Don't shave at all, Paul. Any woman who prefers a shaved face is secretly into prepubescent boys.

I don't see the hunting knife option, although I suppose technically that would be considered "one blade".

Hunting knives are sharpened to a different angle than straight razors, but I bet you can cover a larger part of your face per shaving swipe.

I'm a double edged safety razor guy myself, an old Gillette red tip my dad bought for himself over 50 years ago, but I have sensitive skin and can't shave with it more than twice a week. So I use an electric shaver most of the time. But that Gillette, with a Feather brand blade, gets the job done NICE.

I grip a three-bladed razor and a five-bladed razor together for the luxury that only a proper eight-bladed shave can deliver.

I'm really surprised the disposable cartriges took off because the safety razor is still the best shave and the CHEAPEST. Seriously. You have to invest a little money in the saftey razor it self but double edged razor blades are so cheap it easily pays for itself before the year is out.

Try it. Just try it.

This is honestly the best subscription I've ever had:

http://www.dollarshaveclub.com/

It's marketed to men, but it's awesome for ladies. There's an option to get new blades every other month, too.

I don't know why, but the five-blade ones really do work. They really are better. I think it's because it forms a raft that maintains a steady perfect angle no matter how incompetent you are at wielding it. I never ever cut myself, and the shave is as close as it needs to be -- any closer and I'd be getting hundreds of ingrown hairs, to which I am prone.

Safety razors? Yeah, sure, if there's an emergency room nearby. I used to have one, a really cool expensive model, and I cut myself to ribbons with it every time. Seriously, little pieces of meat would be stuck to the mirror glass.

I suppose I've already told the story of my friend's cat who snuck into the bathroom and lodged its talons in my fleshy buttocks at the precise instant I touched my neck with a straight razor for the first time?

Electric!

The first thing I thought of when I read your post, Paul, was a blade that worked like an old IBM Selectric ball.

I’m not sure if that would be cool or not.

What about Taco Bell's new breakfast menu?

I concur with Fnarf. FIVE BLADES FOREVER! The hair just falls off.

I'm three blades--close shave for a much lesser cost than five blades. The 5 bladers shave a little closer than the 3 bladers, but the much higher cost per 5 blade set is more than I care to pay for a slightly better shave.

@ 7, some DE's have much more aggressive angles than others, and some blades are more likely to slice your face to ribbons than others. Good antiques Gillettes, especially the model known as the blue tip, aren't so aggressive.

Why shave???

@3, obviously you weren't in the Satire Lounge the night I shaved with my hunting knife.

Kmart sells triple-blade SmartSense cartridges that fit the old double-blade Gillette Atra handles, for about half the price. Always makes me feel like I'm getting away with something, liberal taker that I am.

Two or three blades - finding it cheaper to buy disposables in 12 packs and less total waste than 3 blade 10 packs

Mad TV did a skit about a 20-blade razor that deserves to be seen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F7TMlrD…

old fashioned safety razor FTW!

40 microns is about the diameter of a single skin cell. I ain't paying an extra $20 to take 40μm off of my stubble. That's about how much hair grows in a single hour, so you won't get 5 o'clock shadow until 6 PM. Big fucking whoop, I'm okay with my jowls feeling like sandpaper.

Not only do I know the Onion article he's referencing without even clicking it, I can practically recite it verbatim. I should really get a life.

I remember a sketch from "Saturday Night Live" that aired 30+ years ago that parodied a commercial for a five-blade safety razor (unheard of at that time); after extolling the supposed virtues and cutting edge technology of the product, the commercial ended with the narrator stating "...because you'll believe anything we tell you."

@7:

I suppose I've already told the story of my friend's cat who snuck into the bathroom and lodged its talons in my fleshy buttocks at the precise instant I touched my neck with a straight razor for the first time?

Cats attack when you are your most vulnerable. This is also why they start knocking shit off countertops and make a ruckus just when you get seated on the toilet. Cats are assholes.

I shave with an electric, because I'm lazy, because it is all but impossible to cut yourself with an electric, and because it's close enough.

I might arguably get a minutely closer shave with 5 blades or that new ball thingy, but will it make any real difference? I don't think so.

