I was cycling into work last week when the Bullshit-Meter™ in my pocket went off. Looking around I couldn’t see any obvious cause beyond the normal ambient level of London bullshit. Then I saw the problem on the side of a bus waiting in traffic on London Bridge – an advert for HARRY’S razor blades.
Could it be true disposable razors were an expensive rip-off and an environmental catastrophe? All wrapped up in some clever marketing bullshit to hide these facts? The Bullmeister needed to investigate.
Now, these guys from HARRY’s have a huge advertising budget and an interesting sell – you’re no fool and are not going to pay over the odds for the market-leading brand of razor. They’re old hat and we’re the new boys in town so join the smart savvy set and get onboard. They promote a subscription model where you take regular delivery of disposable razor blades and/or shaving gel.
Their website is certainly pretty slick and features Harry Kane. He is a famous footballer that shaves. I wonder how much they were paying this already rich footballer. The blurb says, ‘His name is Harry. Our name is Harry’s. But there’s a lot more to this new partnership than a shared name’. They need to sack the copywriter. According to the promotional video, Harry Kane is not afraid to be different, nor to tell his daughter that he loves her. Sweet. What has this got to do with razor blades again? Apart from how this syrupy shit just makes me want to slash my wrists with one.
It’s bullshit. How were these blades any different from all the other expensive rip-off disposable razors? Do they think we’re stupid? But the Bullmeister was curious. This needed further investigation.
So, in the interests of journalistic research, I pretended to swallow this crap and sent away for a trial pack. At £3.95 the trial is cheap so as to entice you in. And hence was good for a laugh at modest cost. The website is a minefield of up-selling traps before you get to the final payment page but they guarantee your money back if you’re not happy. Already, I’m not happy. The package arrived 3 days later.
A big box for one small razor 
More plastic for the landfill 
At least it didn’t come in a blister pack 
Simple cardboard. Nothing much to complain about here Little hope of recycling any of this cartridge 
5 blades – 5x the iratation?
There is no denying the packaging is very slick and professional – remember it is you that is paying for this. That all went straight into the bin to add to the landfill.
The razor itself is an injection moulded cartridge with 5 blades on the main part of the razor. Because these are set back so far from the edge there is also an extra blade on the tip to enable trimming of awkward areas. 6 blades in total. Wow. What will they think of next?
Despite the ridiculous number of blades the actual shave performance was OK. It was certainly very different from my usual double edge razor. It felt more akin to shaving your face with a file, albeit a very sharp one. The gel was thick and very smooth. Really is was not very different from every other disposable razor I’ve ever used. Any small difference would be a classic case of Exaggerated Small Difference Syndrome.
So, all well and good but this is the thing – the HARRY’s razor was not as good as my normal MÜHLE R89 double edge safety razor.
The safety razor with its single very sharp blade set at the perfect angle cuts more cleanly and plenty close enough to produce a smooth shave. It’s very controllable and doesn’t require a trimming accessory as the blade is close to the edge. Awkward areas like under the nose are no problem. The safety razor also seems less inclined to cause a rash. I might even be tempted to say with only a single blade as opposed to 5, it was 5 times less likely.
MÜHLE R89 safety razor with Astra blades and Arko saving soap. 
Beautifully machined chrome plated solid brass. A delight to look at and to use.
The double edge would be my first choice under any circumstances. And that is before we even look at the performance of part worn blades (double edge razor blades are so cheap that, unlike cartridge razors, there is never any question of eking out extra use from dull blades).
Then there are the environmental considerations. The HARRY’S disposable razor and aluminium aerosol gel canisters produce a mountain of waste, much of which is impractical to recycle. The double edge safety razor after a years use, produces nothing more than a tiny amount of cardboard, paper wrap from the shaving soap and a small amount of waxed paper. There is the small problem of disposing of the old naked blades after they are finished. This is solved with the addition of a plastic medical waste bin (£6). My 500ml tub will take 70 years to fill at current rates. You read that right – a lifetime of shaving leaving nothing more than some easily recycled low-chromium steel.
