Every now and then someone makes the claim that you can save a load of cash by switching to traditional wetshaving. Having a bit of downtime, I decided to hunt the internet for data points, and came across – among a lot of other, semi-related articles – one article that at least seemed to have done the math.

His breakdown?

• Going electric costs you 0.08 to 0.16 USD per shave – with a high up front cost.
• Using cheap disposables bought in bulk costs 0.08 to 0.11 USD per shave – or about the same as a gifted electric.
• Carts sets you back around 0.39  USD per shave – it adds up, even if you eeek the last bit of life from the blade.
• If you invest in a razor sharpener, both disposables and carts runs to about 0.02 USD per shave – much more reasonable.
• Traditional DE they claim run in at 0.05 USD per shave – although that is at just two shaves per blade.
• Traditional DE with a razor sharperner ticks in at ~0.03 USD – or about the same as disposable and carts when sharpened.

Keep in mind that the breakdown don’t include pre-shave soap, shave soap, brushes or aftershaves… in fact, I suspect that if the author had invested in a decent shave soap, he would get a lot more than two shaves out of each blade without nicking… or he could be using a less then good brand of blades.