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I started shaving a few years ago with a cheap Chinese electric razor. It needs cleaning occasionally but is otherwise trouble free. It shaves close enough to get a good respirator seal, which is close enough for me. It's impossible to injure myself with it, and it's so easy to use that I can literally shave while browsing the web.

Unless you are concerned with getting the closest shave possible, electric seems the obvious choice.

And it's worth noting that a blade razor usually removes a bit of the top layer of skin, causing irritation, ingrown hairs (on top of avoiding injury from cuts).

There are some really fantastic electric razors that are cheap and get close enough that it makes no visual difference, except they don't cut the hairs under the skin so I haven't had an ingrown hair in years and years.

I haven't had ingrowing hairs since I switch to a Merker razor with Feather (Japanese) blades. You have to be very light handed, mind.

Blades cost $0.25 each and I use about 10 a year.

I use a Merker safety razor with feather blades too. Definitely recommend not just for the shave, but for the value.

Same, but usually with cheapo blades. Shark/Lord mostly (from Egypt). You can get cheap Gillette, but they're from Russia so you may wish to wait.

If you have thick hair then it's probably better to get cheap Derby/Shark/Lord blades and just use them for one shave. Gives a great shave every time & is still very cheap.

Exactly my strategy. I take some time pre-treating my face, so I get about 4 days/blade.

I get around a dozen shaves or more from a single feather blade. Bought a box of a 100 for $35 after trying a variety pack of blades and fixing on the Feather brand, and at around 3 shaves a week and just trimming up around my goatee and neck, I think I am somewhere around 1-2 cents per shave and probably golden until the robot overlords take over.

Much better than $15/mo I was spending for cartridge razors. I’ll never go back.

Agree. But the good thing is, you don't have to entirely give up your awesome turbo cartridge shave. I still will use one when I'm in a hurry or something. But my day-to-day shaving is done for far less money. I may buy a pack of cartridges every other year or so.

I switched to a Feather razor as well. It’s expensive, $100 or so, but very nice. I have thick hair and soft skin and it works well.

I too use a Merkur safety razor (for the past ~18 years) and Feather blades. I only shave once a week nowadays (with very few exceptions). It’s my weekly routine: it takes me some time, but I get the shave I want.

Which model? I have a Philips one blade and it is pricey to replace and needs to be replaced often

I have a Braun series 5. It recommends replacing the cutting head after 18 months.

For the Philips with 3 circular blades, there are good replacement blades fabulously cheap on AliExpress. $3 for a set.

May I ask which one? Flat across or the floating heads? Amazon is mostly the more expensive name brands.

I’m using a higher-end Panasonic I bought over ten years ago, which is a foil type rather than the three head. Works great. Still have to replace blades every so often - far less often than a safety razor - and the foil periodically/rarely. Electrics are never as close as blades (despite marketing) but far easier, far quicker, and amortized out over many years, pretty cheap. Cheap electrics suck, so prioritize best shave quality within the electric razor type (foil vs three disc) that’s most compatible with your face and get the functionally best example you can afford, ignoring add-on gadgets like cleaning stations etc.

I don't want to recommend a specific brand, but it's a floating head Philips clone.

I don't want to link to vendors, but I've had the "Philips Norelco OneBlade Hybrid Electric Trimmer and Shaver" for years, replaced the blade once, shave with it at least every other day, and it's been closer than anything else I've tried.

But I've also had it several years and the technology I'm sure constantly improves.

With electric I find myself missing bits of hair occasionally. That doesn't really happen with a wet shave since the foam tracks where you've shaved.

> Why is a thread on electric razors not the top comment on a post about the expense/waste of straight razors?

The post doesn’t even mention straight razors [1].

Also, I’m not sure electric razors are the less wasteful solution. Any electric appliance is likely to be much more environmentally costly to manufacture than a simple gadget. It certainly can’t compare with safety razors (or double-edged razors, as called in the article).

I won’t comment on the convenience of electric razors. My very limited experience with them (and not only mine) is that they don’t work on all beards, or if you don’t shave every day.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_razor

> It certainly can’t compare with safety razors

I've been using a safety razor for years and figured I was getting a pretty good deal out of it. Then a few months ago I reached into my travel bag without looking and sliced my finger open badly; the resulting stitches and tetanus shot came out to about $200, probably wiping out whatever money I'd saved by using them.

I still think it's a good deal.. if you're careful.

I've looked around a lot, but find traveling with safety razors to be surprisingly annoying. I cant really find anything that will clip or wrap around the top like I can for cartridge razors. The other problem is flying with them. Since they're large and metal they often get flagged. If I remember correctly, the advice was to put the blades in your checked bag, but I still get flagged because they see a big handle and I often travel without checking a bag.

