Vol 1: Why Change The Blade?
I don’t change razor blades. There, I just put it out there for the public to chew on. I simply decided not to buy into the lie by ‘Big-Shave’ (if that’s the equivalent to Big-Pharma or Big-Oil) any longer. But I didn’t stop shaving—I just top changing blades. Before you shave-shame me, try to follow my history and logic on this thing:
Decades ago, while living in the Fiji Fraternity House on LSU’s beautiful campus, I watched most of the guys spend as much on razors as they did beer (beer was cheap back then, razors weren’t) by tossing their blades every week—sometimes even more often for the tough-looking hombres with sandpaper complexions. This was in the late ‘70s when the Gillette Atra twin blade system was considered something between rocket science and voodoo—a huge leap forward from single blade technology. And every week I did the same, just like the commercials told me to.
The world laughed along when a new show called Saturday Night Live performed one of their very first product parodies for the Triple Trac Razor, saying, “not just two blades in one system, but three stainless, platinum teflex-coated blades melded together to form one incredible shaving cartridge.” It was hilarious because we all thought two blades was extravagant and a tad ridiculous.
I scraped my way through the ‘80s and into the ‘90s, tossing two blades/one cartridge a week in the trash and even upped my expense by upgrading to the Gillette Sensor system early in the decade. And then the future caught up to SNL’s comedy: Mach 3! Gillette introduced the first three-blade system in 1998. That’s three blades of pure stainless steel comfortude (that’s comfort and attitude mixed). The jokes started immediately about leapfrogging over three blades to six, seven and beyond. Soon, Schick launched the Quatro. It was one better, according to the spokeswomen stroking the silky skin of their freshly shorn men.
Four blades was the last straw for me. Could it truly provide a shave that was 100% more magnificent than a two-blade system? Or 25% better than a three-blader? It seemed like they cost six times as much! My grandfather had used one straight razor his entire life, with no problems or cost beyond the original purchase. I drew my line in the sand and decided if these high-tech razors had such high-quality steel, honed to a preposterously fine edge, then they should hold that edge a lot longer than a week. I decided not to change my blade until my face screamed for it.
My Gillette Sensor was the weapon of choice for the daily test. I just decided I would use it until I risked harvesting patches of skin or fostering infection. The first three weeks weren’t that bad. I felt it drag a bit over the next month, but seven weeks in, it still got the job done. Then, the stainless-steel miracle happened! Somehow, after three months of daily use, the blades sort of re-sharpened themselves and became more efficient! I described it as the blades “gaining self-awareness”. The drag was gone and my skin felt baby-butt smooth after shaving. I glided though the summer and into the fall on my economically satisfying blades. After month eleven, I finally felt things sour, with my skin starting to tear here and there, so I claimed victory but replaced the blade.
Smooth-faced Steve 2005
My formula was set: Use regular soap (not expensive foam or gel) and use a blade until it was near-torturous. I had bought a five-pack of blades for my Sensor and that one pack lasted me through my final year of the ‘80s and into the first two years of the ‘90s! And my fogged-mirror accounting told me I saved a couple hundred bucks in the process.
Now, thirty years later, I still hold onto my blades through initial sharpness, the dulling days, self-awareness/re-sharpening phase and then finally giving up the gig. One blade often lasts two years or so! A pack of five blades is a decade supply, unless I drop my razor and ding the blades, resulting in early retirement (there is no recovery from Operator Error.) It is so long between repurchase of cartridges that I have twice upgraded to new handle systems, because the old versions were no longer available—in the course of me only using one big pack of blades!
So, what’s the point, other than I’ve saved a lot of money over the last four decades of shaving? That I’m eccentric or weird or even revolutionary? Possibly, but I’ll say modestly that I’m not like most guys. I’ve got a unique set of quirks that make me, me. And I wouldn’t trade them for anything.
My strongest quirk (actually a near-superpower!) is my ability to look at the world very differently than others. Completely different! I strip away filters and the burdens of peer pressure, social norms, historical practices and habits, then step back and ponder, “Why in world do we all do this?” Sometimes I say, “What if we did…”
Sure, that path can lead to frustration or even a few nicks and little blood along the way, but those wounds eventually heal. They can also lead to discovery, innovation, savings, fun stories and an interesting world through a lens rarely seen by others. And that’s the lens you can expect in all my writing.
So follow this space. In future installments, you will read why kids should go shopping at midnight in their pj’s, why I want to Sell Montana, why food shapes are good and so much more!
