Scared straight: switching to a straight razor (?)
Behold! The last pack of Mach3 razor blades I plan to buy. (It was one of the errands nagging me yesterday as I stood in line at the post office for H&R Block spam.) After a little research, I think I have decided to ditch disposable blades and try using a straight razor.
It is actually something I have thought about doing for years. At some point back in the day (I suppose it was probably in high school), I watched one of those self-help videos about becoming more environmentally friendly. I stumbled on it one night on PATV or City Channel 4. It was already pretty dated by then; judging by the clothes people wore, I guessed it was filmed around 1990. Anyway, in one segment a host stood in line at the grocery store and offered a couple tips for everyday shopping. Two of her tips have stuck with me: 1) bring your own cloth bags for groceries and 2) invest in durable metallurgy instead of buying disposable shaving products. Every time I have bought another set of Mach3 razors, I have thought of the word “metallurgy” and imagined the host in the grocery store scowling at me.
Anyone who owns a Mach3, Mach3 Turbo, or any of the other extreme, multi-blade razors on the market can tell you the disposable heads are expensive as hell. I hate buying them. Every time I purchase another set I feel like I am somehow bankrolling the New England Patriots’ dynasty, or at least helping Gillette slap its logo on the team’s success. (Gillette owns the naming rights to the Patriots’ stadium, but I do not think the Patriots’ owner has any stake in Gillette.) The damage yesterday for the five-pack at CVS was $13.79 before tax. While researching straight razors, I found myself on the Mach3’s Wikipedia page and read this: “The blades used by Mach3 only cost around 9 cents to produce, but can sell for over $2 each.” The claim is rather dubious since there is no citation, but I am sure the numbers are somewhere close to the truth. Obviously, Gillette is not cashing in on all that money — the profit it makes comes from selling the blades to stores and suppliers, who then make their own profit when selling to the final customer — but they are making bank, regardless. If each of the five Mach3 heads I bought yesterday cost $0.09 to make, the price I paid was almost 25 times higher. Needless to say, that math is not in my favor and makes “investing in durable metallurgy” more appealing than ever.
From what I have seen online, “durable metallurgy” does require quite a financial investment at first. Depending on the quality and materials, the cost of a straight razor seems to range between $90 and $300. And that is just for the blade. To care for it, one needs a leather strop to keep the edge sharp; honing stones can be used, too, and all kinds of paste with fine grit are used by professionals. However, the initial investment will hopefully pay for itself with money saved from no longer having to buy expensive disposables.
I want to do a lot more research before I pull the trigger on this. I obviously want to keep shaving but do not want to keep wasting my money and needlessly neglecting our environment for the sake of convenience. Plus, I have never liked the Patriots.
