What do you pay to shave? I have been thinking about the cost of all my shaving components and was somewhat surprised at the result. My weekly costs break down as follows. Razor: $0.25 Shaving cream: $0.28 Blades: $0.35 Shave balm: $0.50 Aftershave: $1.33 I amortized the razor cost over 5 years. You might argue a razor should last longer, but I figured 5 years was a good minimum for amortizing purposes. I didn't do anything fancy with net present value, I just divided the $68 I paid for my Merkur Futur by 260 weeks. Even at this short period, it's the least expensive item on my list. Next is shaving soap. I buck the trend on TSD and go with Barbasol yellow in the can. I do this because I like the results I get better than a brush. Many here will disagree, I only point out that my choice was not made to minimize cost, it just worked out that way. I divided the can cost by 8 weeks. If you use a tub or tube, don't forget to figure in the cost of the brush and bowl. A good blade lasts me a week. I arrived at the blade cost in two ways. It's one fifth the price I pay for a 5 pack of Personna red blades, and it's also the average price of the last blade sample pack I bought. I'm still trying out blades. Once I settle on a favorite I will buy in larger quantity and this cost will presumably come down a bit, possibly on par with the razor and the shave soap. I use both aftershave and an aftershave balm. I was surprised to see the relative expensive of them. The balm costs me $12 and lasts half a year. A bottle of Old Spice cost about 8 bucks at the drug store and lasts me just 6 weeks making this, by far, the most expensive item in my shave regiment. Now some might say that I'm penny pinching here. After all, my total expense is less than the cost of most cartridges. But is Old Spice really worth four times the price of a good blade? Why, the per ounce cost of this stuff is about the same as Bourbon! I do like Old Spice, and it's no more costly than its competitors, but maybe it's time to try one of the generic smell-a-likes? Take a look at your own costs and let me know if you feel you're really getting the right bang for your buck.
Mt Edwin Jagger DE89 cost $35. Blades cost about 40-75 cents each depending on the brand. Looking at the cost of cartridges, which is what I would be using if not for the safety razor, and the cost savings are roughly $2-$2.25 per blade. Put another way, that is $2-2.25 per week, since I would be using the same soap, brush, aftershave, etc. even with a cartridge. You could figure the same cost savings if I used canned goods instead of a brush and quality soap,since the cost per shave is pretty much the same. All rough estimates of course. I just want to shave, and don't spend time counting every penny with a high degree of accuracy.
I'm glad I didn't get into this hobby to save money. I would have been sorely disappointed. The joy I get from collecting, the amazing shave results, reduction of irritation, and actually enjoying shaving and not thinking about it as merely a chore is my bang for the buck! And well worth it to me!
If you get yourself a little spray bottle you will make your OS last 4-5 times longer. They are about a buck at Wally World and Target.
Never did stop to calculate the per shave cost, and I doubt I ever will. I do know I'm saving A WHOLE LOT on blades. I also know that shaving has become a "get to", rather than the "have to" it once was. And that, my friends, makes my shaving experience priceless!
Lets see. Right now I'm using a CJB that was $35. I'll guess 2 years because the spring may break. Blades are $1 each and last a week. I've been using soap samples $3 each that last about a month each. My brush was $30 and has shed nothing so Ill guess 10 years. Aftershave is about $6 for a bottle and lasted 6 months So 0.35 a week for the razor $1 for blades 0.69 for soap 0.25 for the brush 0.23 for aftershave I face lather so no bowl. About 2.52 a week.
Let me put it this way...if I'd stuck with cartridges, I would have saved a ton of money. ...on the other hand, I'm planning to have a den clearance, scratch and dent sale in the next day or two.
Because you bought a ton of shaving stuff? That was optional, and not absolutely necessary to get a good shave. With cartridge razors, spending a lot of money is not optional. The element of choice is one of the things that makes traditional wetshaving attractive.
My Dorco carts cost $1.01 each and they last a week, the handle was $3.95 which amortized over 5 years works out to $0.015 per week. So someone tell me again how carts are budget busters, my math skills may not be quite as sharp as some others. I've been down about every shaving road there is over the last 60 years and still have some overpriced plated alloy DE razors in my junk drawer that cost an average of $35 each and lasted less than 3 years. I do have several SE and DE vintage handles, all but one inherited so no cost, that are in excellent condition that I use occasionally but prefer the convenience of the carts.
