The Great Razor Blade Experiment

The Great Razor Blade Experiment

It’s finally here.  I mentioned my plans for this experiment a few months ago, and I finally have everything in place.  Starting this week, I’ll be running a ten-week experiment testing ten different razor blades.  Before I get into the details, I want to just mention a few caveats.  First, I’m conducting this experiment on my own face, and your results may differ from my own.  My intention is to give one shaver’s advice on a good number of popular blades, not to say which razor blade is the absolute best.  I think choosing a blade when starting out shaving is incredibly overwhelming.  This is meant to offer either a jumping-off point for new wet shavers or suggestions for veteran wet shavers on brand to re-examine.  Second, my Instagram “Shave of the Day” pictures are going to suffer.  I would hate to bore everyone with the same set-up six days in a row.  If you would like me to keep posting pictures in spite of the unchanging gear, please leave a comment or let me know on social media.  To balance this, I’m planning on posting some “Outfit of the Day” pictures as well as an increased number of pictures of anything I find interesting out in the world.

So what I plan on doing is this.  For the next ten weeks, I’m going to use the same exact shave set-up while changing only what blade I use.  From face wash through post-shave, nothing will change.  I’m also going to use products that I think many people are familiar with so the experiment will be relatable for as many people as possible.  I’ll shave with each blade three times, twice.  On Sundays, I’ll use any gear I want.  That will be my day off.  During the week, I’m will take notes on each blade’s sharpness, smoothness, durability, price, etc.  It would be impossible to test every blade out there, but I picked, what I think, is a nice selection of blades with good reputations.  Here’s a quick run-through of all the products I’ll be using:

Products

1. Face Wash: Bulldog Original Face Wash
2. Shaving Soap: Proraso Green Shaving Soap
3. Brush: Semogue 1305
4. Razor: Merkur 34C
5. Post-shave: Osma Alum Block and Geo. F. Trumper “Coral” Skinfood

Blades

1. Feather Hi Stainless
2. Voskhod Teflon Coated
3. Kai Stainless Steel
4. Bolzano Superinox
5. Rapira Platinum Lux
6. Astra Superior Platinum
7. Personna “Red” Platinum
8. Gillette Silver Blue
9. Gillette “Green” 7 O’Clock Super Stainless
10. Gillette “Black” 7 O’Clock Super Platinum

My hope is that this will become a resource that people can use for years to come.  I’d love to hear any thoughts you might have on this experiment.  Feel free to let me know.

Regards,

Tailor & Barber