Shave smart and save money: safety razor vs cartridge razor

How can you save a lot of money on razor blades?

Customers often ask us: 'Those 3- or 5-blade cartridge razors from Gillette or Wilkinson cost an insane amount of money. Can't it be cheaper?' It also often happens that customers call us and say: 'Dear sir, I'm completely fed up! I'm paying a fortune for those ridiculously expensive razors at the supermarket. You get 'screwed' (excuse the word) wherever you go!' It must indeed be said: 'Those razors cost a lot of money.' For a pack of 4 blades from Gillette Mach3 or Fusion, you pay an average of more than €4.00 each. The Boldking blades also cost €3.00 each. If you choose a Boldking subscription, they are a bit cheaper, namely €2.50/1. The double edge razors for the safety razor cost an average of €0.35 each.

But how much will you save annually or during your beard and shaving life? We let our gray cells work a little and calculated it for you.

How many times can you shave with one blade?

In the calculation below, we will of course base our assumptions on some average values. The number of shaves per razor blade is an important assumption. From our own experience, we know that you can use a double edge blade on average 5 times. Again, this is an average. The cheap DE blades from the Turkish Derby become much less sharp after 1 or 2 uses. With the more expensive blades from Personna or Feather, you can easily shave well 7 times. How often you can use a blade also depends on the type of beard. A razor blade has little trouble with a thin and fluffy beard. On the other hand, the same blade may become dull after a few shaves if it has to cut through very coarse stubble.

How many times can you shave with a Mach3 or Fusion razor from Gillette? We did a little research. On the Gillette website, it states that you can easily use a blade for up to a month. This is, of course, a worthless and meaningless statement to the question: 'How many times can you shave with their blades?' What we often hear from our customers is that you can use a Gillette or Wilkinson blade about 7 times. On various forums and blogs, you read that you can shave 7 to 10 times with the cartridge blade. For our calculation, we will assume 9 shaves.

The number of shaves per week also varies from person to person. Most men shave during the week and not always on the weekend. If you have light beard growth, you also don't need to shave every day. For our calculation, we will assume 3 shaves per week.

Cost savings safety razor vs cartridge razor

Regarding the purchase price of a double edge razor blade, we assume the average prices on our webshop: € 0.35 per blade. The recommended retail prices for a cartridge with 8 pieces of Gillette Mach3 and 8 pieces of Fusion ProGlide blades are € 24.99 and € 39.99, respectively. The average purchase price per blade is € 4.06. At the drugstore, you often see nice offers for Gillette or Wilkinson blades. For our calculation, we use the regular recommended retail prices. Well, you have to start somewhere.

Below are the assumptions for our calculation of costs and savings:

1. Age: 18 to 75 years
2. Number of years a man shaves: 57 years
3. Average number of shaves per week: 3
4. Average number of shaves per cartridge razor blade: 9
5. Average number of shaves per double edge razor blade: 5
6. Recommended retail price for Gillette Mach3 and Fusion ProGlide cartridge razor blades: € 3.12 and € 5.00 each
7. Average recommended retail price for double edge razor blades: € 0.35 each