Being "older" (early fifties) and an empty-nester, I am enjoying the back side of life with a little slower pace, and putting my wife and I "first" after so many years of our kids being the primary focus. While not rich, we are far from scraping by and are willing to occasionally pay a little extra at times if there is a tangible gain, improvement, perceived value, or economy to be realized.
Being borderline OCD in some regards, I occasionally fixate and will spend (waste?) a great deal of time on some relatively minor or trivial thing then make a major life change going 180 degrees away from some long standing habit or method, even if the previous thing was perfectly satisfactory and caused no real displeasure.
The most recent example of this behavior began a couple weeks ago when I had the need to change the cartridge on my Gillette Fusion replaceable cartridge razor. In the grand scheme, this is not normally a life changing event, but I couldn't find the damn cartridges that I knew I had.
Shaving is not, and has never been, a big part of my routine. Hell I didn't even need to until I was 18 and the nice Drill Instructors at MCRD San Diego demanded I do so even if there was no hair on my face to remove. To placate them, I just left the dummy cartridge in the handle and "faked" it. On active duty in my 20's I could slide by shaving at most, 2-3 times a week.
Fast forward three decades or so and my career, lifestyle, and still very mild "beard" affords me the luxury of only having to shave once, or occasionally twice a week. I couldn't grow a full, manly beard if I tried, and only barely manage a non-pathetic goatee. As such, I am usually able to go several months on a single cartridge and it is not uncommon for the pack to go MIA between changes.
Frustrated, I figured I would just grab another pack at the store while I was there. Not needed, but they would eventually be used. Once at the aisle, I was again shocked at the price they charge, $16 for 4 damn cartridges! Heck, I can buy two nice T-bone steaks for that kind of coin. Disgusted, and knowing I had a pack of cartridges somewhere, I walked away fretting over the cost to simply scrape a little hair from my face.
This episode made me remember that not too long ago I came across an article on the interwebs extolling the virtues of the old Double Edge Safety Razor. It claimed that while you can (but don't have to) spend a pretty penny on the razors handles/heads, there are also a lot of reasonably priced razors and even the highest quality blades can be had for just pennies (instead of dollars) a piece. According to the author, it was also a widely held belief that they provide a superior shaving experience in addition to the considerable cost savings over disposables or replaceable cartridges.
Better results? Less cost? That was all I needed to generate my target fixation and after a few hours of web and Amazon.com research, I was ready to jump into the 1950's. I settled on a Merkur 20C razor and a sample pack of premium blades, hit "checkout" and sat back to wait for two days until they arrived at my door.
The razor arrived Wednesday, and not having shaved since Sunday, I was ready to do my own comparison. Following my normal routine, I shaved half my face with my Gillette Fusion and it's once used cartridge (managed to find the pack I had after going through the under sink cabinet a second time) and shaved the other half of my face with the slick, sleek, sturdy, silver and black Merkur.
My initial reaction was the shave experience itself was not much different, I was mostly just happy that I didn't slice my throat or take a portion of ear or nose off. I shaved in my normal fashion, first pass with the grain and then a second pass against the grain. Once I washed my face and actually felt the two sides I was actually quite impressed!
Running the back of my hands down the sides of my face, with the grain, the DE side was similar, possibly a touch smoother. Running back up against the grain was amazing! The DE side against the grain was as smooth, if not smoother, than the cartridge side with the grain.
Color me impressed, sold, and converted to DE safety razor!
The fact that in the long run it is considerably cheaper is a huge benefit to my frugality/cheap bastardness. Having it be kind of retro with classy polished metal accroutraments, a quality made "tool" with dangerously sharp edges than can remove chunks of flesh if not handled carefully, and devoid of plastic, disposable bits makes it manly and cool to boot.
I try not to think about the positive environmental impact of not throwing the old cartridges in the landfill and the reduction of my carbon footprint by consuming fewer petroleum based plastics. If I do find my mind wandering down that path, I quickly shift to thinking about men ripping metal ore from the earth and then forging it with fire and machines in a manly factory with sweat pooling on their brow.
As an added benefit, with a new found cash surplus saved instead of squandered on $4 disposable cartridges, I can now look forward to collecting quality DE Razor handles in addition to guns and camera gear. In fact, I already have my eye on a vintage 1963 (1st quarter, "I-1" date code) Gillette Slim Adjustable DE Razor in near mint condition for the low price of just $80. Heck if I am going to spend tangible amounts of money to shave, might as well spend it on something that doesn't get thrown away!
