Traditional Shaving Saves You Money?

Welcome to the latest installment of Sorrell Shaves!

Today we discuss the topic of the cost of shaving.  We've all seen the astronomical prices of modern cartridges, and the ever increasing presence of batteries in your razor, leading to yet more cost and buzzing objects in the bathroom.  Take note, not even your toothbrush really NEEDS batteries.  A razor sure doesn't.  Anyhow, I digress.

With a little research you can see that razor blades for DE razors are vastly cheaper than cartridges.  Yes, an actual DE razor could well cost much more than your average Mach 6.5 mk3 buzzer-equipped Super Razor (you can get some budget models south of £20), and a puck of soap is likely more than your average can of ectoplasm (sorry, shave gel), but stick with traditional wet shaving and you can start to see some savings.

From experience, one Mach 3 cartridge would last me two shaves before pulling more than your average Lothario on a Friday night.  A can of shave gel would last a couple of months tops.  Working this out over the course of a year, you come to a grand total of £317.05.  Quite a cost for keeping the whiskers away from ones face.

Now, based on experience with DE shaving, the cost is lower, quite a bit lower.  £96.39 to be precise (based on my most durable blades, 4 pucks of soap, a Merkur 39C razor and a simple but effective brush).  For the first year, you're looking at a saving of 69.6%!  Modern cartridge shaving is over THREE times the cost of traditional shaving if you will.  Quite impressive isn't it?

Now, you could of course achieve these savings if you can avoid the rabbit holes and acquisition tendencies we all suffer from.  What do I mean?  Well it is simple.  Once you try one quality item, your mind wonders what else is out there to try.  This curiosity leads to one more soap, or one more razor, or indeed one more brush.  The savings can quite simply vanish into thin air, or even cost you more than cartridge shaving.  By the time you've been through various soaps and razors to find your ideal combinations, those savings could well be clawed back...but it will take the patience of a Saint, the will power of...well, someone with an awful lot of will power to not buy more in the search of perfection.

In short, if you are strong willed, or indeed trying your hardest to reduce your costs, you CAN save money, but in the long run, you WILL get tempted.  I will leave you with this one simple meme that all of us can relate to, especially internally when we're explaining away yet another purchase.