Cut-price razors – are replacement blades too expensive?

Yes, grow a beard!

I woke up to this a few years ago and now I have about 1 shave every 2 weeks as a result. I may look scruffy but I don’t care, my wife thinks that I look rugged! 🙂

I use a Wilkinson razor – rarely need to replace the blade – I am using the same blade for over a year still works – Still have three of the four blades I bought when I bought the set. I do have a goatee style beard and moustache. Like others I tried an electric razor – totally useless except to trim the length of the beard and moustache hair. The wet razor gives a superior smoothness on the skin. I seem to get a set of free blades with a new style razor each time. By the time I need a new set of blades – the razor is out of fashion and blades hard to find.

I have given up on buying replacement blades as they are too expensive as your research confirms. I use Bic sensitive disposables which come in packs of 3 and I find they last me around 2/3 months. I only need to shave around twice a week so am quite lucky I guess.

Razor blades are a rip off for what they are, a little bit of metal surrounded by moulded plastic. None of them give what I would call a decent shave, so I use Gillette disposable types which cost about £3/£4 for a pack of 8 (it used to be ten, but they reduced the amount in a pack a while ago), the trouble is, Im lucky if a blade last for a couple of shaves, which isnt good value for money in my opinion. Isnt it about time Trading Standards or whoever, looked into the price of blades, and got the prices reduced?

I found that buying the supermarket own brand razors reduces the cost over branded products by nearly half and they are offered at reduced price more often throughout the year. They tend to do the same blade types (ASDA do a 5 blade system @ £5 for 4 heads) and each lasts a week easily. I use gel rather than foam and definitely get a closer shave than with my electric shaver which is ‘Which’ best buy.

It’s surprising that Which? this month recommends using cream or lather for an effective shave, yet fails to mention shaving oil. I’ve been using this for several years now and find it far superior to cream, lather or foam, which scrape off at the first stroke and leave the face dry and unlubricated.

You know I’m right. Have you ever seen a hairy frog?!!

I moved from electric to wet shave about 3 years ago and worked my way down from an expensive multi blade to an old Gillette safety razor (£5 on eBay) with traditional DE blades. Each blade lasts me about a month and costs about 20p. I use a Palmolive shaving stick with a brush and that costs less than a pound and lasts 6 months… My shaving costs are now around £4/year and I get a better shave than with the electric (and only occasionally nick myself…). I do use electric for holiday travel though.

I use FIGARO twin blade disposable razors. Cost 1 Euro for 10. I get about 15 shaves per razor. (Must have a soft beard.) Annual cost Euro 2.40. A shaving gel such as Gilette helps to obtain best possible shave. Lubricating strip usually detaches after 3rd or 4th shave.

I switched from Gillette to King of Shaves, which was initially cheaper. However, they have introduced a new three blade version and the price has gone up.

I bought a twin blade razor from Lidl with about 20 blades included. It does the job just as well as the previous options and cost far less.

I used to replace my Gillette blades every few weeks and it was costing a bomb.
And then I saw in the Guardian an advert for their Razor Pit Stop (variously called RazorSharp and other names and costing about £15) which is simply a strip of silicone material, which with a simple wipe gets rid of all the gunk which is blocking the perfectly good blade. I use this every few weeks on my blades and each now lasts me up to a 100 shaves.
I also stopped buying Gillette or Wilkinson’s foam or gel and I now use either King Of Shaves Oil or Gel – both products only requiring a fraction of the foam the mainstream products require.
I now rarely have to replace a blade and a tube of King Of Shaves lubricant lasts months and months.
It is really nice to get away from the high street American owned market leaders and find far better results with the marginal producers. I will never go back to Gillette or Wilkinsons (except to buy a pack of new blades every year or so)…

I recently bought a razor set with 3 blade blades from Aldi for a few pounds a,nd am very pleased with the shave I get – replacement blades in packs of 10 are very reasonably priced.

Great article, will definitely be power non power ones from now on.

also a great gadget im using at the moment thats saving me money on blades is a product called razorsharp, basically it cleans the blades making them last longer. im still using the same blade after 3 months and i shave twice a week,
i got mine from amazon for £9.99
really recommend.