Maybe I am just getting nostalgic in my old age, but I think it would be kind of cool to shave with a fine piece of American made, nickel-plated brass that was sent out onto its journey on this earth at the same approximate time I was....
Being borderline OCD in some regards, I occasionally fixate and will spend (waste?) a great deal of time on some relatively minor or trivial thing then make a major life change going 180 degrees away from some long standing habit or method, even if the previous thing was perfectly satisfactory and caused no real displeasure.
The most recent example of this behavior began a couple weeks ago when I had the need to change the cartridge on my Gillette Fusion replaceable cartridge razor. In the grand scheme, this is not normally a life changing event, but I couldn't find the damn cartridges that I knew I had.
Shaving is not, and has never been, a big part of my routine. Hell I didn't even need to until I was 18 and the nice Drill Instructors at MCRD San Diego demanded I do so even if there was no hair on my face to remove. To placate them, I just left the dummy cartridge in the handle and "faked" it. On active duty in my 20's I could slide by shaving at most, 2-3 times a week.
Fast forward three decades or so and my career, lifestyle, and still very mild "beard" affords me the luxury of only having to shave once, or occasionally twice a week. I couldn't grow a full, manly beard if I tried, and only barely manage a non-pathetic goatee. As such, I am usually able to go several months on a single cartridge and it is not uncommon for the pack to go MIA between changes.
Frustrated, I figured I would just grab another pack at the store while I was there. Not needed, but they would eventually be used. Once at the aisle, I was again shocked at the price they charge, $16 for 4 damn cartridges! Heck, I can buy two nice T-bone steaks for that kind of coin. Disgusted, and knowing I had a pack of cartridges somewhere, I walked away fretting over the cost to simply scrape a little hair from my face.
This episode made me remember that not too long ago I came across an article on the interwebs extolling the virtues of the old Double Edge Safety Razor. It claimed that while you can (but don't have to) spend a pretty penny on the razors handles/heads, there are also a lot of reasonably priced razors and even the highest quality blades can be had for just pennies (instead of dollars) a piece. According to the author, it was also a widely held belief that they provide a superior shaving experience in addition to the considerable cost savings over disposables or replaceable cartridges.
Better results? Less cost? That was all I needed to generate my target fixation and after a few hours of web and Amazon.com research, I was ready to jump into the 1950's. I settled on a Merkur 20C razor and a sample pack of premium blades, hit "checkout" and sat back to wait for two days until they arrived at my door.
The razor arrived Wednesday, and not having shaved since Sunday, I was ready to do my own comparison. Following my normal routine, I shaved half my face with my Gillette Fusion and it's once used cartridge (managed to find the pack I had after going through the under sink cabinet a second time) and shaved the other half of my face with the slick, sleek, sturdy, silver and black Merkur.
My initial reaction was the shave experience itself was not much different, I was mostly just happy that I didn't slice my throat or take a portion of ear or nose off. I shaved in my normal fashion, first pass with the grain and then a second pass against the grain. Once I washed my face and actually felt the two sides I was actually quite impressed!
Running the back of my hands down the sides of my face, with the grain, the DE side was similar, possibly a touch smoother. Running back up against the grain was amazing! The DE side against the grain was as smooth, if not smoother, than the cartridge side with the grain.
Color me impressed, sold, and converted to DE safety razor!
The fact that in the long run it is considerably cheaper is a huge benefit to my frugality/cheap bastardness. Having it be kind of retro with classy polished metal accroutraments, a quality made "tool" with dangerously sharp edges than can remove chunks of flesh if not handled carefully, and devoid of plastic, disposable bits makes it manly and cool to boot.
I try not to think about the positive environmental impact of not throwing the old cartridges in the landfill and the reduction of my carbon footprint by consuming fewer petroleum based plastics. If I do find my mind wandering down that path, I quickly shift to thinking about men ripping metal ore from the earth and then forging it with fire and machines in a manly factory with sweat pooling on their brow.
As an added benefit, with a new found cash surplus saved instead of squandered on $4 disposable cartridges, I can now look forward to collecting quality DE Razor handles in addition to guns and camera gear. In fact, I already have my eye on a vintage 1963 (1st quarter, "I-1" date code) Gillette Slim Adjustable DE Razor in near mint condition for the low price of just $80. Heck if I am going to spend tangible amounts of money to shave, might as well spend it on something that doesn't get thrown away!
Maybe I am just getting nostalgic in my old age, but I think it would be kind of cool to shave with a fine piece of American made, nickel-plated brass that was sent out onto its journey on this earth at the same approximate time I was....
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