So I've always thought of myself as a pretty environmentally-friendly guy.
I recycle all that I can.
I take my own bags to the grocery store (when I can remember them.)
And I even got a Kill-A-Watt to reduce power usage around the house.
What then was I doing shaving with a disposable plastic razor and a virtually un-recyclable aerosol can of shaving cream?
I guess the short answer is that I'm just cheap.
I know full well of King C. Gillette's
"Razor and Blades" business model.
Buying a normal razor-blade just seems to be playing into the marketing of the big razor brands.
If you walk into your local big-box store, there is only one alternative that is given to the "Razor and Blades" model. Disposable razors.
So we have a choice: Cheap or Re-usable.
This all lead me to ask the million-dollar question(s):
"How did people shave before the advent of cartridge razors and aerosol shaving cream? And what about all those people in the third world, how do they shave?"
Enter Wikipedia to save the day with the
Safety Razor.
There it is. Infinitely reusable AND cheap.
Since there is no co-mingling of plastic and steel (like in a cartridge blade) the blades are even recyclable. As for finding blades, I hear rumors of blades for sale on the interwebs for less than $0.10 each. I was pleasantly surprised to see that most drugstores still carry them, about $0.99 for 5 blades.
But where to find an old-school safety razor these days? Ebay, of course.
You can find any kind of safety razor on ebay, even the coveted 40's-era
Gillette Super Speed.
Heck, there are even web sites that'll sell you a brand new safety razor for about $30.
And what about that can of aerosol shaving cream? Sure, it's steel, you could recycle it but it's got all that pressurized gas that most recyclers want absolutely nothing to do with.
Enter the shaving brush and shaving soap. The drug store had these for $5.99 and $1.29 respectively.
So now I'm set with my Eco-shaving kit!
But how does it compare to the "modern" shaving tools?
Pretty darn well I'd say.
I can safely say that I'll never go back to aerosol shaving cream again, the brush and soap just work sooo much better.
The razor took a little getting used to, but I'm getting along quite well with it.
