The razor blades are intentionally hidden from view in the packaging.
This is the back of the package. https://i.imgur.com/UMK0a4g.jpeg
The razor blades are intentionally hidden from view in the packaging.
This is the back of the package. https://i.imgur.com/UMK0a4g.jpeg
I agree. Some people even get so caught up in Wetshaving that they run a Lemmy instance dedicated to it.
I just dry shave with a saftey razor and it’s still a closer and more comfortable shave than all this hyper-marketed plastic garbage with multiple shit quality blades. The razor was already perfected long ago, but quarterly growth demands landfills filled with trash.
PS: there’s no reason for a saftey razor to be an expensive upfront cost unless you’re buying a huge bulk of blades upfront. Any cheap stainless steel handle will do, for practically the same cost as you’ll end up spending after the first time replacing this price-gouged plastic. A stainless steel saftey razor is priced at $10-$20 and will outlive you.
PPS: it drives me up the WALL every time I see a Gillette “Labs” (🙄🙄🙄) commercial, as if there’s supposed to be some team of scientists and engineers in a laboratory experimenting with new ways to shape a piece of plastic. Who are they fooling??? They’re just a marketing company with a razor department.
PPPS: all the “wet shaving” creams and lotions and balms and oils and lathering brushes and special towels and aftershave and who knows what are ALSO just marketing insanity. If you have an issue with razor burn, just apply a small amount of 100% aloe vera, which is soothing and naturally antibacterial (razor burn is just your immune system going to town on all the bacteria introduced to your skin by your likely dirty razor), after shaving. You can use a patch of denim from an old pair of jeans to sharpen a saftey razor if it feels rough on your skin.
The 5 blade razor is probably the first example I can think of when The Onion broke reality and predicted the future.
Sounds like you have it all figured out for yourself.
I use artisan shave soap because they work extremely well and smell awesome. Commercial soap also works well, but there isn’t as much variety in the smell department. I have a handful of brushes and I use whichever one I feel like on a given day. They all offer something unique.
I use aftershave for the same reason you mentioned. Aloe sounds like it’d be sticky and unpleasant for my skin type.
Soap is soap. I make my own soap from only 3 ingredients: lard (that I process from bacon grease, instead of throwing it out, and no it doesn’t smell like bacon once it’s been processed into pure lard), lye, and water; no fragarance or colors, and it’s one of the best soaps I have ever used (except for an old homemade powder soap that had borax in it, that stuff works miracles for cutting away the grease, dirt, and oil on my hands after working on the car. I wish I had the recipe). I make a years supply in one batch.
BUT enjoy what you like, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying stuff. Mixing up fancy potions in a bowl with a brush sounds fun, but in wet shaving spaces online, people seem to lose their minds acting like this is what you NEED to do just to shave hair off your face
If it’s the best soap you’ve ever used, that would negate the claim that soap is soap. I’m happy you’ve found something you like.
There are always people in all hobbies that think it’s their way or the highway (no offense, but your comments have that tone to them).
I try to avoid that and just share what I enjoy.
One of the biggest things I hear is “cartridges cause irritation and DE razors don’t!”. That is 100% false and I disagree with it. Still, I love using DE razors and would recommend them to anyone interested in “enjoying” shaving.
Disagree, the difference is that there is stuff in it that isn’t soap… in the case of that powder soap being superior, it is the added borax that acts as a great detergent, but probably not something you want to use on your skin regularly. And sure, there can be different ratios of water to fats in soap or different fats (lard, tallow, olive oil, beeswax, etc) that do not saponify fully (no soap should be 100% saponified or it would be possible that there is still lye in it that was not used up in the chemical reaction) and give the product different qualities, but the soap in it is still just soap. Or it could be sodium hydroxide lye vs potassium hydroxide lye to make solid vs liquid soap, respectively.
My comments are not really meant to be about hobbies but BS products marketed from massive corporations that are just adding more to our mountain sized landfills.
RE: BS products from massive corporations, I’m with you for sure.
RE: soap is soap - there are lots of different types of soap. Each type of fat has differing amounts of loric acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid, etc. Lard makes a soap that’s a good firmness (not too soft, not too hard), not very cleansing (so it won’t dry your skin out, but also won’t do much hard cleaning), very conditioning, not very bubbly, but very creamy. Other fats/oils yield much different results. Soaps with a lot of coconut oil are very cleansing, so they’ll dry your skin out. Your soap sounds like it could be used daily without any problems.
So, I disagree that soap is soap. Soap that’s made specifically for shaving typically has a lot of added stearic acid, because no natural fats have enough natural stearic acid to produce a really stable lather that won’t dissipate during the shave. Most use a lot of beef tallow, but there are also a lot of vegan options.
I bought a Rockwell safety razor for 50 euros after using a cheap 20 euro version for a while. The Rockwell is much better. Heavier, better grip and a reversible base plate for different settings. 50 euros should do and still is much cheaper than my cartridges.
PS: wit good prep I have no rasor burn. A cheap brush, warm water and cheap shaving soap. The soap lasts me nearly half a year.