Welcome back to the Shave Essentials blog! We’re extremely excited to have you back, and we’re outrageously excited to share some information about our favorite piece of shaving equipment — the safety razor. 

While we offer other types of razors, our safety razors are our pride and joy. We think that they provide the cleanest, most reliable shave time after time, and always leave your skin feeling comfortable, unirritated, and smooth. 

Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about safety razors! 

The Benefits Of Using A Safety Razor

Most people, when they see a safety razor, write it off as an archaic, outdated piece of grooming technology. After all, just about every day we’re bombarded with advertisements about the newest five or more blades shaving technology.

However, the truth of the matter is that safety razors provide some widely-desired benefits that newer shaving tools don’t provide. But what are they? 

Cleaner, Smoother, Closer Shaves

When it comes to close shaves, the only shaving tool that can beat the safety razor is a straight razor. The reason for this comes to the amount of blades passing over your skin. Where the majority has grown to believe that the more blades, the better, the truth of the matter is that when you have more blades, you skin will be subject to more passes of a razor blade, which will induce irritation, create ingrown hairs, and all of those other symptoms of a bad shave. 

When using a safety razor, only one blade is passing over your skin, making for an extremely close shave. Additionally, irritation is little-to-none because you’re not stressing and irritating your skin with multiple blades. Obviously, you need some shaving creams and the like to shave effectively, but we’ll get into those specifics later. For now, know that by using a regimen of high-quality shaving topicals, you’ll likely be able to avoid irritation entirely when using a safety razor. 

Affordable And Long-Lasting

Clocking in at $24.95 for our standard safety razor and $39.95 for our adjustable safety razor, shaving with a safety razor (especially a Shave Essentials razor), you’re going to have a razor that lasts a lifetime. And once you buy your razor, you’ll hardly notice the maintenance costs. That’s because it’s extremely affordable to buy replacement blades for a Shave Essentials safety razors. We only charge $2.50 for a pack of 10 double-sided replacement razor blades! 
When you compare this to your standard multi-blade, or even electric razor, a safety razor pays for itself. In terms of high-end multi-blade razors, the razor will cost at least 25, and the following replacement blades will cost anywhere from $10 to $25! 

An Ecological Option

This may not be a benefit that comes to your mind, but did you know that a safety razor is a much more ecological option than disposable razors? The EPA has reported that over two billion, yes, billion, razors are dumped in landfills each year. With a safety razor, you have one razor that you keep year after year, and have razor blades that you replace. What’s more, you can actually recycle razor blades if you dispose of old blades in a recyclable ‘razor blade safe’.

It’s Pretty Cool

Okay, this point is subjective, but you have to admit that’s if you use a safety razor with one blade to shave, that’s pretty cool. For one, it’s a classic piece of grooming history, which is objectively cool. It’s timeless, it’s effective, it’s something not many people embrace. But beyond its style and reputation, the safety razor is effective, reliable, and an impressive tool to use. It’s a point for conversation, and it’s something you should be excited about!

A Complete Guide To Shaving With A Safety Razor

Now that we know the general benefits of using a safety razor, let’s get into how exactly you can start shaving with a safety razor. After all, you’re probably convinced at this point, aside from maybe being intimidated by using this classic razor. Don’t worry, while it may seem scary to switch to a single blade shave, it’s easier than you think plus the benefits are too amazing to ignore! 



Step One: Get The Perfect Razor

Before you even think about shaving, you need to think about what safety razor you’re going to use. Fortunately, when you get your razor from Shave Essentials, you simply need to choose whether you want our standard safety razor, or if you’d like to invest in our adjustable safety razor. 

In our eyes? We think that the adjustable razor is the way to go. While it costs more up front, it offers an adjustable shave intensity feature. This simply means that it allows you to adjust your razor to fit your hair type. Got coarse facial hair? Crank up that intensity! Or maybe you just need to manage finer, sparse facial hair. Either way, the adjustable safety razor will allow you to dial in your razor to meet your specific needs. 