But here is the real gotcha. The double edge razor works out around 20 times cheaper while producing 1/30 the waste!
Let’s do the maths.
| Safety Razors 1 years supplies |
| 50 blades 1 bar of Arko shaving soap |
| ~25 grams of waste (easy to recycle) |
| £5.80 |
| HARRY’S razors 1 years subscription |
| 8 Blades & Shaving Gel – every 2 months |
| ~750 grams of waste (difficult to recycle) |
| £114.00 |
Of course that cost comparison doesn’t include the purchase of the MÜHLE R89 razor (£32.50) but that is a once in a lifetime purchase which I’m going to ignore. And anyway it is such a thing of beauty that it hardly counts as a distress purchase, unlike the plastic disposable crap. These old school razors are just so cool and manly. Lets face it – we all know the real James Bond wouldn’t shave with a disposable plastic HARRY’S Truman or Gillette Pro Fusion Electra Glide Rapide IV, or whatever is the latest name dreamt up my their marketing department. The MÜHLE is that most pleasurable of purchases – something of real lasting quality and beauty that saves you money in the long run! The same can be said for a good shaving brush which you will also need (badger hair is best).
In fact the only things the disposable razor had it its favour was the very low initial costs and the fact that it might be easier to use at first for someone that had never been taught how to shave properly. It is the razor manufacturer’s business model to exploit these hurdles – customers unwilling (or unable) to stump up the initial costs in time and money to start using the classic safety razor.
So, the double edge safety razor is just plain better in every way. And therein lies the real issue here. Why aren’t we all using these cheap, environmentally friendly razors?
How we got here
Disposable razors solve a problem that does not exist. The double edge safety razor King Camp Gillette designed was a damned near perfect design but it became the thing that all brands fear the most – an open-source design that can be copied by anyone. Companies can’t add enough value to make supernormal profits and have to compete on quality and price alone. Something they are not interested in doing.
There was a time when most men used this type of razor and were very happy. In many countries around the world they still do today. They were certainly an improvement over the cut throat razors that came before them. So, why did things change?
Advertising is why. Disposable razor manufacturers wanted you to imagine the safety razor was old fashioned and something only your Dad would use. Not something a bright young thing would be seen with. No company was going to advertise an open source design when there was no money in it for them and it would in any case also benefits similar rival manufactures of the same base design. Certainly not when there was more money in promoting their own proprietary deposable designs.
Companies and their advertisers are not bothered about your best interests and this is a prime example. In this case they don’t want you to get the best shave for the cheapest price. They want you to pay over the odds for their rip-off products. They do this by adding ‘innovative’ new designs and products of dubious value and add marketing spin to the mix. The Bullmeister had fallen for this in the past. It’s one of the best examples why I don’t watch advertisements and make a point of ignoring all marketing bullshit. You may think you are smart and you not influenced but you are. Often in ways you do not realise. I thought I was being smart by avoiding the clearly rip-off leading brand (Gillette I’m looking at you) and plumping for an alternative disposable razor. But in fact, all I’d done was buy an ever so slightly less rip-off brand. In a world without advertisements I would have been using double edge safety razors all along.
And all the while we are destroying this beautiful planet we all share in order to manufacture and dispose of this crap that we didn’t need in the first place. We are also impoverishing ourselves in the process. It is a sad fact the most shoplifted items in the UK are expensive razor blades – so desperate are some people to acquire this crap. You’ve got to ask yourself who is stealing from who here!
Finally, I wanted to say that I’m sure Harry Kane loves his daughter and that he is a nice man. But he has lots of money.
I also love my daughter. And there, I’m not afraid to say it either. But I’m not going to impoverish her by wasting the family’s precious resources buying overpriced, environmentally damaging bullshit razors. Aren’t the landfills full enough of this crap already? Once again the Bullshit-Meter™ saves the day and puts me one further step toward financial freedom, and in the process makes the world just that little bit better.
The Bullmeister