A Close Shave While Travelling
Most of us will wonder what to do about shaving in far of lands. Electric or Blade? Should we even bother?
If you do shave leave the cream at home and use oil instead, a small tube of oil will last even longer, be lighter and take up less space in your pack plus most people find they actually prefer it anyway.
Getting your hands on replacement blades for you razor might not be as hard as you think but it still may be more of a hassle than you really want to bother with, if your touring Europe, the US\Canada, Australia then you may as well continue with your usual stuff. In places like the Japan, Hong Kong and similar areas in Asia and the Middle East you could do the same or buying what you need there may even be cheaper than at home.
The other alternative is of course electric, if you buy smartly it really shouldn’t need to be much bulkier than a blade, only charging it might be a problem. Of course the shave is never as good as a blade but it will get you by and really when travelling all you really need to do is get by.
If your off to some far flung place where an electric won’t last you only realy have two options, a blade with as many spares as you might need or nothing. Best thing to do no matter where you go is ask yourself or a local “what do the locals do?”. Unless you’re obsessive about not having a beard just follow their lead, you’ll fit in more and it might even make you more comfortable too.
Barbers can be an excellent option and an experience if you’ve never had a shave by one, what could be better than leaving it all up to someone else?
And last of all I have not forgotten the mighty straight razor, the do it all of shaving. Just don’t think about picking one up the day before you leave or soon after arriving if you’ve never used one before, there is a good reason they are also known as a cutthroat.
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How long does a double edge blade last? How good of a shave will a blade give?
As with a “cut-throat” razor it depends on the sharpness of the blade and the durability/hardness of the steel.
Has anyone looked at the edge of various maker’s double edge blades under a 10 power magnifying glass, or, better yet, a microscope, to see if they can see a difference in the blade edges?
I looked at a Schick, and a Merkur, under a 10X glass. The Merkur, even at only 10X, has a rough edge. The Schick has a much smoother edge.
I checked this out after using one of each blade. The Schick gave me 25 good shaves before it started pulling,
The Merkur blade gave me a worse (it pulled more) shave on the first shave than the Schick did after 25 shaves. (Was the Merkur a counterfeit??)
I used to get 60 good shaves out of the Gillette Blue Blade. Now I am doing good to get 30 out of stainless steel, platinum, etc.
Seems the blade makers are just not putting as good of an edge on their blades just so they will get duller faster.
I have not tried the Feather Blades yet, but have ordered some, as they have a reputation for sharpness.
A person should be able to tell just how long, comparatively, a blade will last just by looking at its edge under a microscope.
The whole thing seems to be a “sting” operation though, as sharp blades could go out for weeks and then start sending out less sharp ones.