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> A Gillette Mach 3 and 100 blads is about $140 That doesn't seem like a proper comparison. Nobody replaces their Mach 3 cartridge after every other shave but

by ebg13 7y ago

> A Gillette Mach 3 and 100 blads is about $140 That doesn't seem like a proper comparison. Nobody replaces their Mach 3 cartridge after every other shave but that's a common recommendation for DE blades. > It legitimately took me 5 years to get really good and I still sometimes cut myself Wow, if that isn't a strong indictment of saving pennies, I don't know what is.

kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
Mach 3 is also not the cheapest cartridge.
elipsey 7y ago
I didn't think it was that hard. I cut myself exactly once, and then I learned to pay more attention to the knife I was dragging across my throat :p
egometry 7y ago
Imagine the savings on having a beard! A $30 Wahl Peanut with a few guides, and 5-10 less minutes wasted in the morning per trim... and you get a beard!
- js2 7y ago
  Also, Wahl trimmers last forever. I still have my plugin model that I've had since the 90s and my rechargeable that I've had over a decade.
  - 0xffff2 7y ago
    Not all of them unfortunately. I've owned two of these [1], and both had the on/off switch fail within a year of use. I now have a corded Wahl trimmer that has a more old-fashioned switch that I expect will last quite a lot longer. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Wahl-Stainless-Rechargeable-Professionals-9818/dp/B0058SY1XQ/ https://www.amazon.com/Wahl-Stainless-Rechargeable-Professio...
    - js2 7y ago
      I haven’t had my cordless as long as I thought, but it’s this one: https://www.amazon.com/Grooming-Rechargeable-Trimmers-Professionals-9854-600/dp/B001GQ3GEY https://www.amazon.com/Grooming-Rechargeable-Trimmers-Profes... I’ve had it since 2016. I mostly use it for shaving my head.
- ebg13 7y ago
  And your skin will never be irritated, and that $30 peanut will last over a decade without maintenance.
  - Zigurd 7y ago
    But your girlfriend will be
  - thaumasiotes 7y ago
    > And your skin will never be irritated I develop dandruff under facial hair, just like the top of my head.
    - betterbeehome 7y ago
      You're probably drying out your skin with hot water and soap. Not cleaning it well enough can do that too. I used to get that problem until I realized two important things. 1. Regular hot water on your hair and beard dries out your skin terribly. Especially during winter. You need to use luke warm showers and probably avoid washing your head every time you shower. Use cold water on your face afterwards and gently dry it off. Which leads into the other point. 2. Stop touching your face so much. Routinely or obsessively touching your face or beard irritates it a lot. That can inflame the skin, causing it to over produce skin, oil, etc. Also using too much beard oil as well can cause irritation. Your skin doesn't need too much oil. Only what it produces naturally (when you don't wash it away with soap or hot water).
- giobox 7y ago
  This approach has served me well the past decade. I can also go longer between “shaves” as compared with trying to stay clean shaven. One less thing to do in the morning is fine by me.
- xaduha 7y ago
  > Imagine the savings on having a beard! Not everyone can grow a full beard.
  - mkl 7y ago
    That doesn't matter. Whatever beard they can grow will still save time and money.
    - xaduha 7y ago
      Not if you want to look good, which is what shaving is about. I can grow a goatee and mustache, so what now I gotta shave everywhere else AND trim that stuff too? I don't think that it saves me time.
      - mkl 7y ago
        Okay, I think we just have different ideas of "looking good" (which is of course subjective!). I don't really see a problem with thinner areas in one's beard.
    - astura 7y ago
      Not all jobs allow you to have a beard, and some allow you to have a beard only if it's nearly trimmed. Keeping a beard neatly trimmed is just as time consuming as shaving it all off.
oldandboring 7y ago
> Nobody replaces their Mach 3 cartridge after every other shave but that's a common recommendation for DE blades No, it's not. If anything there is a belief that DE blades actually stay sharp and last longer than cartridge blades. I don't know if there's any evidence to that, but the effect is that many DE shavers keep their blades for a number of shaves. I suspect that some are more inclined to swap blades frequently because the blades are so (comparatively) cheap.
- nessus42 7y ago
  > No, it's not. If anything there is a belief that DE blades actually stay sharp and last longer than cartridge blades. I find this hard to believe. I can use a single Gillette Fusion 5 cartridge for a month or more.
  - betterbeehome 7y ago
