Zero Waste Shaving

Thank you for joining along as my plastic free journey continues. The next step I took to being plastic free, and admittedly it took me awhile to continue this journey, was purchasing the safety razor. Disposable razors are made up of, you guessed it, plastic, and to reduce my use of plastic I decided to try the safety razor. 

The safety razor has been around for a long time, much longer than the disposable razor, the first patent was in 1880 but the concept of a safety razor has been around even longer. The safety razor is called that because there is a barrier between the skin and the razor, this was to reduce the level of skill needed and prevents injuries.  By reducing the skill needed to shave they also reduced dependency on barbers. This was in a time where shaving was a predominately male grooming habit and living out in the sticks was not conducive to traveling into town and seeing the barber all the time.

The safety razor lets you change out the blade when it becomes dull, and all the parts are made out of metal, very eco-friendly, and when you do change a blade they are easily recycled.  

I bought the Merkur safety razor and a pack of 100 Astra Platinum double edge blades on amazon for $40.43 and $8.49 respectively. In comparison a 4 pack of Target brand disposable razors cost $3.99. Assuming you switch out the razor/blade once a month the disposable razors cost $1 a month, and if we look at the cost of the safety razor over 100 months, since the blades came in 100 pack and the safety razor never needs to be replaces, the cost is $0.50 per month with the safety razor. At that rate it will take a little over a year to cover the initial cost of the safety razor and razor blades.

Using the safety razor was easier than I initially thought, it was really no different than using another razor, but I now always use shaving cream or body wash whereas when I used to use a disposable razor, I wouldn’t always use shaving cream or body wash. Ok so I did have a difficult time figuring out how to put in the razor initially, pro tip the top screws off, but with some help from my mom I am now a pro.

Happy Sunday!!