The razor blades are intentionally hidden from view in the packaging.
This is the back of the package. https://i.imgur.com/UMK0a4g.jpeg
I dont understand why it matters to see the blades?
Razors are a high theft item so I believe the argument is this style of packaging makes them harder to steal
You don’t even have them on the shelves here (DE). There’s just cardboard and you get the razor blades at the checkout. It’s just quick stolen goods that always find a buyer.
Do people buy razor blades from shady dudes behind the shop? How would one sell the razor blades they stole?
Friends and relatives. There are also people who simply ask strangers. Or at other individual stores (not big chains, but really just a single store where you can meet the owner). It’s all about saving tax this way). Then they are a few euros cheaper. They are still packaged and sealed. They are the same price in every store. Alcohol is easy to get rid of when buying and selling and in individual snack bars on site. Perfume is also easy to sell.
Depending on the situation, you may also be given a list of things that the owner could still use. As I said, this works in small individual stores and they are happy about the tax savings.
In America they’re usually behind a locked plastic case.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dI1bJmqsz8E Nothing is done against the masses and security personnel are not allowed to intervene. (Why do you have security staff in your stores if they are not allowed to do anything anyway?) So sad.
How is the consumer meant to know if they’ve rusted in their packaging?
Is that real concern that people have or is this sarcasm?
Neither, just wild speculation for the hell of it
In high humidity regions, ya. I’ve never had issue with razors specifically, but other items.
I thought you meant that the package has 3 blade heads, but the shelf tag says 5 blades. ;)
I will say the “8x” with a picture of blades next to it definitely throws me off
That makes me think though that the price tag doesn’t belong with this product. The tag clearly says “1 piece” and also says “razor” (singular) while this product is a box of 8 replacement heads.
I think you are correct, I may have mismatched the price tag with the product. Oops.
$4.99 for 8 heads would be a great deal! :)
That’s because some idiot signed off on graphic design that says 8x instead of “contents: 8 razor heads” or w/e. I’ve worked a lot of distribution over the years and there’s a lot of poorly described contents even in boring print on brown box stuff out there.
The upside is that in this way they use less plastic. Cardboard can’t be transparent and people doesn’t separate the plastic from the cardboard when recycling.
We all know what razor blades look like so a photo can suffice, no?
I linked an imgur post of the back of the packaging. It is made from clear plastic, and the blades are hidden behind black paper.
You can embed other images in the post body, and in your comments.
It’s expensive up front, but I switched to a leaf razor years ago i just had buy a new pack of 100 razors for 19 bucks. I use 3 at a time, but they last a long time.
They last a long time, are cheaper, I get a better shave (especially since moving to a puck and horsehair brush), and I don’t generate nearly any plastic trash.
I can’t recommend moving over enough.
I just stopped shaving. Best decision ever! ;)
If your beard looked as bad as mine, you’d continue to shave too lol
This is true, I had a terrible beard for decades, then I picked up an injury and couldn’t stand up long enough to shave for 3 months. :(
Kept it after that! I earned it! ;)
Oh, I went full Jesus during the pandemic, with long hair and let my beard grow out. . .and it just never made up for the fact that I have literal bald patches throughout it. . .I almost needed a comb over on my beard it was so pathetic.
That, and I have seborrheic dermatitis, and growing a beard makes it flair up and it seems the only way to get rid of it is for me to shave when it happens. And then I just have a red face which is no good.
Better for me to just stay clean shaven. lol
I use muhle’s open comb head with feather blades.
Can’t go back to cartridge shavers.
(And for the love of all that is holy people, dump the goop. TOBS cream, or even the expensive French soaps like Martin D’Candre are less expensive per shave and just better.)
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I agree. Some people even get so caught up in Wetshaving that they run a Lemmy instance dedicated to it.
I just dry shave with a saftey razor and it’s still a closer and more comfortable shave than all this hyper-marketed plastic garbage with multiple shit quality blades. The razor was already perfected long ago, but quarterly growth demands landfills filled with trash.
PS: there’s no reason for a saftey razor to be an expensive upfront cost unless you’re buying a huge bulk of blades upfront. Any cheap stainless steel handle will do, for practically the same cost as you’ll end up spending after the first time replacing this price-gouged plastic. A stainless steel saftey razor is priced at $10-$20 and will outlive you.
PPS: it drives me up the WALL every time I see a Gillette “Labs” (🙄🙄🙄) commercial, as if there’s supposed to be some team of scientists and engineers in a laboratory experimenting with new ways to shape a piece of plastic. Who are they fooling??? They’re just a marketing company with a razor department.