    If you use hot water to shave, Gillette blades dull very quickly. If you use cold water, they last longer than DE blades. It mostly has to do with the plastic coating on the cartridge blades. However, if you're skilled at shaving with a DE, technique actually prolongs your blades life into many shaves with the same razor.
    - heelix 7y ago
      Drying the blade makes a difference too. For me, the most noticeable difference is my daughter would never use my DE safety razor on her legs. The cartridge style.. well.. they dulled out way faster than they should have from my usage.
- prepend 7y ago
  I used Feather blades and would change them after each shave. I would use each side twice to get a close shave. I’m not sure how much you could reuse a single blade. Of course I think it was like $25 for 100. For comparison, I’ve also used a Mach 3 blade for a month, so the Mach 3 blades lasted longer than a single blade but cost much more $40 for 10.
smacktoward 7y ago
> Nobody replaces their Mach 3 cartridge after every other shave but that's a common recommendation for DE blades. Yeah, but you can buy a box of 100 DE blades for, like, $15. (Seriously: see https://www.westcoastshaving.com/collections/bulk-de-safety-razor-blades https://www.westcoastshaving.com/collections/bulk-de-safety-...) So even if you change the blade every other shave, it still comes out cheaper. This is a benefit of standardization: DE blades all have a common form factor, so any handle can use any blade. That means every DE blade maker is competing with all the others, which drives prices down. Cartridges on the other hand are all proprietary to the vendor that made the handle they fit with, so there's much less downward pressure on the pricing. > if that isn't a strong indictment of saving pennies, I don't know what is. The thing about a DE blade versus a cartridge is that with a DE the range of possible outcomes is much wider than it is with a cartridge. A DE blade can produce shaves ranging from "ow, I cut myself!" to "smooth as a baby's bottom", depending on the technique you apply to it. A cartridge won't ever cut you, but it'll also never give you as close a shave as you can get with a well-wielded DE blade; it provides a consistently mediocre shave every time. To put this in terms HN readers will appreciate, arguments about DE versus cartridge tend to be kind of like arguments about vim/emacs versus IDEs. Vim and emacs users love to talk about all the crazy things they can do with their editor that no IDE can match, but they rarely talk about the learning curve they had to climb to reach that level of technique. Whereas IDEs tend to be less elegant, but by hewing more closely to modern desktop interface standards they let their users reach an acceptable level of productivity faster. Those IDE users will never reach the heights of wizardry that are possible with vim or emacs, but since very few programmers are true wizards anyway that doesn't really matter much to everyone else. Like the cartridge razor, the IDE is "good enough."
- compiler-guy 7y ago
  I have shaved with a straight razor for maybe three years now, and before that I used a DE for maybe five. I don't for a minute believe that cartridge razors are incapable of giving me equally good shaves. 99% of the benefits of DE and straights is the incredible care you have to take with your technique, the awareness you need of your face's contours, and the grain of your beard over in multiple passes. People who stick with wet-shaving care a lot about getting all of that right, and do a lot of work to get there. Similar attention to those things while using a cartridge will get you similar results. At least in my experience. I wet-shave because it is more environmentally friendly, and I love the ritual. Also, it is cheaper.
sdinsn 7y ago
> $40 will get you a good Merkur 34c and a 100 pack of Astra blades The majority of that comes from the handle, not the blades. You can buy 100/500 pack of blades for dirt cheap
Zigurd 7y ago
Re "It legitimately took me 5 years to get really good and I still sometimes cut myself" I was a disaster at shaving until 3 blade cartridge razors were introduced. Before then I used an electric shaver and was unsatisfied with the results. I doubt I want to try try a DE blade. Walmart house brand 3 blade cartridges are under $1 per cartridge, and a cartridge lasts me a week.
Shorel 7y ago
I think I replace my blades every month or so. For me, after learning with a shavette straight razor, the DE is easy mode for when I have no time.
knolax 7y ago
> It legitimately took me 5 years to get really good and I still sometimes cut myself I feel like that some people (myself included at times) just like to develop skills with a steep learning curve regardless of how much benefit it actually incurs.
Fins 7y ago
Hmm, interesting. Personally, I can get at least 5x shaves out of a decent DE blade than I can from a fancy multiblade cartridge. They literally start dragging and nicking on the second or third shave, while a DE is still going strong after 10...