I’ve been using the Boots twin blade disposable razors for several years – that’s the razor that gets the lowest score in the August report…..
I use these razors with shaving oil and get a very good, close shave.
One blade will last, on average for about 6 shaves. That’s about 2p a shave. The current one has lasted 10 days and is still giving a close shave.
It’s a very subjective matter – with respect I suspect that the sample size for the recent report was far too small – and I’m certainly not tempted to use the outrageously expensive blades from Gillette or Wilkinson (50p per shave) – when I tried one of the Mach 3 razors a few months ago, the blade only lasted for about 4 or 5 decent shaves.

I switched to a traditional Double Edge Safety Razor about 6 years ago and have gone from thinking of shaving as a daily chore to actually enjoying the experience. Shaving Soap used with a good shaving brush adds to the experience too.

Yes it takes a few minutes longer to shave and it takes a few weeks to ‘learn’ to shave but I’d never go back to multi-blade cartridges – in fact I’m into straight (cut-throat) razors too now.

DE blades are so cheap at around 20p to 50p per blade and they’ve got to be better for the environment too.

Definitely double edge shaving with decent brush and shaving cream and a new or vintage razor (or both!). Shaving has become a pleasure! Loads of advice on youtube from Mantic59 and others for anyone who is interested in starting up. Been doing it for two years. No going back to expensive and nasty cartridges.

Double edge razors take most brands of double edge razor blades, and the costs are much less than cartridges. On the internet you can buy 100 double edge razor blades for around £6 to £15 depending on brand. The razor may cost from around £20 upwards to £150 for a very top notch double edge razor, but in the long term is cheaper due to the cheaper razor blades. Also, if you use shaving cream with a shaving brush, it goes a lot further than applying by hand.

Agree how expensive blades have been, I recently have subcribe to this company smarter shaves.

I subscribed to the Trio for 5 pounds a month and I have been getting 5 blades each month posted to me for a monthly subscription. Its been a good deal and I can change my blade every week

I’ve shopped around and managed to get 16 fusion blades in the cash & carry at £1.97 each including VAT there are 2 guys in this house hold and one shaves his whole head every day, I was really interested to read the which article on razorpit http://www.which.co.uk/home-and-garden/bathroom-and-personal-care/reviews-ns/mens-razors/razorpit/
I’ve just ordered one from an online action site for £12:99 including delivery, so from the review and comments on this product we’ll be ok for blades for years to come ?

I subscribed to this company smarter shaves Quinto , its a 5 blade razors. It has been the best shave that I had in ages,. I can change my blades every week and dont have to waste my time looking for new blades and deals each month and its posted to my doorstep free of charge

ALDI 5 blade razors are the best I’ve ever used.
Great.
Of course they have now stopped selling them.

Their 3 blade system is utter rubbish – don;t go there!

Buy own brand razors instead of the named ones. I have been using Sainsbury own brand ladies blades in my Gillette Venus shaver for a few months now, its saving a small fortune and no discernable difference in the quality of the shave.

Be very careful with Amazon here too.

I found them to be the cheapest online price at just under a tenner for 10 old razor blades.

But the post and packaing was nearly half the price again for their slowest delivery times.

They are simply trying to get you to subscribe to their prime service by making normal items preposterously expensive to post.

So I will use ebay where there is no agenda and no need to try and pay for a tv series no one wants to really watch but which someone has actually paid for!

I love my Gillette Fusion but the blades were too damned expensive. Did some research and found i was paying 20-30% more at the store than buying online. Still not as cheap as getting a straight razor but i like the convenience and the close shave of the Fusion so i’m not switching away.

Incensed by the price of Gillette Mach3 blades, I bought the Aldi 6 blade Razor system as an experiment with modest expectations. The blades are about 1/3rd the price of Gillette which is still expensive IMHO but they give a much closer shave. The difference in shaving quality is so marked, I’d rate them more than 10 times better value.

I can’t imagine I would ever by another MACH3 blade, or even bother to use the two or three new MACH3 blades I still have.

Aldi also has a 4 blade system that is somewhat cheaper and fits the same handle but I’ve not tried those.