Why A Safety Razor
For 29 years - apart from a quick fling with an awful electric shaver - I used a multi-bladed cartridge razor thinking that was the very best instrument for the job. Every few years I would buy the new mannequin with yet one more blade only to seek out it carried out the job exactly the identical - that is - to leave me with a horrible red rash and irritable skin that would have to be shaved again the next day and infrequently allowed to heal.
By probability someday I came across a safety razor. I used to be instantly taken by it is old fashioned design and high quality appearance. Then I heard that these things were actually supposed to offer you a better shave than cartridge razors comparable to your Gillettes and Wilkinson Swords, and that the blades price considerably less. I instantly purchased one to give it a go but anticipated to be disappointed.
Getting used to utilizing it was a bit of a studying curve. I'd grow to be accustomed to having no regard for the angle of the blade and urgent the razor to my face, after three passes with the safety razor my skin still felt slightly irritated and I had a number of tiny weeping cuts.
Nevertheless, I still felt loads less irritation compared to my old cartridge razor so decided to offer the safety razor a month's trial, keeping the triple bladed razor useful until I'd made my mind up or was in a rush. However, I've still but to use it.
After doing my research, learning the correct blade angle and realising that the burden of the razor applies the pressure slightly than my hand, the safety razor was providing wonderful shaves. I went from skipping a days shaving each time I could to let my skin heal to shaving every day with no rash or irritation. I learnt how the hair on my face grows in all different directions and the most effective mixtures of strokes to use to chop them. I learnt about correct preparation pre-shave which is something I am going to go into in a future post. Best of all, shaving turned from a torturous each day chore to be endured into a calming, meditative ritual.
So how can a design that was all but deserted forty years ago provide a superior expertise to the trendy design that replaced it? Why was the design of the safety vintage razor changed in any respect? To reply the first question we should have a look at how the cartridge razor works. In all the adverts we're told that these products offer the closest shave attainable, but how do they try this?
The design is such that the lowest blade within the cartridge both cuts the hair or pulls it. If it cuts the hair it's going to also pull the hair slightly out of the skin and the second blade will minimize it again before it totally retracts back into the skin. If it pulls the hair it'll do the identical thing, pulling the follicle forward and letting the second (or third, or forth) blade minimize the hair higher up earlier than the hair retreats. This provides a detailed shave, but can also go away the hair cut beneath the level of the skin. This is what was the reason for my day by day discomfort. I wonder what number of men with 'pseudofolliculitis barbae' or 'razor rash' proceed to shave with these razors that worsen or cause their condition.
As for the question of why the safety razor design was deserted, my view is that it was a clever advertising trick by a really massive razor producer, maybe the inventor of the 'loss leader' marketing strategy, however I'll depart it there.
With a safety razor, I discovered that I might get a shave that felt as close, i.e I could not really feel that hair was present or make that scratchy sound you get while you run your fingers over your five O'Clock shadow, but not so close that it caused me irritation.