by ebg13 7y ago

kevin_thibedeau 7y ago

Mach 3 is also not the cheapest cartridge.

elipsey 7y ago

I didn't think it was that hard. I cut myself exactly once, and then I learned to pay more attention to the knife I was dragging across my throat :p

egometry 7y ago

Imagine the savings on having a beard! A $30 Wahl Peanut with a few guides, and 5-10 less minutes wasted in the morning per trim... and you get a beard!

js2 7y ago
Also, Wahl trimmers last forever. I still have my plugin model that I've had since the 90s and my rechargeable that I've had over a decade.
- 0xffff2 7y ago
  Not all of them unfortunately. I've owned two of these [1], and both had the on/off switch fail within a year of use. I now have a corded Wahl trimmer that has a more old-fashioned switch that I expect will last quite a lot longer. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Wahl-Stainless-Rechargeable-Professionals-9818/dp/B0058SY1XQ/ https://www.amazon.com/Wahl-Stainless-Rechargeable-Professio...
  - js2 7y ago
    I haven’t had my cordless as long as I thought, but it’s this one: https://www.amazon.com/Grooming-Rechargeable-Trimmers-Professionals-9854-600/dp/B001GQ3GEY https://www.amazon.com/Grooming-Rechargeable-Trimmers-Profes... I’ve had it since 2016. I mostly use it for shaving my head.
ebg13 7y ago
And your skin will never be irritated, and that $30 peanut will last over a decade without maintenance.
- Zigurd 7y ago
  But your girlfriend will be
- thaumasiotes 7y ago
  > And your skin will never be irritated I develop dandruff under facial hair, just like the top of my head.
  - betterbeehome 7y ago
    You're probably drying out your skin with hot water and soap. Not cleaning it well enough can do that too. I used to get that problem until I realized two important things. 1. Regular hot water on your hair and beard dries out your skin terribly. Especially during winter. You need to use luke warm showers and probably avoid washing your head every time you shower. Use cold water on your face afterwards and gently dry it off. Which leads into the other point. 2. Stop touching your face so much. Routinely or obsessively touching your face or beard irritates it a lot. That can inflame the skin, causing it to over produce skin, oil, etc. Also using too much beard oil as well can cause irritation. Your skin doesn't need too much oil. Only what it produces naturally (when you don't wash it away with soap or hot water).
giobox 7y ago
This approach has served me well the past decade. I can also go longer between “shaves” as compared with trying to stay clean shaven. One less thing to do in the morning is fine by me.
xaduha 7y ago
> Imagine the savings on having a beard! Not everyone can grow a full beard.
- mkl 7y ago
  That doesn't matter. Whatever beard they can grow will still save time and money.
  - xaduha 7y ago
    Not if you want to look good, which is what shaving is about. I can grow a goatee and mustache, so what now I gotta shave everywhere else AND trim that stuff too? I don't think that it saves me time.
    - mkl 7y ago
      Okay, I think we just have different ideas of "looking good" (which is of course subjective!). I don't really see a problem with thinner areas in one's beard.
  - astura 7y ago
    Not all jobs allow you to have a beard, and some allow you to have a beard only if it's nearly trimmed. Keeping a beard neatly trimmed is just as time consuming as shaving it all off.

oldandboring 7y ago

> Nobody replaces their Mach 3 cartridge after every other shave but that's a common recommendation for DE blades No, it's not. If anything there is a belief that DE blades actually stay sharp and last longer than cartridge blades. I don't know if there's any evidence to that, but the effect is that many DE shavers keep their blades for a number of shaves. I suspect that some are more inclined to swap blades frequently because the blades are so (comparatively) cheap.

