the price of a large set of those ridiculous cartridges you can buy an entire year's worth of Israeli or German disposable blades and still get a better shave.

Posted by Jay Reding | October 9, 2007 9:14 AM

haha

It took Gillette $ 3 billion in R&D to come up with three blades-razors after years of having produced only 2 blades-razors.

I want to work for Gillette's R&D department... I imagine them having lots of fun flying around the world and attending the best parties?

Posted by Hugo Pottisch | October 9, 2007 12:59 PM

The three blades really are better than two, and two is really better than one. However, the cost differential for me is just not worth it.

And, you can dispense with the shaving gel if you are willing to endure the first few times of shaving without it. Hot water is lubricant enough. That, alone, has saved me about $200 over the last 2 years. You just have to shave every day, but most men do that anyway.

Posted by Yancey Ward | October 9, 2007 2:24 PM

oh, woe, how long will it be before we mount 100 blades in a decorative wall holder and just scrape our faces against it? if it wasn't so damn hard to find the single blades for my safety razor, I'd still be using it. The new 25 blade ones actually cut too close, lifting the hair first. Then it doesn't grow right, and causes problems...

Posted by D | October 9, 2007 2:51 PM

D -- actually, there are quite a number of places that sell safety razor blades these days. West Coast Shaving offers a nice sampler back of various different kinds of blades that give you an opportunity to see what works best for your skin.

It's much, much, much cheaper than paying the several dollars per cartridge that Gillette and others charge...

Posted by Jay Reding | October 9, 2007 6:56 PM

Aw, I was all over this a year and a half ago!

Posted by Avram | October 9, 2007 7:41 PM