6 Reasons Why Every Man Needs To Shave With A Classic Razor

Now that the beard is no longer in favour, those looking to stand out from the crowd are opting to go back to the clean shaven look. But after months of effortlessly getting out of bed with nothing to do but shower, brush your teeth and perhaps get dressed, going back to the morning shaving routine can seem like a fairly dull prospect.

The fight against facial hair can be a depressingly futile battle as every day your beard comes back unwavering, stronger than ever whilst you come away battered and bruised, not just in resolve but the irritation left on the skin such as razor burn, ingrown hairs and occasional cuts.

For a long time the accepted answer to this problem has been the increasing number of blades attached to one’s razor.

After years of seeing razors acquire more and more blades but seeing no appreciable difference in shave quality, it is time to come to the uncomfortable truth; multi-bladed cartridge razors aren’t doing a very good job.

This realisation isn’t actually that surprising when you come to remember that cartridge razors were designed with convenience in mind. Their job is to remove stubble as fast as possible so you can get on with your day but, as with anything that places a focus on convenience, often quality is lost along the way. For this reason there has been a huge resurgence in the use of the traditional double edge safety razor and the shaving traditions of old.

Not only does it give a better shave, with less irritation but most find that shaving in this way is fun.

what is traditional wet shaving

What is a traditional wet shave?
double edge razorA traditional wet shave involves keeping your face sufficiently lubricated throughout shaving to minimise all potential for irritation.

It consists of a double edge (safety) razor, a shaving brush, and shaving soap/cream. Each is important for making the most of your shave.

A good quality shaving soap/cream will create a stable lather that remains throughout the shave as well as providing moisturising properties that will benefit the skin. The shaving brush is used to whip the soap/cream into the desired consistency so that it remains slick and easy for the razor to glide over, as well as providing mild exfoliation to the skin removing dead skin cells and lifting hairs, priming them for shaving. The razor itself allows the user control to cut hairs at the correct angle to minimise irritation.

Below we outline the 6 main reasons why every man should learn how to wet shave properly.

1. Gives a more comfortable, close shave.
It only takes a single razor sharp blade to cut through the hairs that grow on your face. Let that sink in for a second, just one blade is needed to effectively remove stubble. With the heavy marketing that accompanies the multi-bladed cartridge system it can be easy to forget the significance of this fact.

It is important to understand that each time you run a razor blade along your face, cutting the hairs, you are also scraping away thin layers of skin with it. Pressing too hard or going over the same area repeatedly can lead to irritation which is known as razor burn, as you remove the lipid barrier protecting the skin and expose the epidermis underneath.

Therefore using a 5-bladed razor means each pass on the skin is the equivalent of going over the same spot 5 times! The blades are placed in at a very steep angle to allow space for debris to escape but this causes them to scrape along the skin rather than cleanly cut the hair.

Furthermore, due to the design of pivot-able cartridge heads, pressure needs to be applied to allow it to adjust to the contours of your face which will only amplify the amount of irritation. The simplicity of using a single blade can be beneficial in reducing irritation as you can control how often you go over the same area, minimise the pressure being applied and control the angle you cut at.

So What brand of razor is the best??

For one; excellent marketing has convinced you to, and many believe the main reason we see razors with an extra blade attached every few years is because companies are chasing the high profits they can gain by exploiting the patent system. A patented product can be sold with a nice profit margin as no-one else is allowed to make it but when that patent runs out everyone jumps on the bandwagon, driving down the price and profits.

By making a slight tweak, such as an extra blade, and patenting it, those profits can continue to be achieved. The increasing reliance of razor manufacturers adding extra blades to their products led the Economist to predict it wouldn’t be long before we are seeing the 14 bladed razor!

why wet shave2. Better for your skin in the long run.
A poor shave can cause all sorts of problems, razor burn is notoriously uncomfortable and can last for a few hours to a number of days depending on severity, it can also be embarrassingly visible.

Razor bumps, which are closely related to ingrown hairs, are usually caused by hair growing inward rather than out of the follicle, but can also be caused when the hair develops a kink and turns back into the skin.

Ingrown hairs are typically caused by going against the direction of hair growth and, ironically, by cartridge razors. This is because their multiple blades are designed to lift up the base of the hair with the first blade so that the subsequent blades can cut as low down as possible but often it is cut so low that, when released, it falls back below the surface of the skin where it has the potential to then become ingrown.

Over the long term, using inferior shaving tools and poor technique leading to regular razor burn causes the skin to be over exfoliated, which has been linked to premature aging, so it is extra important that you shave in a way that doesn’t cause this.

Not only is the choice of razor important for your skin but also the other products you combine it with. Shaving foam uses propellants so that it comes out of its pressurised container in the convenient manner of instantly available foam. But these ingredients aren’t actually good for the skin and over the long term will dry it out.

Using a shaving soap or cream is a far better alternative because they are made with moisturising properties in mind. What’s more, the lather they generate is made up and applied with a shaving brush which provides gentle exfoliation to the skin, lifting up hairs to prime them for shaving and in turn helping to prevent ingrowing.