Keep Your Blades Sharp And Clean

For starters, you can keep your razor blades clean and sharp by cleaning and drying them after use. Most importantly, ensure that when you clean your razor following a shave, you keep it dry. This means that you should store it in a dry place (NOT the shower) and you should make sure it’s entirely dry before storing it. This will keep the blades from rusting, which is pivotal to maintain their integrity. 

Now, when your blades become dull or even if they become rusty, there is a simple, reliable solution! Simply replace them. As we discussed above, replacement blades for our razors are extremely affordable, meaning that there is no reason not to replace them when they’re not functioning optimally. By keeping up with the health of your blades, you’ll enjoy comfortable, close, and clean shaves each and every time. 

Lather Up!

Now that you have your razor and we know how to keep the blades in top-condition, let’s get into the technique you’ll use to shave with your safety razor. First things first, we need to start by preparing your skin and the hair you’re going to shave. To do this, use warm water on your skin and hair to soften them before. If you’d like to take an extra step, you can further prep your skin and hair by using a shave oil after you apply warm water.

Then, after you’ve prepped your skin and hair, apply shaving cream. Our cream is super slick and concentrated so you only need about a dime sized amount. Make sure to spread the shave cream with every pass of the razor so you aren't "dry shaving".

Pull The Skin Tight Or ‘Taut’

One more step before you put the razor to your skin — pull the skin where you’ll be shaving. The idea is to keep it taut, or without any slack. This is because you want to have a flat, steady surface when you’re shaving. When your skin isn’t pulled tight is when you’ll encounter knicks, uneven shaves, and irritation. To clarify, this shouldn’t cause pain when you’re making your skin taut, simply pull on your skin lightly until you have a flat surface to evenly move your razor across. Simply re-adjust when you’re ready to shave another area of your face. 

Hold The Razor At A 30 To 45 Degree Angle

Next, keep the razor at a 30 to 45 degree angle from your skin. This is simply the most effective angle to shave at. Interestingly enough, safety razor handles are weighted in a way that will provide the pressure you need to remove hair. This means you don’t need to push your razor into your skin for an effective shave. 

Go With The Flow — Or The Grain, Rather

Another important tip to remember while you shave is to shave with the grain as you go. While this sounds simple, we can’t give you an overarching view of what this means. That’s simply because everyone has their own, different hair-growth patterns. Just make sure you take note of the way your hair grows so you can shave it accordingly. Why? When you shave against your grain, you’ll encourage ingrown hairs — which no one wants. 

Precise, Short Strokes

The final bit of information to remember when shaving with a safety razor is to use short, precise, straight strokes. After a series of short strokes, rinse and repeat. This keeps the blade of your razor clean and helps you avoid dragging the razor across your skin, preventing irritation. 

Post-Shave Care

Once you’re done removing the hair from your face, you’re still not quite done. To finish the process, you first need to apply cold water to your skin. This closes the pores, preventing irritation and dirt from filling the pores. Finally, you want to use our cooling aftershave gel to end the process. This creates a protective layer over your skin and serves to hydrate the skin following your shave — both of which will help prevent irritation. 

Shave Essentials Will Keep Your Shaving Experience Perfect, Every Time

Beyond the act of shaving and caring for your skin, you simply need to ensure that your medicine cabinet is stocked with all of the shaving essentials you’ll need to follow the steps from this blog. But that begs the question, “What’s the best way to do this?” 

The answer is simple — subscribe to our Shave Plan, the world’s best shaving subscription program. This sets you up to restock your shaving supplies each month, or as often as you need. It works by selecting the materials you need for your subscription box, and that box is then sent on a specified date. You can always change the items or quantity of items in your box, making it truly personalizable. 

And for those who don’t need a regular resupply? Just visit our shaving shop when you’re running low on blades, face care, or anything else, and we’ll make sure you get everything you need. 

Until then, we want to thank you for taking the time to read this blog and invest in our awesome shaving products. Our goal is to make a line of shaving essentials that withstand the wear-and-tear of daily shaving, and we’re happy to provide you with products that accomplish that goal.

If you have any questions about our brand, products, or an order you’ve placed with us simply contact us today.