The Art of The Wet Shave!

The rite of passage to Manhood is that first shave! It's basically peach fuzz but you just wanna be considered manly! You're in your teens, and you lock the bathroom door and get out dad's razor. If you're of an age, you might have even learned how to shave with your dad's double edge safety razor. My how times have changed...

The major razor companies have turned shaving into a mortgage payment! I'm here to tell you that you don't need, and shouldn't have to obtain a second mortgage to secure your shaving essentials... So why does it cost so much, and how did it get that way? Lets go in the way back machine and i'll take you along the path of shaving.

A long time ago, shaving was done with a straight blade, and the shaving was done by someone else. You didn't shave yourself, as one slip and the jugular is leaking your life on the ground. Along came modern ingenuity and Men's grooming was done with a Straight razor.

The folding straight razor was first made by the Sheffield company in the late 1600's. It was very dangerous, but the only way those dignified enough for shaving made it happen. Much care was taken to hone and strop the blade between and before shaving. Then again, along comes modern ingenuity with a Safety Razor. King C. Gillette made his name well know in the world of shaving by flooding the market with his design. His company Gillette is still to this day one of the biggest, if not the biggest shaving supply companies in the world. The Safety razor was a thing of beauty. It took most of the hassle of slow tedious shaving and left it by the wayside. Gillette first introduced his Double Edge Safety Razor in 1904. The original coined term Safety Razor, however, was patented by Frederik & Otto Kampfe in 1880. Gillette was the first to capitalize his design and take the grooming world by storm.

Below is Gillette's first dimensional patent drawing for his application.

With WWI approching he thought about his razor wisely, and along with the help of the U.S. government, included a Gillette safety razor in every soldier's gear. Thus making Gillette a household name. As times changed and innovation became intensely stronger, along came the twin blade, then the disposable razor, then 3 blades, and now I think you can get a razor with a pivoting head that has 5 blades and probably makes your morning coffee! All for a price you know! Geesh!

So what makes the razors of today so expensive? For one thing, technology & marketing. Those companies however don't wanna just sell you a razor. They wanna sell you pre-shave balm, Cartridges, Shaving Cream, & After Shave. After all, they are in it to make money. All promising you the closest shave possible! I get it, those commercials are insanely good! Steel pricing is another factor in razor cost. It takes a ton of money to make cartridges and you've gotta shave, and want a good one, so out comes the 2nd mortgage! Some of those cartridges cost $48.97 for 4 cartridges! Even if you got a month of shaving, per cartridge, that's $150 just for blades in a year, not to mention all the creams, balms, & after-shave you'll buy. Then the razor at $50. Shooo! My wallet hurts!

Are the new razors good? Well that's all relative to your shaving habits. The one misconception that i discuss on a daily basis with wet-shaving is that more blades = closer shave! absolutely not!

It's a blade, either razor, it's a blade! You'll either glide the blade on your face and cut the hairs or gouge it into your skin and cut yourself. There is however, lots more protection with the newer cartridges! Less chance to nick the jugular, but they do still call the old way a "Safety Razor".

So here's the pitch i give my customers on the fence about true wet-shaving. pro's and con's both:

Me: You want a close shave, huh?

Customer: Yeah, but I'm scared to use an open blade.

Me: Well, do you like money?

Customer: Yeah, who doesn't?

Me: Here's why you give too much to the shaving companies... You buy a razor, cartridges and

cream, and it's like $100. You take it home, and let's say each cartridge is designed to give

you 30 close shaves. You lather up...and don't get me started on what's in that cream

either...You take the first pass on your skin...Oooohhhh...That's nice! You then run your razor

under the water. All the hair doesn't come out from between those 4 blades...So what do you

do?

Customer: I just beat the razor on the marble sink. It eventually comes out.

Me: Everytime you smack that blade on the marble, you're dulling the blade, basically cutting

your close shaves in half. So now you've got 15 close shaves. If it takes you 15 passes to

shave your whole face, you've smacked damn near the life out of that cartridge. In comes

the razor burn and you spending more money to alleviate that!

Customer: Well what's the difference with a Safety razor, And i'm gonna have to buy blades for that

as well, and they can't be that cheap.

Me: A Safety razor has an open cavity design so the shaved hair flows right out of it! No banging,

no threshing around. So if my blade gets 30 close shaves, the next time i shave i'll have 29

close shaves and so on down the line.

Customer: So, what about the blade cost?

Me: I've got blades as cheap as 7cents a blade man, and as expensive as $1. Better steel with

a finer edge = more money. A true "Dollar Shave Club".

Customer: What about the cream?

Me: Can of store cream costs $4-$6 for the good stuff, and maybe lasts 2 months? I've got

customers that shave everyday, that buy a bar from me once a year for $10!

Customer: What about the brush & mug & other crap?

Me: I've got a kit under $75 that will shave you for an entire year, even if you shave daily!

....Usually they are sold with this conversation, but i will admit to each customer that it is some getting used to. An Open blade is nothing to mess around with, as it can end your life! Every customer I've ever converted in the last 3 years has come back with the same sentiment:

"Thanks for talking me into it man, I love my shaving ritual! It's my only "Free Time"!"

Next time you're ready for a razor, cartridge, or shaving cream purchase, come on in, or send me an email. I'll give you the skinny on why you should ditch the store bought, and dollar shave club razors, and go OLD SCHOOL!!! Iron Mask Beard & Shave Co.