A Good, Clean Shave

No, it’s not the title of an Ernest Hemingway story. It’s one of those obvious but elusive discoveries I’ve made, one that makes you slap yourself in the head and say, “Duh!”

I’ve been railing for years to anyone who’ll listen about the tyranny of the shaving racket. If you’re a man who shaves–and apparently, the MFA fiction writers at TX State mostly don’t–you’ve generally got two choices: an electric razor, or those plastic cartridge thingies that come with an ever-increasing and superfluous number of blades.

Electric razors burn my oh-so-sensitive skin. I’ve had a Gillette something-or-other cartridge thingie for a long time, but every year they come out with a new and fancier and more expensive blade for it, so I’ve paid for the thingie many, many, many times over in replacements.

I kept seeing plain old double-edged blades for sale at the grocery store, and yet–among the dozens of varieties of cartridge thingie options–they do not sell the razors that would fit with them. I began to wistfully wonder where I could get such a thing, and what shaving with it would be like. Eventually, I found double-edged safety razors for sale online via Amazon, and ordered one as a belated Christmas gift to myself (mine is a Merkur Classic).

The verdict: Nothing less than wonderful. I still need to work on my technique, as I have a tendency to nick myself here and there, but by and large this thing gives me a smoother shave than anything I’ve ever used. I’ve barely gone through two blades in two weeks, and you can buy them for a quarter the price of multi-bladed replacement cartridges. The best part is that I feel like I’m sticking it to the man every time I shave. Can’t recommend it highly enough.