One of the things I found, cleaning out the storage trailer over the weekend, was a Merkur safety razor I’d given to my dad for a birthday present in the late-'80s or early-'90s.
Twenty minutes ago I put in a new Wilkinson blade and had a go at my face. The razor is much heavier than the Gillette Mach 3 I’ve been using for a couple of decades. It’s also smoother. The rounded metal housing glided effortlessly over my skin. The Merkur (and the cheaper Chinese Qshave clone) has six settings for the blade gap. I used setting 2. I did manage to draw a little blood from the right side of my philtrum, but not too bad.
I hate shaving, but I like this razor. In addition to feeling smoother than a cartridge razor, it seems a bit quicker too. And of course, the double-edged blades are cheaper than the multi-blade cartridges. Might be just a tad heavy though.
I got a Trac-II for Christmas, labeled from “Dad” (I’m sure he was not involved in the process) somewhere around 1980.
To this day, that is the only razor/handle I have ever used.
Been all over the world with it, girlfriends/wife/kid, but it is the only thing I’ve used to shave (well, there has been the occasisonal “throw-away”, but hey, who hasn’t done that? )
For Christmas last year, wife got me some vintage 80’s era real-deal Wilkinson and Gillette cartridges.
They’re not wine. Use them. If the world ends next week, you’ll go with a good shave. If it doesn’t, well, you were going to have to find something to shave with anyway.
When my dad thought I needed to shave, he bought me an electric. Quite honestly, I cannot remember the first time I used a self-powered razor with a blade, but it was before I was late 20s. I didn’t shave very diligently, in my 20s I was Don Johnson twenty years ahead of his time.
Everything was double-edge in those days, until the injectibles came out, and then Good News, in the 70s, “just throw the whole thing away”. Since then, that’s all I’ve ever used.
I shave every other day now. If I shaved every day, it wouid never feel like I was really shaving. Now, by the third day, I start feeling an uncomfortable beard, so every two days works for me. I break out a new one every 3-4 weeks, getting at least a dozen shaves out of a throw-away.
As I said, I hate shaving. I need to shave Tuesdays and Thursdays when I go into the office. If I don’t forget, I’ll blade-shave Monday and Wednesday, and then just run the mowin’ machine over my face on commuting days. If I do forget, I’ll blade-shave those days. The rest of the week I just let the whiskers grow, though I might blade-shave once on the weekend if there’s a reason for it.
My youngest brother recently decided to try Dad’s old razor, after more than 20 years of using electric razors. Translation may be inaccurate, but his opinion was along the lines of “holy fuck, this thing works so much better!” A test with a multi-blade was deemed unsatisfactory.
We have now added “shaving blades” to his “list of filler gifts”.
I thought that an electric shaver might make shaving less of a chore, so I bought the one in my previous post. Very expensive, brand new, and it’s only ‘satisfactory’. I got into the habit of shaving while I shower, so I shave by feel. The electric razor doesn’t come close to what I get with the blade. Dad’s razor, as I said, is quicker than the Mach 3. It also seems to give a closer shave. I shaved at the sink yesterday, as I wanted to see what I was doing.
But yeah, my experience is that electric shavers don’t work as well as blades.
The Merkur Futur is what I’ve been using now for over three years. Order a set of Feather blades and see what you think. They are a Japanese company that also makes scalpels; they know how to make metal sharp… I tossed my Mach 3 into the garbage and bought a Fendrihan safety razor for traveling. I love using them both.
I have always hated shaving with an intensity only exceeded by my hate for that unshaven feel. For most of my adult life, I was an electric razor fan, usually owning some variety of the Braun razors that have the stand that rinses the thing with cleaning fluid.
Based on how frequently I’d have to replace the foil and the cutter block and looking back at some of my difficulties with blade shaving, I came to the concluded that I have an exceptionally tough beard. Comparing my experiences with other Braun users validated that conclusion. The Brauns always did a good job at the cost of disintegrating foils and long shave times.
When my last shaver began to show signs that it was nearing the end of it’s life (strange rattles, difficulty starting, poor battery life) I decided to get the good old safety razor a try. I ordered some Merkur handle, model disremembered, and an assortment of different brands of blades, as I learned that preferences vary widely in that regard. I also bought a variety of lathers, ointments, lotions, brushes, and goops of every kind.
I gave it a few weeks and found that I was consistently disappointed by the closeness of the shave no matter what techniques I studied on YouTube. Tough beard strikes again?
On a business trip, I had to buy a razor after somehow packing without. I ended up with one of those five-blade monstrosities with the lubricating strip, the vibrating handle, a whistle, a flashlight and a compass built into the stock. That, by far, exceeds all my expectations and provides the best shave I’ve ever had. It’s still difficult, and I can still get it to hang off my cheek, entirely supported by whiskers, but other than the convenience of being able to shave not tethered to the sink, I think I’ve found my ‘permanent’ solution.
I used an electric for years, which did a fair job, but never near as close as a blade. I switched back to a blade about 5 years ago.
About a year ago I was feeling a bit nostalgic and bought a safety razor and 100 blades, based on some fantastic Amazon reviews. I still have about 98 of those blades left. Total crap compared to a Gillette fusion or similar. Some guys may be okay taking 15 minutes or more with the ritual of shaving one way, then the other, then another way to get a close shave. Lathering up again each time in-between.
My five blade monster gets it done in about two passes, with one lather. And the blades do last a month or more, although they seem super expensive.
I also use the good quality gillette foam gel, and it is so much thicker and more protective than I have ever been able to get from lathering soap (the good made for shaving kind).
I know safety razors are getting a lot of attention these days, but I am hesitant to spend $50-60 to try them out. That is a hefty experiment. Not to mention I don’t like bleeding.
For that money I can buy 50 Sensor Excel blades. If a blade last two weeks (10 shaves), those will last me two years.
I use a Futur also! And unless yours is different than mine, the six settings are just reference numbers, not actual detents. I run mine on what would be 2.3- about 1/3 fo the way between 2 and 3.
And… Hermitian I might try one of the Weishi razors- they get good reviews and are inexpensive.
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Use them. If the world ends next week, you’ll go with a good shave. If it doesn’t, well, you were going to have to find something to shave with anyway.