Buying Razor Heads Only?

I've moved away from DE shaving for the last several months in favor of pure straight razor shaving with occasional shavette use. Lately I've been missing the convenience of a DE razor shave so I've been thinking about going back to it. The only razor I still have for DE blades is a DE89 head atop an Ikon Bulldog handle. I was thinking I might go ahead and order an Ikon head to go on the handle and try that out for a change, but I was wondering if anybody knew of other brands that sell just the razor heads? I really love the Bulldog handle for grip's sake and I've never had an open comb razor so I'd like to try to find an OC head in particular. There are 2 OC options from Ikon, but does anybody know of any other options I could look into?

Thanks, all!

Maggard Razors sells its house-brand DE razors as handle-only, head-only, or handle-plus-head. They have an OC head that is quite cheap but I understand it is extremely mild.

TVS and shaving.ie have Muehle heads, TGN has Parker heads, and Techichi has Merkur heads.

Good info so far. Any particular OC heads that you would recommend?

Get a Gillette New. You can own a complete classic for cost of a head alone.

Above the tie sells base plates and caps seperately...

Wolfman also does heads and handles separately. Of course there's that whole waiting list thing. I'd never bothered to create a list myself, but reading what's been submitted here it seems like most of the modern stuff can be had by the piece. Always good to know.

IMightBeWrong said:

Good info so far. Any particular OC heads that you would recommend?

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Since you've been shaving with a Straight and a Shavette, to keep the efficiency going with an OC DE, I suggest the Muhle R41 head, which will work with your handle, it is aggresive but since you are not a novice to shaving, you should enjoy it. Also for the blade choice, IMO, the R41 head likes thin blades, such as Polsilver and Feather, there are many others but these two seem to work best, for me!

Here you go, they ship very fast:
http://www.shaving.ie/products/muhle-replacement-head-r41-oc.html

ElectroMike said:

Since you've been shaving with a Straight and a Shavette, to keep the efficiency going with an OC DE, I suggest the Muhle R41 head, which will work with your handle, it is aggresive but since you are not a novice to shaving, you should enjoy it. Also for the blade choice, IMO, the R41 head likes thin blades, such as Polsilver and Feather, there are many others but these two seem to work best, for me!

Here you go, they ship very fast:
http://www.shaving.ie/products/muhle-replacement-head-r41-oc.html

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That one is unfortunately out of stock.

I think you're on the right track recommending a less mild razor head. I used the DE89 head last night and felt like it may be too mild for me now that I'm used to a straight. I have wanted to try out the R41 in the past, also. If I were to ditch the idea of definitely going with just a head, what other full open comb razors should I look at? Is the Fatip still pretty popular?

It R41 is a 9.5 out of 10 on the aggressive scale, DE89 is a 2.5, the Fatip is about a 6.5.

This link should help you: http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/Modern_Double-Edged_Safety_Razors_Ranked_by_Aggressiveness

tankerjohn said:

and Techichi has Merkur heads.

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And Pearl heads.

You can change the handle on most 3 piece razors. The companies that I know that sell razors heads are Above The Tie, Wolfman, and iKon lol, pretty much the ones that have already been mentioned. If you live in Canada like me, iKon doesn't even ship to Canada and most of the resellers who sell iKon don't sell heads only, so iKon would be a USA only thing. ATT is pricey but worth it IMO, been using the s1 exclusively for a few months now. Both ATT and Wolfman sell OC heads, but on the higher end price wise.

There is also a lot of vintage gillette razors in which you could use an iKon bulldog handle with such as gillette tech, and NEW lc/sc. These razors are cheap enough that you can buy the whole razor relatively inexpensively. A Gillette NEW is a good starter OC if you have never tried one before. More aggressive than a DE 89, I usually only use mine with 4-5+ days growth because it takes a lot of hair away in the first pass (very efficient).

Just as an aside, I don't think there is a huge amount of difference between a SB and OC. For example people who own the Wolfman OC and SB say they shave very similarly, same with ATT razors of the same class (ex. s1 vs s2). I've heard someone compare the Wolfman OC to a Gillette NEW. At the end of the day you can probably get a closer shave with an OC.