The Time Capsule: The shaving and razor shopping woes

 There are times, as with shaving, when old methods are rediscovered and found to work surprisingly well. The act of removing whiskers can be a pleasant ritual. 

At times, when my wife puts her mug in the mirror to mimic my facial contortions, it’s funny. She would seem even more amusing were it not that laughing while shaving is risky.  

For me, the difficulty of shaving has been finding the right equipment.  

My parents sent me off to the army with a kit that contained a Gillett safety razor. It had moving parts but was still quite simple. Twist the handle and little French doors opened, insert a double-edged blade and, since my facial hair at the time was scarce, I probably didn’t change blades during basic training.    

In later years, TV commercials convinced me electric was the way to go. I don’t know how many of them I went through; Norelco and Remington and Sunbeam, double heads and floating heads and triple heads and cordless. Some worked better than others, but I never found one I liked. They were hard to keep clean, so-called self-sharpening blades didn’t last and running down replacements wasn’t easy. I went to disposable razors.  Not good. Too light, flimsy and not that disposable. We felt guilty taking them to the landfill and they didn’t seem a match for recyclable bins. Do they go with metal or plastic?  

The cartridge razor was next and seemed to be the answer. The Sensor was my first choice. It had a good feel, worked nicely and disposing of a used two-blade cartridge made more sense than throwing away the handle as well.  

One problem was keeping them from clogging. The tiny space between cartridge blades fills up and I never found a good remedy. They clogged before going dull. Another issue was cost. The start-up kits are all but given away. The manufacturer wants you to buy their cartridges.  Cartridges are not given away. They also can be hard to find, probably because there are so many versions it’s not practical for a store to stock them all.  

I tried the three-blade system, then the four. Neither seemed to work any better than the first Sensor, but they are pricier.       

A few months ago I was searching the personal health aisle in one of our local stores looking for cartridges. I found a pack that fit my razor for $24.95. Next to it was one of those dispensers I’d all but forgotten—old time double-edged blades.  They were five for a dollar.  

I’ve been back with the dinosaur for long enough to be convinced. A simple safety razor, for me, works better at far less cost, and used blades slide into the back of the new-blade container for recycling. When my aerosol can goes empty I’ve got a mug and brush and some old-time lather.             

Roy Marshall is a local historian and columnist for the Red Oak Express. He can be contacted at news@redoakexpress.com.