I also switched away from a DE when I shave in the shower. I'm too afraid of dropping a heavier handle with a sharp blade attached.

I still much prefer DE/safety over cartridge.

I suppose I've been getting lucky, but I've flown probably two dozen times (domestic in the US) with safety razor + blades in my carry-on luggage and it's never been noticed. The first time was a mistake, but after their scanners didn't notice I stopped caring. This has reinforced my belief that the TSA is mostly worthless.

I'm not sure how I'll pack my razor next time (the time I cut myself was the last time I traveled) but I'll have to change how I do things going forward. Maybe I'll put the whole thing into one of those plastic clamshell soap containers, although that would be a bit bulky.

One subtle problem I've noticed with shaving in the shower is whisker splinters. Twice (both times during the pandemic, after not shaving for two or three weeks) I've gotten a whisker embedded into the bottom of my foot and didn't figure out what the strange pain was until a few hours later when it worked itself in deep enough that I couldn't ignore it anymore. I think this only happens if I've let my hair grow too long, so now I avoid this.

Thankfully, more and more drug stores seem to carry DE blades. Thanks to your comment I googled around a bit and found a cover:

https://getrockwell.com/products/rockwell-genuine-leather-sh...

Yep, I've had two electric razors in my adult life (now in my late 40's) and they do the job well enough for me. Need periodically washed out and regularly charged, but apart from that they're maintenance free.

Both Philips, only got rid of the first one as it got broken by being knocked off a high shelf.

The idea of shaving being expensive, just seems ... odd.

Same for me; I've used Philips/Norelco rotary shavers for almost[1] all of my 45+ shaving years. As the battery technology has gotten better (NiCd: awful!; NiMh: decent; Li-Ion: wow!), the shavers last longer and longer; I bought a dup of my current shaver on sale for $20 as a backup maybe 5 years ago, but it's still unopened.

So the idea that "shaving is getting expensive" strikes me as silly; I'm sure you could spend thousands if you wanted to, but that's a choice.

[1] I tried a Braun "wet or dry" shaver, but one drop in the shower was the end of that "upscale purchase".

Got a Moser 1400 years ago for like 30€ or so, it just works. For a plain presentable 1mm trim in 2 minutes every few days, it's more than enough.

And I never cut myself or get razor burn with an electric razor. I also don't have to worry about running out of shaving cream or whether my shaving cream is too big to pack on an airplane.

I switched to electric years ago and will never go back.

"I also don't have to worry about running out of shaving cream or whether my shaving cream is too big to pack on an airplane."

You don't actually need shaving cream to shave with a non-electric razor. You could just use soap -- which is hopefully available wherever you travel.

You also don't need electricity.

The manufacturers already thought of that. Now there's Philips Oneblade, electric razors where you have to replace the blades like with manual razors.

I broke one of those simply taking it out of the packaging. I was flabbergasted how fragile the thing was when I really looked at it.

And on the other end, manual safety razors that need a battery (e.g. Gilette Power Fusion).

I've replaced the blade on mine like once in years... I'm honestly surprised by the different experience. Maybe it's because I use a trimmer on the lowest setting before trying to do a real "shave", so any stubble is short.

I have a weird combination of skin type and hair. My skin will inflame if I use an electric razor, even using a cheap 2 layer razor will make me itch and scratch for a week. The two things that do work are shaper electric ones (can't get a close shave with that) and 3 blade cartridge ones. Thankfully I can get away with rarely grooming completely, just use the shaper.

I think that's true for everyone, definitely for me and my acquaintances.

The only thing that works well are multi blade cartridges or two passes with a double edged razor (never tried a straight razor).

I think it's preference. I started out using electric when I first started shaving when I was like 16 or something. As soon as I tried actual razors I couldn't go back. Been like 26 years now.

I guess it’s hard to imagine the upsides of straight razors justifying the (apparent) downsides. I mean, other than a somewhat closer shave, it seems like everything else about them is worse (expense, waste, time/effort, mess, cuts/removing skin, ingrown hairs).

It’s a little pedantic, but what you’re calling “straight razor”, you probably mean “disposable razor” or “cartridge razor”. There is also “safety razor” which has replaceable blade, shown in the article. The “straight razor” looks like a long foldable knife.

So TFA addresses the expense/waste issue. If you're using a safety razor (or a leaf[1] if you prefer the multi blade style), and are buying blades from feather or similar.

Technique will eliminate ingrown hairs/cuts etc,

The exfoliation provided by using a razor (disposable, safety, or straight) is something some people find desirable (see also microblading) YMMV

Time and effort is more interesting to me. For me the time spent shaving (and on other parts of self care) is part of the value of shaving in the first place. This isn't a process that I choose to speed up

As for travelling, I use a soap puck rather than shaving foam or cream, so TSA doesn't care about that, blades are more of a crap shoot.

