- Joined
- Thursday December 26, 2013
- Location
- London, UK
The DE safety razor has been around for over one hundred years; those of us who use them know the answer can't be to get a closer shave. The DE razor once mastered will give as close a shave as you want.
Perhaps it was a desire to make shaving easier, and with no learning curve. Remove the need acquire a “feel†for your razor. No need for brushes, bowls, and soaps. Just squirt some foam from a can on your face, shave it off in one easy pass with one of the multi blade cartridge, and the job's done. If this is the case the manufacturers aren't there yet. It's true that a multi blade cartridge makes several passes in very rapid succession, albeit in the same direction. In theory at least the floating cartridge head will hold the blades at the correct cutting angle automatically. However we all know that good technique with brush, lather, and razor, will produce an acceptable shave with even the most basic disposable razor. Ignoring those techniques will produce an awful shave no matter how sophisticated the razor.
Is to make shaving sexy? Ads for razors on TV are certainly making a good go at it!
My theory is commerce. A three piece DE safety razor is three pieces of metal with a cheap disposable DE blade sandwiched between them. The problem the manufacturer has is that for it to work at all, the fit of those pieces has to be very precise. Precise fit means precise engineering. Precise engineering tends mean quality manufacturing. This in turn means that the average three piece razor, if looked after will last it's user a lifetime. Prior to cartridge razors most men would only buy two or three razors in their lifetime. My Grandfather had the same razor the whole time I was aware that he shaved.
It's not really possible to build in obsolescence, and you can't charge a great deal for three pieces of metal. How many of us have looked at an Ikon Shave Craft razor and been shocked by the price. You can only charge a few pennies for a slither of metal sharpened on two parallel edges.
There is in my opinion a two pronged attack from high street brands to increase revenue.
1) Ensure that DE blades are increasingly hard to come by in your local chemist. I stopped using my DE razor in the early nineties. I stupidly threw it away! All because the blade I liked was increasingly hard to find. I came back to it last year because of the easy availability of blades on line, and forums like this to show me where to find them. I've since caught a mild form of RAD which ruins the argument a bit, but (that's) another story.
2) Ensure that each new “development†in cartridge blade sets requires a new handle. I refuse to call them razors. This causes a lot of users to give up on buying just the blade sets. Instead they buy a combined handle and cartridge, and then throw it all way when it becomes dull.
Do you think I'm being paranoid or is there more than a grain of truth here?
Perhaps it was a desire to make shaving easier, and with no learning curve. Remove the need acquire a “feel†for your razor. No need for brushes, bowls, and soaps. Just squirt some foam from a can on your face, shave it off in one easy pass with one of the multi blade cartridge, and the job's done. If this is the case the manufacturers aren't there yet. It's true that a multi blade cartridge makes several passes in very rapid succession, albeit in the same direction. In theory at least the floating cartridge head will hold the blades at the correct cutting angle automatically. However we all know that good technique with brush, lather, and razor, will produce an acceptable shave with even the most basic disposable razor. Ignoring those techniques will produce an awful shave no matter how sophisticated the razor.
Is to make shaving sexy? Ads for razors on TV are certainly making a good go at it!
My theory is commerce. A three piece DE safety razor is three pieces of metal with a cheap disposable DE blade sandwiched between them. The problem the manufacturer has is that for it to work at all, the fit of those pieces has to be very precise. Precise fit means precise engineering. Precise engineering tends mean quality manufacturing. This in turn means that the average three piece razor, if looked after will last it's user a lifetime. Prior to cartridge razors most men would only buy two or three razors in their lifetime. My Grandfather had the same razor the whole time I was aware that he shaved.
It's not really possible to build in obsolescence, and you can't charge a great deal for three pieces of metal. How many of us have looked at an Ikon Shave Craft razor and been shocked by the price. You can only charge a few pennies for a slither of metal sharpened on two parallel edges.
There is in my opinion a two pronged attack from high street brands to increase revenue.
1) Ensure that DE blades are increasingly hard to come by in your local chemist. I stopped using my DE razor in the early nineties. I stupidly threw it away! All because the blade I liked was increasingly hard to find. I came back to it last year because of the easy availability of blades on line, and forums like this to show me where to find them. I've since caught a mild form of RAD which ruins the argument a bit, but (that's) another story.
2) Ensure that each new “development†in cartridge blade sets requires a new handle. I refuse to call them razors. This causes a lot of users to give up on buying just the blade sets. Instead they buy a combined handle and cartridge, and then throw it all way when it becomes dull.
Do you think I'm being paranoid or is there more than a grain of truth here?