Cost Effective Shaving

If you want good shaves you can rely on for years balanced with minimal long-term expense, you might not think you have options but you do. 

The first happens to be the oldest: buy a quality straight razor. However, it isn't every man who trusts himself with a cutthroat (I know I don't). And some of us just like the straightforward simplicity of 20th century style wetshaving; meaning, with disposable blades.

Disposables and cheaper cartridge razors may seem cost effective but in the long run - we're talking years or decades here - they're not. True, they're convenient, ubiquitous and most of them give at least acceptable if not excellent shaves. But their first problem is  "planned obsolescence." That means a disposable or cartridge razor you swear by today will be an inferior product in ten years, maybe even in five, to force you to buy the manufacturer's 'next big thing.' Second: most carts, no matter how many or few blades it has, tend to not last as long as single or double edge blades both due to their lower initial quality and because they can barely be maintained (if at all) to increase their longevity, the way individual loose blades often can. 

Injectors are a venerable, highly respectable option and I am a fan. However, I leave this option off the list only because blades have recently become much more difficult, thus more expensive, to obtain. I always had relatively good longevity from my injectors blades no matter which brand I used so no longer being able to walk into a store to buy them is a pity.

In my opinion, the main thing to consider is a minimal outlay of cash for the razor itself. Below are three excellent choices you could go with, each ranked on a very loose formula taking into account availability, reliability, maintainability and cost.

1. The Rolls Razor. Oft described, accurately so, as "a straight razor on a stick," a properly maintained Rolls will provide a literal lifetime of straight razor-close shaves. Once you've bought it nothing further need be purchased. Ever. Given it's fairly wide availability and the generally good (or at least restorable) condition in which they're found, ounce for ounce it is the best value on this list. However, at least one tradeoff will be a consistently unforgiving shaver that requires practice and constant attention to master, plus the absolute necessity of habitual maintenance, though that process couldn't be any easier the designers of the Rolls made it.

2. A vintage single edge razor. Pictured is my Gem Heavy Flat Top, aka the G-bar, but there are many excellent SE razors ranging from specimens from the very early 1900s up to the 1980s. These are readily available in a wide variety of conditions, qualities, styles and aggressiveness. The trick will be to obtain a good stock of reliable blades that works for your face. Guaranteed, not every SE blade will agree with you. However, they are widely available, relatively cheap and probably not going anywhere soon...which is why SE razors are on this list. Carbon SE blades can be stropped and honed - increasing their life, thus increasing your savings. In fact, they can be brought to the point where they are virtually as sharp as a Rolls wedge blade (which is probably too sharp, truth be told).

3. The Shake Sharp razor. This oddball is the one razor I'm aware of that actually succeeds in maintaining otherwise disposable DE blades by use of an installed hone. As the Shakey gets more exposure within the wetshaving community, though, a consensus appears to be forming that stainless steel blades are best left unhoned. That means to get the full, true value out of even a cheaply obtained Shake Sharp, one probably (though not necessarily) needs to have already become accustomed the quirks of using carbon double edge blades. While most of us carbon-heads lean toward vintage stock (only because they're so many of them floating around out there for next to nothing) there is at least one brand in current production which I've not tried. Whether that fact makes the Shake Sharp desirable is up to you. Though it's a fantastic shaver no matter what blade you use, if you're a die-hard stainless user it's probably not worth your time to wait for one to show up.


These are just a few suggestions from a guy who isn't dreading the arrival of some Shavepocalypse, Bladepocalypse or whatever, but just wants to be a cheapskate because, dang it, that's what I am. As a result, the three razors pictured above are now 90% of my usual shaving routine.