Safety Razors- All You Need to Know

Now for my personal favourite: the safety razor. The safety razor was developed as an alternative to the more dangerous and trickier straight edge. The razor really stated its claim in the industry when Gillette first supplied the US army with 3.5 million razors and 32 million blades through World War I.

The safety razor concept consists of the use of a guard to prevent the small blade from cutting the skin.

This was a huge step forward in terms of wet shaving, as a razor was now readily available which could be used relatively easily in comparison to its predecessor, the cut throat.

The availabilty of disposable blades further aided the rise in popularity of the safety razor, and many people had replaced the cut throat or their trip to the barbers in favour of the convenient safety razor.

Sadly the introduction of multi blade safety razors saw a fall in the popularity of the traditional double edge, but there is still a huge market for the razors thanks to 'traditional' wet shavers, who favour a shave cream or soap, along with a shaving brush and a traditional razor.

Merkur are one of the dominant producers of safety razors today, with Parker being another contender in today's traditional safety razor market. Whilst it is more difficult to find such razors in everyday convenience stores or pharmacies, there is an incredible selection of double edge safety razors available online.

Whats more, the blades for the such razors are much cheaper thank the multi blade counterparts, and I find they give much less irritation when correct shave technique is used.

In terms of a razor which is cheap to use, safe and gives a really close shave with little irritation, I don't think the double edge can be beaten, but that is simply an opinion. It is best to try all types and find out which is best for you.

When learning to shave with the traditional safety razor, my main resource was the Mantic59 videos on YouTube, which are simply brilliant. They give you an overview of the A-Z of traditional wet shaving, giving information on products and technique alike. Check them out if you are new to traditional wet shaving. If you are familiar with the concepts of traditional wet shaving then my guess is that you're familiar with Mantic already. If you're not, its worth having a look anyway.