[1] https://leafshave.com — I use one of these for armpits and back hair, and then a traditional style merker for face

It's not about "closer shave." Electric razors never get close enough for me. Complete areas of my face they do nothing to and it just causes irritation on my skin. Frustrating, takes way too long vs my DE razor.

> (expense, waste, time/effort, mess, cuts/removing skin, ingrown hairs).

Eh, shaving isn't that hard. I know we've gotten lazy but holy crap. A DE shave never results in any of that for me. Shower, lather, apply, shave. 5 minutes.

Here's a video of a guy shaving with a double-edged safety razor in 5 minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdyU9qItBMA

It could be done faster too, because he does a lot of stuff that is unnecessary.

You need to have the skin for it.

I have a DE razor and am using it for the weekend or other special occasions only because the fast way is too fast for my skin and beard (beard is like steel...). I need it properly prepared and that takes more time than I want to spend in the morning on normal days. I use an electric one than.

And I mean, why not? I quite enjoy to take some time if I don't have to wake up early for it. I listen to my audiobook and do it properly.

It's weird that men still shave at all to be honest. The world is casual enough that you're not expected to have a "close" shave. I use a Wahl Peanut with no guard, takes maybe one minute. Costs $65 and lasts 5 years easily.

You can also use it to give yourself a buzz cut, if you're so inclined, and save even more money.

Believe it or not, some men like the look and feel of a close shave. And for many, saving money is not a number one priority when getting a hair cut.

That'a fair, I believe it. I've tried it and do like it.

But the marginal gain in closeness I get from a wet shave versus the method mentioned above, when paired with cost, razor burn / irritation / breakouts, and cuts, doesn't seem worth it to me.

It makes you look younger, that's probably the fundamental benefit (same reason women shave).

And plenty have partners with one preference or another...

As a brown man living in a post 9/11 United States, I get treated extremely differently when I have a beard vs when I am clean shaven.

Your talking about electric 'shavers'. "Electric razors" AFAIK don't exist. There are plenty of good options for keeping your hair neat but I've never seen of one that can give you the type of clean shave you get with a plain ol fashioned razor, at least not if you have coarse/dark hair.

I've tried three different electrics and in every case the performance degraded over time making them less comfortable to use. A replacement head restored the original performance, but it was not inexpensive. I'd estimate the costs were not very different from cartridge razors for a typical user who would not be able to replace the batteries when they wear out. Options that take AC power or use field-replaceable batteries would be better, but those don't seem to be the norm now.

I use a straight razor now. The initial cost was high and there's a learning curve, but comfort is great ongoing costs are minimal: shaving soap (much cheaper than anything that comes in a can, even for premium options) and cubic boron nitride paste for my strop (this is not conventional).

I’ll add my support for electrics too.

I shave my head as well as my face, and I’ve only gone through two razors in 15 years. I’m only a couple years into using the second one.

The first one I actually broke down, cleaned, and partially repaired several times. I replaced wiring that had corroded and had to replace small parts. I suppose I might be on my third by now if I couldn’t repair stuff.

They do the job quickly and make it so a regular razor is easier to use if you want that close of a shave. I rarely care that much because the electric gets almost indiscernibly close by my standards

I also use electric. Bought a very cheap one in college and now a decade later only now needed to replace it because the battery stopped holding a charge and had to keep it plugged in while using it. About annually I would put a drop of oil on it and that’s all.

Now I recently purchased a very expensive version (comparatively) and it does the same job.

>"I get that they have some downsides, but if we’re talking about the expense/waste of straight razors, then it would make sense to consider electric razors."

I've tried using electric, even expensive ones few times in my life but had always ended up with skin irritation starting to develop. No soup for me ;(

I think you mean disposable razors, because straight razors are the least wasteful.

What electric razor do you recommend?

The generic answer is the Braun Series 7 7071cc. That's a "good enough" electric razor for most people.

Because the existence of one sensible alternative doesn't negate the prolific success of an insensible one.

This blog post is about industry shoving wasteful and overpriced new trends down our throats, not about the best way to shave.

All good points. But the biggest thread on this post isn’t about shaving at all, it’s about cast iron pans.

I use my cast-iron pan before I leave for work, then I shave my face on the way using a ladies' electric single-foil type.

Actually these came with a trimmer on each side of the foil which you need when taking down a full bush, but I remove these and just use the foil.

It takes a lot of passes but I have plenty of time while traveling.

Brush & blow it out completely every time.

I tried reversing the procedure and shaving before I left for work, but the cast-iron skillet proved about as useful as tits on a bull while commuting.

Fortunately, the lady who gave me the shaver and the skillet decided not to use them while commuting herself, so here I am the lucky one.

Any suggestions please?