Face Bristles 2

One side of the shaving spectrum is a cut-throat razor. The other side is a beard, which has become some kind of beard-as-talisman, complete with beard oil.  These two ways meet in a single point called insanity. 

The down side of shaving is not only the time (manageable), and the blood (there's this thing called styptic), but also the cost.

I started shaving in 1973 with one of my dad's G.I. Gillette double-edge razors. Those blades were quite an innovation. They are so thin they save precious steel and are easy to sharpen. They are produced from strip, which is the fastest type of factory process.  Wait, those are benefits for the manufacturer!  What good are they to the user?  Well, the angle where it meets the face is just about perfect.  They ARE very sharp, and stay that way for about two shaves, which for some guys is one day.  Okay that's an up and a down point.  They can be pretty cheap, as little as 5 for a dollar, so if you don't shave twice a day too many times, your blade cost can be less than a dollar a week. Some users complained about the short handle on the G.I. razors; you can now get longer holders from various suppliers, including the Seki AS-DS2 from Amazon for  "only" $166.67 (!).  Down sides now.  Since the razor is bent across the top of the holder in order to create the perfect cutting angle and impart more rigidity to the thin blade, the holder must be very strong, and most are metal; if you shave with very hot water, the metal holder is hot enough to cause skin damage -- and if you do not use very hot water, the contraption won't cut worth a damn, and you won't be able to clean the soap and whiskers out of the gaps. Yet the double edge razor has a mystique among the young.  Can you blame them?  The G.I. Gillette beat the Nazis and Imperial Japan.  Bottom line: blades are economical; consider the blood and discomfort penance for your sins.