The safety razor is the original razor blade for men that was put into commercial production following the straight edge razor. It’s a so-called safety razor because unlike the straight razor which is an open blade that scrapes directly against the skin, the safety razor – or Double Edge (DE) razor as it’s more commonly known – sits snug inside a handle. Rather than holding the blade directly against your skin, your hold the razor handle against your face with the sharp blade held inside.
So when you hear safety razor, double edge razor or DE razor, it refers to the same thing. We’ll refer to them as DE razors moving forward to be clear.
DE Razor Benefits
One of the main benefits of the DE razor is that it has a single blade. This means there are fewer sharp metal blades scraping your skin, less clogging of the blade cartridge with shaved hair and shaving cream, and less chance of ingrown hairs and razor burn as a result. DE razors also tend to be cost effective as the blade replacements are relatively cheap. Since DE razors have existed since the early 1900s, patents have expired and many companies produce them. As they are of a simple design, they are also cheap to make. And quite frankly, most men don’t use them anymore as disposables are more prevalent so DE razors need to be cheap as a result.
DE Razor Experience
I’ve written about my recent experiences with a DE razor on this website which you can read on my page called Classic Wilkinson Sword Double Edge Razor Review as well as my follow up post called DE Razor Update: My Personal Experience With A Double Edge. The picture you see above is a photo of the exact Wilkinson double edge razor product that I use.
Here are some updated comments in that regard.
Razor Burn
DE razors are supposed to decrease the chance that you suffer from razor burn as you only have a single blade touching your skin. And for some men, this may be true. I generally don’t get razor burn on my face and never get it on my scalp. The first few times I shaved my face using a DE razor I had the worst razor burn I can recall on my neck. Red welts and cuts that took several days to heal. I can’t recall experiencing that with a disposable razor, certainly not this bad.
While this has decreased as I’ve used the DE blade over time, I still cut myself far more frequently than I’d like.
Shaving Routine
For some men, shaving is an art and an event. For me, it’s something I do take an interest in – hence my creation of this website – but quite frankly I want to shave and be done with it. I’m not interested in spending time clotting and fixing cuts and irritated skin. I generally don’t cut myself shaving with disposables and when I do it’s because I typically got a bit careless or perhaps pushed it and kept a blunt disposable blade too long without replacing it.
With the DE razor, I find myself shaving much slower and more carefully and still cut myself more frequently than I’d like. Perhaps your experience is different but that’s what I’ve faced so far. It’s simply not worth the time or benefits given the side effects I’m experiencing.
Summary
In a nutshell, I’ve found my DE razor experience to be relatively poor. I cut myself far more frequently than with the disposable razors that I generally use and the cuts are worse. The cuts sting and whatever benefit(s) I might achieve with a DE razor is nullified by the cuts and the aftershaving treatment I need to do as a result of the bleeding. Even though I shave slower with the DE razor, I still cut myself to the point where I will go back to using disposables. In fact I’m mostly using disposables again and am quite happy with them. What I will do moving forward is replace the cartridges more frequently as I do have a tendency to keep them longer than I should.