Razor Blade Prices are Ridiculous

I was recently walking the aisles at my local Target when I stopped to check pricing on razor blades. Wouldn’t you know it, the price on my blades had gone up again!

Target – which I’ve found is about as good as it gets for in-store retail blade prices (comparable to Walmart) – was now just over $25 for ten Gillette Sensor Excel blades. And I’d count those on the lower end of the blade offering spectrum, considering they’re only two blades and not the million-blade shaving experience that’s being pushed by most razor/blade makers.

Ridiculous!

Which made me dig out this old piece I wrote a number of years ago on getting more shaves out of your blades. While I still follow its precepts, I need to redouble my efforts to extend blade life.

For those who may not be aware of the blade-life extending tactics, enjoy.

Money Saving Tip – Razor Blades

Money saving tips don’t need to provide thousands of dollars in annual savings – although those types of spending reductions are nice. If you piece together enough smaller money saving tips, those can add up to real money over time. Here’s one of those smaller money saving tips to add to your repertoire.

Men’s razor blades are an expensive necessity (women’s aren’t cheap, either). Aside from growing a beard and mustache, or going the electric razor route (which I personally don’t find as effective for getting a close, clean shave) then you’re stuck shelling out the big bucks for the daily ritual. However, here’s a tip you may find helpful for keeping your blades cutting longer than usual, and thus getting more shave for your buck.

I read about this a while back as I mindlessly surfed the Internet. At the time I wasn’t very motivated to try it out. Recently, circumstances nudged me to give it a try. Lo and behold, I found that it actually does work, at least for me. What is this tip…keep reading and you’ll find out.

My Poor Blades

First, my shaving background: I have a very heavy beard. I shave every morning, and by late afternoon, the 5 o’ clock shadow has made its appearance. I use a Gillette Sensor Excel razor/blade for my daily shave. The blade has a lubrication strip, two blades and a rubbery surface below the blades. For me, I could count on three good shaves out of one blade. The fourth shave would start tugging and nicking my skin. Forget about using the same blade after that. I always shave in the shower, and my normal practice was to leave the razor in the shower when I was done (something that may have contributed to such short usage periods).

The Tip

The Tip: When finished shaving, dry off the razor and blades by tapping against a towel. Next you want to “sharpen” the blades on a pair of blue jeans. I used a pair of knock-around jeans that I didn’t care too much about. Although, I didn’t notice any staining, residue, etc. left on the jeans, so it might be fine to use a “good” pair of jeans for this sharpening experiment. With one hand, hold one leg of the jeans taught and at a slight angle. With the other hand, slide your razor up the leg of the jeans, approximately twelve inches or so. This is supposedly doing two things, 1) removing excess debris from the blades and 2) sharpening the blades as they slide across the denim. Now, you’re not sliding the razor as you would when shaving, you’re moving the blade in the opposite direction so as not to catch the blades on the fabric.

Once you’ve swiped the razor twenty times or so, turn the razor upside down – so you’re sliding down the leg of the jeans, rather than up – and swipe another twenty times. Not exactly sure what the second round of swiping does, I just followed what was said. Now you’re done.

The Results

I tried this technique for seven days, and found the blade to be usable, no significant nicks or irritation, for that whole time. Was the seventh shave as smooth as the first? No, but it wasn’t a bad shave, either. Remember, I used to change blades every three days. Using this technique, I doubled the time period I was able to use one blade. I may have been able to do more, comments from the original article had one blade being used for much longer periods, but I stopped at seven days. While the blades stayed relatively sharp, the lubrication strip was mostly worn out, and the rubber strips were showing signs of wear as well. But, if you want to extend the use of your blades, and save money in the process, you might want to give this tip a try. Let me know your results.

Addendum

I decided to see if the blue jeans really contributed to the extended period of blade sharpness. Yes, I know, I have way too much time on my hands. Rather than using the sharpening technique described above, I simply removed the razor from the shower after each use, dried the blades by tapping against a towel and left the razor on the bathroom counter. Did it work? It sure did. I was able to get seven straight shaves – the same as using the denim sharpening trick – with one blade and very minimal irritation. I’ve now doubled the amount of time I can use a blade, and in turn, cut in half the amount of money I have to spend on razor blades annually. Using these tips, you might be able to go even longer than seven days with one blade, decreasing your annual shaving costs even more. If you decide to see how long one blade can actually give a good shave, please share your experiences for all to hear.

image courtesy of graur razvan ionut at freedigitalphotos.net