Will a razor really last an almost infinite period, if rinsed with alcohol and completely dried after each use?
I caught the end of a discussion on a talk radio show a few weeks back , and the guy being interviewed said he had been using a cheap single blade disposable razor for over a year. He rinses it in alcohol, and then dries it with a hair drier after each use. He explained razors are dulled by impurities in water, and that all razors should last 50 times longer, if they are cleansed and dried after each use.
I call BS. The main thing that dulls a razor is not the water it is rinsed with, but the actual hair that it cuts.
If there are skin oils or shaving cream residue on the blade then rinsing it in alcohol may clean more of that off than just rinsing it with water, but I doubt that this by itself would extend the life of the razor to this sort of degree.
Razors do wear out, but not at the rate most people think. The old carbon steel razors would last about a week, but once they switched to stainless steel, blade life increased by quite a bit, something the razor black manufacturers neglect to mention, for some reason. 
When I shaved, I could go a month on a blade, and I have a fairly tough beard.
I could see the cleaning and drying helping with carbon steel blades (a wet razor would rust more quickly), but stainless isn’t going to have that problem. They do go bad due to wearing out cutting hair, but not as quickly as most men think.
Even if it’s true, I gotta wonder if the alcohol and the electricity to run the hair dryer cost more than new ‘cheap’ blades.
Very good point, but I buy the expensive triple blade razors, and extending their life by 40 or 50 times, would save me alot of money over a 1 year period.
It’s nonsense. I shave in the shower and 99.99 percent of any reside is washed off before the razor is put away. A premium multi blade razor will usually give up to 2.5 - 3 weeks of acceptable cutting performance used approx 6 times a week.
It can be used well past that point if you’re willing to re-shave multiple spots, but the “smooth cutting” aspect of the blade is exhausted by that point, and the multi-scrape method is annoyeing and you tend to miss corners.
Does anyone else think they wear out much faster than before? Could they be making the blades so thin that they can’t hold an edge? I use the Schick 4 bladed model and after a couple days it is noticeably duller and after say 2 weeks it is unuseable.
They could be sharpening them even “sharper”. The angle of a cutting edge is a compromise between durability and “sharpness”.
Is it duller, or are the spaces between the blades gunked up? Often a good cleaning will keep the razor working for a bunch more shaves.
The task of cutting hairs does wear on a blade, but the bigger hazard is wiping off the anti-corrosion coating on the blade. I don’t really know if alcohol will clean the shave cream and skin oil off any better than water, and I don’t know if a hair dryer will be any better for the blade than just air-drying. The main thing is to rinse the blade well and let it dry.
You can look at the edge under a magnifier, and you will see it’s rougher than you thought. When it starts to pull on your face, you can see the corrosion getting a foothold.
Definitely duller. I degunk the interblade area after every shave and sometimes during a shave. I just think they make them too thin to last long.
Stuff in the water can bond to the razor and also corrode, and both of those will diminish its shaving qualities faster than ordinary wear. Still, the razor does wear as you shave, just from impact on skin and hair.
Can a disposable razor last a week or two if it is very carefully cleaned. Probably. Can it last a year? I very much doubt it. Maybe this guy was not too keen (heh) to get a really good shave!
I think much of it depends on what type of beard you have. Stiff, thick, rapidly growing beards will hammer a razor.
I shave with a straight razor or an old-fashioned double-edge. I know some people who have to re-hone their str8 in the middle of a shave, their beards are so tough. I do not have to do this, but I polish my edge every couple of days and I hone every day. I consistently get a good sharp shave.
If you could figure out a way to sharpen a disposable razor, you could probably keep it going for a year.
What anti-corrosion coating? The cutting edge is ground after other processing, cut to length and mounted in the multi-blade holders.
Rinse the accumulation of whiskers & shaving cream away frequently with a short blast of hot water from the faucet.
Stainless steel doesn’t corrode under the conditions of use when shaving.
For a real shaving treat apply body, hand, or face lotion to the beard. Spend ten minutes in a steam room or under hot steamy towels on your face. Enjoy the best shave of your life. Another trick is to turn the blades to a 45 deg angle related to the direction of motion so that the action is one of slicing rather than straight on brute force bulldozing.
After shaving I rinse the disposable well, dry it and let it soak in about a half-inch of mineral oil (in a cup) until the next time I need it. I can get 2-3 weeks out of one disposable razor. (Normal beard)