PPPS: all the “wet shaving” creams and lotions and balms and oils and lathering brushes and special towels and aftershave and who knows what are ALSO just marketing insanity. If you have an issue with razor burn, just apply a small amount of 100% aloe vera, which is soothing and naturally antibacterial (razor burn is just your immune system going to town on all the bacteria introduced to your skin by your likely dirty razor), after shaving. You can use a patch of denim from an old pair of jeans to sharpen a saftey razor if it feels rough on your skin.
The 5 blade razor is probably the first example I can think of when The Onion broke reality and predicted the future.
Sounds like you have it all figured out for yourself.
I use artisan shave soap because they work extremely well and smell awesome. Commercial soap also works well, but there isn’t as much variety in the smell department. I have a handful of brushes and I use whichever one I feel like on a given day. They all offer something unique.
I use aftershave for the same reason you mentioned. Aloe sounds like it’d be sticky and unpleasant for my skin type.
Soap is soap. I make my own soap from only 3 ingredients: lard (that I process from bacon grease, instead of throwing it out, and no it doesn’t smell like bacon once it’s been processed into pure lard), lye, and water; no fragarance or colors, and it’s one of the best soaps I have ever used (except for an old homemade powder soap that had borax in it, that stuff works miracles for cutting away the grease, dirt, and oil on my hands after working on the car. I wish I had the recipe). I make a years supply in one batch.
BUT enjoy what you like, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying stuff. Mixing up fancy potions in a bowl with a brush sounds fun, but in wet shaving spaces online, people seem to lose their minds acting like this is what you NEED to do just to shave hair off your face
If it’s the best soap you’ve ever used, that would negate the claim that soap is soap. I’m happy you’ve found something you like.
There are always people in all hobbies that think it’s their way or the highway (no offense, but your comments have that tone to them).
I try to avoid that and just share what I enjoy.
One of the biggest things I hear is “cartridges cause irritation and DE razors don’t!”. That is 100% false and I disagree with it. Still, I love using DE razors and would recommend them to anyone interested in “enjoying” shaving.
If it’s the best soap you’ve ever used, that would negate the claim that soap is soap.
Disagree, the difference is that there is stuff in it that isn’t soap… in the case of that powder soap being superior, it is the added borax that acts as a great detergent, but probably not something you want to use on your skin regularly. And sure, there can be different ratios of water to fats in soap or different fats (lard, tallow, olive oil, beeswax, etc) that do not saponify fully (no soap should be 100% saponified or it would be possible that there is still lye in it that was not used up in the chemical reaction) and give the product different qualities, but the soap in it is still just soap. Or it could be sodium hydroxide lye vs potassium hydroxide lye to make solid vs liquid soap, respectively.
My comments are not really meant to be about hobbies but BS products marketed from massive corporations that are just adding more to our mountain sized landfills.
RE: BS products from massive corporations, I’m with you for sure.
RE: soap is soap - there are lots of different types of soap. Each type of fat has differing amounts of loric acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid, etc. Lard makes a soap that’s a good firmness (not too soft, not too hard), not very cleansing (so it won’t dry your skin out, but also won’t do much hard cleaning), very conditioning, not very bubbly, but very creamy. Other fats/oils yield much different results. Soaps with a lot of coconut oil are very cleansing, so they’ll dry your skin out. Your soap sounds like it could be used daily without any problems.
So, I disagree that soap is soap. Soap that’s made specifically for shaving typically has a lot of added stearic acid, because no natural fats have enough natural stearic acid to produce a really stable lather that won’t dissipate during the shave. Most use a lot of beef tallow, but there are also a lot of vegan options.
I bought a Rockwell safety razor for 50 euros after using a cheap 20 euro version for a while. The Rockwell is much better. Heavier, better grip and a reversible base plate for different settings. 50 euros should do and still is much cheaper than my cartridges.
PS: wit good prep I have no rasor burn. A cheap brush, warm water and cheap shaving soap. The soap lasts me nearly half a year.
I tried a leaf razor but just couldn’t seem to like it. Switched back to my normal safety razor
Interesting…what do you think is better about the safety razor? I could never really get the hang of them.
Cost and quality
What kind of problems did you experience? Do you remember what kind of razor you tried?
In the enthusiast community, Leaf is commonly used by head shavers, but Double Edge, Single Edge, Straight Edge, etc. are all much much more common for face shavers. There’s far more variety which makes it “fun”.
Mainly the amount of control I have. Disposable and leaf razors don’t seem as versatile regarding things like angle
Honnestly those razor-blades are a scam and I spend a lot less money since I switched to safety razors. A bit more technical to use but totally worth it I think