@ 25, cats are superior judges if character, so only those who feel their righteous wrath are assholes.

@ 27, electric shavers give shitty shaves, but it's only because we live in a time where looking like shit is fashionable that it seems good enough.

It is all about how much time you want to spend shaving. An old fashion safety razor, single edge (well double if you count that you can turn it around n use the other side before rinsing) will give you just as good a shave at a much cheaper price then any of the razors being discussed. The difference is it takes more time and you need to pay attention to what your doing and not just hack at your face.

Alright! Another question I am uniquely equipped to handle!

HERE'S THE SCOOP: The real difference between cartridge razors is the angle and the aperture - the Mach 3 was developed in order to "lock in" the appropriate blade angle for shaving, but they were sold to a generation whom NO ONE TAUGHT HOW TO SHAVE. As a result, many shavers just kind of hacked at their faces and pressed too hard, sending many users to electrics because the cartridges "cut them a lot".

As a result, the 5 blade razor was developed. By Increasing the angle of approach (lessening the potential closeness of the shave) and adding more blades to compensate with cleanup passes, customers who shaved without technique found that the blades would *flatten against* instead of digging into the face.

All was good with the world, until a rash (pun intended) of users began experiencing increased incidence of ingrown hairs and overexfoliation issues such as oily skin and acne, as a result of too much blade contact with the skin. It was from this that the Power Razor was born - like shocks on a car, the subtle vibration relieves pressure against the skin and prevents excessive damage to the skin's protective flora.

This ball is an evolution of the solution - knowing that it has proven IMPOSSIBLE to train men to use better products and techniques, they are engineering a backdoor fix - to get around the public's derisive suspicion of "that dumb vibrating handle gimmick" they are trying to find other ways to build proper technique into the device rather than the user.

*BIG EXHALE*

TLDR Version: The science is sound - all of this is YOUR FAULT, people.

@31 Fantastic! (I'm not entirely sure why I decided to read all the way through these comments, but the last sentence of your post made it worth it.)

@31 good stuff. "A generation whom no one taught how to shave…"<--THIS. Unless you have a wispy boy-beard (hi Paul!), you should shower first, or wilt your whiskers by repeatedly slapping on water as hot as you can stand (or holding a hot moistened washcloth on like a poultice for 30 sec.-1 min.), then slathering on a squirt of liquid aloe soap, then shaving cream. Then shower, or remove leftover soap/shaving cream with several swipes of a rinsed washcloth.

I'm always amazed when I see people put shaving cream directly on a dry face, or hack away with a six-month-old blade.

Recently folks have been suggesting that cartridge life can be greatly extended by stropping on denim and various other techniques: http://business.time.com/2012/04/23/get-…

(Footnote to @18: I meant to say "Kmart SmartSense cartridges that fit the old double-blade Gillette Sensor handles" rather than Atra, though Kmart has store-brand cartridges for Atra as well. I get better shaves/fewer cuts from Sensor vs. Atra, probably due to differences in blade angle or spacing. YMMV.)

I have a German safety razor (Merkur), Japanese blades (Feather), and Italian shaving cream (Proraso). I get the best goddamned shave in the world, and it costs me something like $0.60 a week.

@31 speaks the truth. I learned to shave from my dad, who taught more or less the @32 method (hot water, then a hot washcloth, then shaving cream). But the thing I learned to shave with was, I believe it was a Remington single-blade injection razor that I found at a garage sale when I was 15. Even my dad thought it was pretty cool. I was in my 20's before I ever cut myself... after I couldn't find the single-blade injection cartridges any more and had to become a double-bladed shaver like everybody else.

Now I have a beard and the only thing I shave is my nuts.

Nope, tried the 3 three-blade thing when it came out...too many ingrown hairs...back to a fancy 2 blade for me. There is such a thing as too close. I do like the safety razor as well, but it's definitely not as good as the 2 blade.

This trend was already parodied in 1975, if not before; a SNL fake commercial for a (at the time unthinkable outside of satire) 3-blade razor. I can't find it on Youtube, but here's a transcript: http://snltranscripts.jt.org/75/75atripl…

The final line: Three blades. Because you'll believe anything.