Author Topic: How often do you change blades?  (Read 12849 times)

Offline nicolaus

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How often do you change blades?
« on: April 01, 2015, 05:37:40 PM »
I'm a user of Gillette Fusion Proglide, and there is a problem: I have to change the blade every 4 or 5 shaving. In the worst case I change it after the third shaving... It's very uneconomical. The blade maybe wear off faster than usual because my asian hair is very hard, thick and voluminous. I'm thinking now to use an electric shaver whose blade I don't have to change so often, but it's compromise. The smoothness of electric shaving can't be better than blade shaving.

Which shaver do you use, how often do you change blades and how voluminous is your potential hair approximately (thick or thin, full or relatively poor, hard or soft)?



Offline gwsmallwood

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Re: How often do you change blades?
« Reply #1 on: April 02, 2015, 10:30:08 AM »
You're lucky to get 4 or 5.  I could only get 2.  I switched to Dorco razors for a while.  www.dorcousa.com  They are almost as good as fusion, but a fraction of the price.  They are still expensive enough that I didn't want to shave every day just for cost alone.

Then I found safety razors...There is a short learning curve, but dealing with it is worth it.  The shaves are more comfortable, and the blades are 0.10 - 0.15 apiece.

Offline TheSlyBear

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Re: How often do you change blades?
« Reply #2 on: April 02, 2015, 12:25:34 PM »
I can feel when it needs it. I think I usually get about 5 to 7 shaves from a Mach 3 cartridge.

Offline kalva76

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Re: How often do you change blades?
« Reply #3 on: April 02, 2015, 02:20:13 PM »
About 5 to 6 for me on Schick Hydro 5 blades.

Offline nick2401

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Re: How often do you change blades?
« Reply #4 on: April 02, 2015, 06:27:11 PM »
 DE razor ( Astra platinum from Amazon 100 pack is $14 less then $0.20/blade) and find I can get 3-4 good shaves from it. Like gwsmallwood said there is a learning curve but the nicks I got from that time are not important compared to the shave I get now.

Offline K5mow

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Re: How often do you change blades?
« Reply #5 on: April 02, 2015, 08:12:33 PM »
I tend to get 4 to 6 just depending. Sometimes though I think I am going to long without changing.

Roger
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Offline Quiet_Dan

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Re: How often do you change blades?
« Reply #6 on: April 02, 2015, 08:17:06 PM »
I reckon I change blades about every 3 weeks thats shaving about 3-4 times a week
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Offline vin_d

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Re: How often do you change blades?
« Reply #7 on: April 05, 2015, 04:53:50 PM »
I have been shaving for a few months now with a razor and love it.

I was using clippers but definitely prefer a razor.  Clippers can be tricky to get uniform cut even with no guard because of the curves of your scalp et.

Anyways, now I am the cost dilemma.  I bought the original head blade on Amazon for $15 and really like it a lot!  It actually is compatible with Gilette Sensor/Excel blades which is what I use.

I shave it every 3rd day and need a new blade each shave.  My hair is fine but grows very fast.  I am wondering if I shave every other day, will I be able to get 2 head shaves from one blade?  Currently shaving every 3rd day and by day three, there is heavy stubble.

I also shave with the grain then apply more shaving cream and go against the grain a second time over.  I can't just go straight to against the grain, my scalp gets irritated when I try.

I am paying $23 for 10 cartridges at Walmart and basically shaving just over twice per week so 10 blades will last me about a month or so.

I would love to shave every other day but that would be $46 a month which is ridiculous IMHO. 

I may try shaving every other day and seeing if I can get 2 shaves out of one blade due to there being less stubble.

Feel free for anyone to chip in their 2 cents on my protocol.

OP, I encorage you to try the head blade.  $15 on Amazon and you can use Sensor or Sensor Excel blades with it.

Offline mrzed

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Re: How often do you change blades?
« Reply #8 on: April 05, 2015, 05:07:54 PM »
I do a hybrid. Shave first with the DE, which are inexpensive blades.  Then polish off the head shave with the headblade. This seems to extend the headblade cartridge for quite some time, since I'm not shaving all of my hair with the headblade.  This has been a nice cost compromise.

Mel (Warhawk), says I'll get good one of these days and can use just the DE razor. I'm not there yet, but I'm working on it.




Offline vin_d

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Re: How often do you change blades?
« Reply #9 on: April 06, 2015, 07:44:34 AM »
Interesting idea!

Do you use the actual headblade cartridges or the Gilette sensor cartridges?

Are the actual head bladecartridges worth the money in your opinion?

Lastly, how often do you shave and how long will a headblade cartridge usually last you using your DE pre shave protocol?

Sorry for all the questions, just curious...thx!

Offline notquitethere

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Re: How often do you change blades?
« Reply #10 on: April 06, 2015, 09:12:07 AM »
I usually get about 5-10 shaves from my headblade cartridge and it depends on if I go only wtg or both wtg and atg.  A couple of weeks ago I noticed that the Headblade 4 looked very similar to the Dollar Shave Club 4 blade.  Then I learned that Dorco and DSC are the same blades.  I ordered some Dorco blades from Amazon, popped the Dorco/DSC adapter off of the back and it works perfectly on my headblade adapter.  That gets the cost per cartridge down to about $1 each which is about as good as you can get for a cartridge. 

I shave my face with a DE but haven't had the time or patience to get comfortable using DE on the head yet.

Offline mrzed

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Re: How often do you change blades?
« Reply #11 on: April 07, 2015, 07:22:23 AM »
Note to administrator, the quote feature is not working. When I click quote, the original post appears in the reply box for about 5 seconds, then disappears.  Both in Firefox and Chrome.

Interesting idea!

Do you use the actual headblade cartridges or the Gilette sensor cartridges?

Are the actual head bladecartridges worth the money in your opinion?

Lastly, how often do you shave and how long will a headblade cartridge usually last you using your DE pre shave protocol?

Sorry for all the questions, just curious...thx!


I use the headblade cartridges. Never tried the Gilette sensors.  I get them bulk from www.headblade.com to save some money. Get the 20% discount click through the ads on this site, plus their bulk discount.

If I only use the headblade, it barely lasts a week. (daily shaving).

If I use the combo I'll get about 3 weeks out of the headblade cartridge.



Offline Tyler

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Re: How often do you change blades?
« Reply #12 on: July 03, 2015, 02:21:14 AM »
Note to administrator, the quote feature is not working. When I click quote, the original post appears in the reply box for about 5 seconds, then disappears.  Both in Firefox and Chrome.

Fixed...

In regards to blades, I change mine every Monday.
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Offline geeman

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Re: How often do you change blades?
« Reply #13 on: July 03, 2015, 04:09:38 PM »
I use a blade cleaning block, get 3 weeks on one mach 3 blade

Offline buddha

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Re: How often do you change blades?
« Reply #14 on: July 04, 2015, 09:10:06 AM »
I go by the feel. If the razor is tugging a bit it's time for a new cart but I can get 3-4 weeks out of a cart shaving every 2 or 3 days with a Personna M5 Magnum. I am also obsessive about cleaning my blades after use and I think that helps.
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