Traditional Razors

28 Dec 2018 at 18:32 // under Review

Last year I was given a traditional safety razor as a present and I have been using it for the past year. My main reason for wanting to change to using the older style of razor was the environmental aspect. I didn't like using disposable razor heads. The mix of plastic and metal means that they cannot be recycled¹.

I also didn't like that the manufactures have you locked into their product and can change a silly amount for the replacement heads.

The traditional safety razor on the other hand uses a standard size of blade, that consists of a metal blade and nothing else. So far I have collected all the old blades in an old tin can and the whole thing can get put in the metal recycling. The blades can be difficult to get hold of these days, most shops do not sell basic blades, only the wide array of proprietary heads. The only shop I did find them in was a large Boots pharmacy. It is however quite easy to buy them online, I purchased 100 blades last year for £5 delivered. These have not yet ran out.

I find that I can get two comfortable shaves out of one blade. I can do more but it does lead to more irrigation and considering the cost, I opted to replace the blades every other shave². It took a bit of getting used to using the safety razor over the disposable types. I have definitely cut myself more times than in the previous 10 years, though I haven't had as many issues in the last few months.

I certainly will continue to use the older style of razor.

1. It may be possible to recycle them but not easily here. ↩
2. 100 have lasted a full year because I don't shave every day. ↩

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