2 shaves to a blade and that's it

[Lefonque]

2 or 3 shaves occasionally 4 sometimes 1 for me it depends on the feel of the blade.

 

[Billski]

I get more than 2 shaves per blade.

 

[OhioBob]

My comment would be that the number of uses depends on the user and the blades. On most of my DE blades I can go 6-7 shaves then I change them. On the OneBlade Feather FHS-10 it’s two shaves and done. However, if changing blades after two shaves is your preference then go for it. Like others have mentioned several blades just start working well after 2-3 shaves but what works for one may not for another.

 

[Leo K]

I get two to three shaves from Derby’s and Astra Superior Platinums, but they could probably last longer. One of the things I like about DE shaving is that I can get a fresh blade often as I like.


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[mtcn77]

A friend has both Yaqi Agamemnon "Globetrotter" and also Merkur 34C. He gets 8 shaves out of Merkur 34C using Permasharp and 3 shaves out of the Yaqi Slant using Euromax DE blades.
I'm happy with Yaqi Agamemnon DOCS Globetrotter Slant using the Shark blades on just 3 occasions. I don't get any irritation, but some whitish skin scrapings at the follicles when I do.

 

[Mustard Seed]

Personna Med Prep I change after 8 to 10 shaves. I know it would do more comfortably for me but, heck this is a hobby so I have to fiddle with my toys.

 

[Roedeer]

I'm truly fascinated by the widely varying experiences of how long a DE lasts for different users. Personally, I find it takes 1 - 3 shaves for a new blade to settle in, after which I'll typically get a dozen or more shaves before I get bored with it and want to move onto something else. I'm guessing that the "settling in" process is the coating on the blade being worn away and/or smoothed out so that's its no longer impacting the blade/whisker interface. Regardless, I feel a blade is hitting its stride when others think it's ready for burial.

I've only rarely stretched a blade to see how many shaves I could get before a clear degradation, and I haven't counted, but it's more than 40, I think. And some here get way more than that.

Blades are cheap, and this is a hobby where clearly there's no right way. Anyone else can use multiple blades per shave if they wish and I won't accuse them of "doing it wrong." But I'm still curious about our widely varying experiences. Whisker toughness and density would seem to be the primary variables, and prep + technique no doubt come into play as well. Is some of it psychological, too? Probably, but that could also imply that I'm refusing to recognize the degradation of my well-used blades out of some sort of stubborness. (Who, me?)

More generally, while we all really enjoy shaving, I am amazed at our lack of consensus on just about everything. Does "YMMV" prevail to the same extent in other niche interest groups?

I usually replace blades after ~ 7 uses, but that's because a week is a convenient marker, not because the blade is already giving me trouble. Call it pre-emptive maintenance. Who wants a failure out of the blue?

I use a hot water prep (a very thorough face wash to degrease, so the water can get into the hairs, then hot facecloth for 30 .. 60 seconds to hydrate). I liken this hydration process to cooking spaghetti.

Uncooked spaghetti would be hard to cut, and wouldn't do your knife any good.

Spaghetti soaked in cold water for x minutes would be softer, but it wouldn't be cooked.

Spaghetti cooked in hot water for the same time would be cooked, and EASY to cut.

Both spaghetti samples would re-harden if you left the plate lying around overnight.

Not a perfect analogy (the spaghetti is the same all the way through, and the hairs are definitely not), but that was my analysis of the hot prep versus cold debate.