Hisory of (my) Shaving

Tools of a Pro...

I got my first razor when I was around 12 (maybe I was older, I don't remember), I used it to shave my undercut. I would say I was closer to 14 (22 years ago) when I had to start shaving my face. I always hated it and in my teens did it as little as possible. I remember when I got away with weekly, what I'd give for that now... The first razor I owned was a Gillette senor excel, it had two blades. I had no idea why it needed two blades but that seemed the norm at the time so I went with it. I'm sure I used Gillette shaving cream / gel back then too.

During the mid '90s I was in US and discovered Barbasol shaving cream. I prefer this to any shaving cream (I have tried) available in Ireland. I've been to the US enough times over the past 12 years that I think I have only had to buy shaving cream in Ireland about 3 times. I do tend to stock up on cream when in US. I'm sure there are far better creams out there but I have never used a non-canned cream. Again, I'm not a shaving aficionado, I'm just a guy that shaves daily. That's not to say I won't get hooked on fancy shaving creams, but I haven't yet.

At some point I upgraded my razor to a Mach 3. This was obviously a vastly superior razor, 50% better, it had an additional blade. I remember when I got it not knowing the purpose of the 3rd blade but finding I always managed to cut myself with it. Still more blades is better right? I mean, that's basically Moore's law. I went between using the sensor excel and Mach 3 until I could no longer find the sensor blades. I was sad about this, they were cheaper and they cut me less frequently. Also, the superior number of blades did not equal the same ratio of cuts. I'd say 50% more blades lead to about 4,500% more cuts. It was a good blade to cut ratio, unfortunately not one I wanted.

At some point I upgraded to the 4 blade one (was it called Quatro?). I remember thinking how obscenely large it was (uh huh huh huh). I did like the blade on the back for getting under nose etc. I think I used that until my sample pack of blades ran out. I then went to buy a new set and saw they cost around €20. I then decided to go back to Mach 3 where I have stayed since. Up until recently...

While Mach 3 blades cost about half of the 4 blade one, I still always thought they were too expensive, I think around €10 for 4. I used to try to stock up whenever I went to the US where I think they were about $10 for 5. Expensive but still cheaper. A few weeks back I bought a razor from Aldi to try out. Honestly, it wasn't bad. I preferred the Mach 3 but the replacement cartridges were considerably cheaper than Gillette's. I think this one has 4 blades and an impressively large head (uh huh huh huh). While it was cheaper, I didn't feel this gigantic head was quite satisfying my needs (uh huh huh huh), I didn't feel I was getting a close enough shave.

Frustrated with the price of blades and wanting a quality shave I started searching online to see what others were suggesting. Double Edge safety razors came up time and time again. I thought to myself that this could be worth investigating. One thing I really noticed was how cheap the blades were compared to a cartridge razor.