nessus42 7y ago
> No, it's not. If anything there is a belief that DE blades actually stay sharp and last longer than cartridge blades. I find this hard to believe. I can use a single Gillette Fusion 5 cartridge for a month or more.
- betterbeehome 7y ago
  If you use hot water to shave, Gillette blades dull very quickly. If you use cold water, they last longer than DE blades. It mostly has to do with the plastic coating on the cartridge blades. However, if you're skilled at shaving with a DE, technique actually prolongs your blades life into many shaves with the same razor.
  - heelix 7y ago
    Drying the blade makes a difference too. For me, the most noticeable difference is my daughter would never use my DE safety razor on her legs. The cartridge style.. well.. they dulled out way faster than they should have from my usage.
prepend 7y ago
I used Feather blades and would change them after each shave. I would use each side twice to get a close shave. I’m not sure how much you could reuse a single blade. Of course I think it was like $25 for 100. For comparison, I’ve also used a Mach 3 blade for a month, so the Mach 3 blades lasted longer than a single blade but cost much more $40 for 10.

smacktoward 7y ago

> Nobody replaces their Mach 3 cartridge after every other shave but that's a common recommendation for DE blades. Yeah, but you can buy a box of 100 DE blades for, like, $15. (Seriously: see https://www.westcoastshaving.com/collections/bulk-de-safety-razor-blades https://www.westcoastshaving.com/collections/bulk-de-safety-...) So even if you change the blade every other shave, it still comes out cheaper. This is a benefit of standardization: DE blades all have a common form factor, so any handle can use any blade. That means every DE blade maker is competing with all the others, which drives prices down. Cartridges on the other hand are all proprietary to the vendor that made the handle they fit with, so there's much less downward pressure on the pricing. > if that isn't a strong indictment of saving pennies, I don't know what is. The thing about a DE blade versus a cartridge is that with a DE the range of possible outcomes is much wider than it is with a cartridge. A DE blade can produce shaves ranging from "ow, I cut myself!" to "smooth as a baby's bottom", depending on the technique you apply to it. A cartridge won't ever cut you, but it'll also never give you as close a shave as you can get with a well-wielded DE blade; it provides a consistently mediocre shave every time. To put this in terms HN readers will appreciate, arguments about DE versus cartridge tend to be kind of like arguments about vim/emacs versus IDEs. Vim and emacs users love to talk about all the crazy things they can do with their editor that no IDE can match, but they rarely talk about the learning curve they had to climb to reach that level of technique. Whereas IDEs tend to be less elegant, but by hewing more closely to modern desktop interface standards they let their users reach an acceptable level of productivity faster. Those IDE users will never reach the heights of wizardry that are possible with vim or emacs, but since very few programmers are true wizards anyway that doesn't really matter much to everyone else. Like the cartridge razor, the IDE is "good enough."

compiler-guy 7y ago
I have shaved with a straight razor for maybe three years now, and before that I used a DE for maybe five. I don't for a minute believe that cartridge razors are incapable of giving me equally good shaves. 99% of the benefits of DE and straights is the incredible care you have to take with your technique, the awareness you need of your face's contours, and the grain of your beard over in multiple passes. People who stick with wet-shaving care a lot about getting all of that right, and do a lot of work to get there. Similar attention to those things while using a cartridge will get you similar results. At least in my experience. I wet-shave because it is more environmentally friendly, and I love the ritual. Also, it is cheaper.

sdinsn 7y ago

> $40 will get you a good Merkur 34c and a 100 pack of Astra blades The majority of that comes from the handle, not the blades. You can buy 100/500 pack of blades for dirt cheap

Zigurd 7y ago

Re "It legitimately took me 5 years to get really good and I still sometimes cut myself" I was a disaster at shaving until 3 blade cartridge razors were introduced. Before then I used an electric shaver and was unsatisfied with the results. I doubt I want to try try a DE blade. Walmart house brand 3 blade cartridges are under $1 per cartridge, and a cartridge lasts me a week.

Shorel 7y ago

I think I replace my blades every month or so. For me, after learning with a shavette straight razor, the DE is easy mode for when I have no time.

knolax 7y ago

> It legitimately took me 5 years to get really good and I still sometimes cut myself I feel like that some people (myself included at times) just like to develop skills with a steep learning curve regardless of how much benefit it actually incurs.

Fins 7y ago

Hmm, interesting. Personally, I can get at least 5x shaves out of a decent DE blade than I can from a fancy multiblade cartridge. They literally start dragging and nicking on the second or third shave, while a DE is still going strong after 10...