I didn’t see my dad without a beard until I was in college. For more than 20 years, he kept his face reasonably tame with drug store disposables and an electric beard trimmer. My oldest brother keeps a long beard, while middle brother and I keep a Tom Ford perma-stubble. The Art of Shaving was not passed down in my house, but body hair and cheapskate frugality got inherited in excess. We’re all daily shavers, rarely clean shavers.
I say this to line up that I tried a Bevel Shaving Kit on a whim, since I’m going through a new period of clean shaving. It’s been revolutionary. I’m radicalized. It’s efficient, looks great, and is miles cheaper than plastic disposable razors I used to use. The fact that cartridge razors are the modern de-facto shaver is a crime against men everywhere.
Bevel Safety Razor
The whim came because my fiancée and I were watching North by Northwest. Besides making me think, “Fuck, I need to start wearing a suit,” the classic Cary Grant shaving scene made me wonder why we all ditched straight razors and safety razors in the first place. I ordered the Bevel kit before the movie was over.
Let’s get the biggest benefit out of the way now. Shaving feels better on my skin than it ever has. Maybe that’s because the whole thing requires more of a ritual now—with the oil, brush, cream, and after shave—but I do truly think it comes down to the superiority of a single blade. I’m not getting nicks like I used to, ingrown hairs have gone away, and it’s just a more enjoyable experience, like the barbershop shaves I’ll never pay for. Sure, I’m going a bit slower, but if shaving takes 10 minutes instead of four or five, I don’t care.
After that, you’ve got the secondary benefits. First is the price. I went for the full $100 kit and stand because I care about the look of stuff, but you could easily get a razor with a cheaper brush for less. I did about three weeks with a blade, which means my stock pack of 20 will easily last me the year. For now on, that’s my only shaving expense. I can buy one pack of 100 razor blades for $30, and I’m set for the next couple years. For that price you can barely get 10 fancy cartridge blade heads.
The next secondary benefit is the environmental one. Technically, metal razor blades are recyclable, and certain companies will let you ship them for recycling. I’m not going to do that, so I just toss spent blades in an old can which one day in a few years I’ll tape up and toss in the garbage. Compare that to tossing out plastic cartridges every week, and the safety blades are obviously the lesser of two evils. And if you wanted to be a true environmentalist, you could just get a straight razor and resharpen it yourself until the end of time.
The last small benefit is a personal one. It just looks and feels nicer than a cartridge razor. Why would I pay all that money for something made of plastic painted orange and blue to look more well-designed than it is? A metal safety razor is going to last for eternity, so Bevel, and other companies, give it a smart look with a nice hand weight. It’s a more luxurious experience, and that’s what I’m ultimately into. Even Cary Grant using a comically small travel razor looked cooler than the bros you see shaving on TV with rollerball razors.
There is one, and only one, negative for me. Technically you can’t pack a safety razor in a carry-on. That’s a pretty big negative, but there’s easy workarounds. When traveling to Texas for the holidays, I checked my Lucchese duffel bag that I normally carry on because I had a safety razor. But on the way back, I decided to test TSA and didn’t get caught. A straight razor would, rightfully, have set off alarms, but if you forget a safety razor in the dopp kit, it’s not the end of the world.
Beyond that, I’ve got no issues. I’ve stepped outside the marketing matrix, and now I’m going old-school. Cary Grant, the nerds on r/wicked_edge or r/Wetshaving, and I are the enlightened few. If you actually want to enjoy shaving, join us.
Bevel Safety Razor
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