Hello, I'm 53 years old, and I have never used nor bought a cartridge razor. Not even a track II. I used a DE for my first few years, and then switched to single blade disposable razors. I used disposables until 4 or 5 years ago, when I inherited a 1946/47 Gillette Aristocrat. After I laid eyes on that Aristocrat, it was on. I started buying vintage razors like mad, and was wet shaving again in no time. And I'm not sorry. Sure, I could use carts and maybe not spend as much money on my shaving pleasures, but I have gained so much enjoyment from collecting and wet shaving, that I consider it money well spent. Unless something bad happens, I plan to continue to collect and wet shave until I die. I look at the cost like this- sure I spent and will spend a lot of money on this hobby, but it is a lot better than spending money on bad habits. Or wasting it gambling, or stuffing it in some bank somewhere to hoard. I'm happy about my hobby. Thanks for this opportunity to share my experience. Have a great day!
I have not tried to arrive at a cots per week, per shave, or any other expense as the enjoyment and relaxation of this hobby far out weighs the money I spend on it. On the other hand, SWMBO has an entirely different opinion on this matter!!!!! Like they say "opposites are attracted to each other"!!!!
I assume you are an accountant? A legitimate inquiry, I grant you. But, shaving is poetry, Shaving is music, shaving is great cuisine, and shaving is a great scotch. What has that to do with bang for the buck? Nothing really... But if cost and efficiency are your thing, then great! I enjoy shaving. I enjoy different scents, the exfoliation, and the great skin care. I enjoy a nice French roast coffee, and some wonderful music as I shave.... And that has a great value to me, as well. Calculate value as you like, and God Bless You!
{edited original post - after realizing math error on cost of razor} You're saving about $163.80 per year. Which I think you should immediately spend to buy more interesting soaps (unless Saving money is in fact your primary goal). Here is how I got to this conclusion. If you bought a nice vintage razor it will last you the rest of your life. Compare this to the cost of buying plastic - latest and greatest - Gillette fusion/power/proglide etc razors. Maybe a new one every 3 to 5 years? On average I'd say you broke even over a 20 year timeframe (20/3*10=$66). So I called this a wash. I assumed you would use shaving cream in a can, balm, and after shave if you were shaving with a cart as well. So again, this cost is a wash. Blades - here is where the fun begins. The cost of Gillette fusion proglide on Amazon is $28 for 8 blades. Or $3.50 per blade. I assumed you use a blade per week (which is what I think they recommend). You can get a week of shaves out of a good DE blade at $0.35. So that's a saving of $3.15. Annualize that and you get the $163.80. Personally I used to use 1 fusion blade per month, because I wanted to save on costs. So looking at it that way - and using your costs, You would save only $25.20 per year by wet shaving. So for the extremely cost conscious it may be a wash. I was actually using Bic disposables prior to wet shaving - and I'm sure that would turn out to erode that $25 savings. As others have said - try to look at the benefit/enjoyment you get out of wet shaving. My shaves, with the Bic disposables, were just terrible. They were not what we label here as Socially acceptable - let alone DFS or BBS. So take that $164/$25 and upgrade your razor, or buy a brush and some nice soap.
Initially I wasn't saving anything at all. I lost my job back in October and luckily had acquired years of stock of shave stuff. Since not having a job, all of my previous efforts put toward razor/soap/blade/ hoarding has kept me from needing to buy anything, and I could literally continue that for years. If you ever walk by a really great smelling cardboard box over a sewer vent grate, please say hi.
Building on my original post - let's look at the cost of that goo you use. A can of (cough respectable) Gillette gel is $3.79. I used to go through a can every 3 months (a friend just told me he uses a can every 3 weeks so this is YMMV). A big difference for me with wet shaving is that i now do a 3 pass shave. Actually I think this is the primary benefit to the brush and soap puck. So let's say you do 3 passes with the goo. That's 3x the usage - or 1 can per month. So that's 3.79*12=$45.48 per year. You can buy a nice $10 brush every couple years ($5 annually). So that's about $40 per year you/I could spend on soap to break even. With tabac at 9.99 and lasting 3 months (some report much longer) that's a break even with your gel. So I'd still argue that the costs of wet saving are cheaper than shavin with a cart. Even if you buy nicer soap (using the previously mentioned 163 plus the 40 assumed here - you could spend up to $16 per month on soap). I think this would put you into artisan soaps. So I think the reason people "don't save money" wet shaving is because they hoard soap and razors and blades. If you look at the overall usage rates - I think you can spend the same money and get a far nicer save and better experience and skin care wet shaving.
