Economics of DE Shaving - All The Stuff I Bought

[arnuld]

Shaving With The Indian Stuff
I started on 1st of Jan with DE shaving. This sub has a lot to do with that. I read so many posts here. Before I started with a DE, I had just a few things (these are not in the pics):

1. Gillette Guard, Gillette Mach3, many other dual/triple blade disposable cartridges
2. Old Spice aftershave: (all 3 of them, yes, I like Old Spice)
3. Dettol shaving cream
4. and everyone's favorite white polyester bristles shaving brush

You can see the result of the DE hobby in the pics. So much stuff. Urban Mooch cream and green resin brush I won in the monthly giveaway run by u/okiedokie_cool ( at Reddit - Dive into anything - https://www.reddit.com/r/Wetshavers_India/ ). So here is the economics.
If I used Mach3 then its 100 Indian rupees cartridge it would have given me 15 comfortable shaves (Gillette claims 15. I think they mean 2-pass shaves, but not sure). So I would have bought one blade every 15 days. Thing with Mach3 was that it could not handle 2-3 days of stubble (lots of tugging). Because of that I had to shave every single day, even if I am not going to office. So costs:

Handle = 169 Indian Rupees
Blade = (365/15) x 100 Indian Rupees = 2433
One year cost of Mach3 is 2400/- Indian Rupees approximately

DE shaving Expenses:

1. Gillette razors - 210 Indian Rupees
2. Romer-7 Razors - 531
3. Shavette - 169
4. Ultra razor - 60
5. Blade sampler (2 packs) from shavingkit.in - 800
6. Godrej shaving cream - 70
7. GRAPHITE shaving cream - 40
8. VICCO (4 shaving creams) - 419
9. Patanjali shaving cream - 55
10. BSC shaving creams (2) - 118
11. Pink Woolf Oud + Sandalwood shaving soap - 400
12. Pearl Coffeeop Shaving Soap - 269
13. YARDLEY London aftershaves - 577
14. Botnick Essentials aftershave - 319
15. Park Avenue aftershave - 290
16. V-MAT aftershave - 130
17. ST. JOHN Cobra aftershave (VI-JOHN brand) - 90
18. Brooks aftershave - 100
19. AXE aftershave - 100
20. DCRAF aftershave - 200
21. BSC aftershave - 139
22. BSC Fitkari aftershave gel - 109
23. Sirona natural aftershave gel - 130
24. Bewakoof Cosmos aftershave gel - 132
25. Rubab Men Firefly shaving brush - 284
26. Rubab men Hornet shaving brush - 285
27. Urban Mooch shaving brush - 266
28. Pink Woolf shaving brush - 200

Total cost of 6 months = 6492/-

• Now many aftershaves I would have bought anyway, irrespective of DE. Hence removing those, it leaves: 4680/-
• Removing shaving creams which I would have bought anyway: 4261/-

Hence the final amount is 4300/- approximately , it's almost the double of what would have been with Mach3. But then few points:

• I learned about my facial hair
• I don't have rough-face after shave anymore
• shave is so smooth. Sometimes I touch my face several times a day because because I have never felt this smoothness before
• a DFS shave, looks a lot clean compared with Mach3
• Once I find my favorite blade then in next 1 year, and I no longer spend on razors, the expenses will balance themselves. I don't have RAS (razor acquisition syndrome), just plan to buy 2, both different than what I have, between mild to medium aggressive (Shivira) and between medium aggressive to aggressive (Romer-7 CS11 or CS101)

You can find all the stuff mentioned above from:

1. Amazon India
2. Flipkart

 

[Mitzie]

We've all been there! Pity shaving is not taught properly -it's almost a science excluding the manufacturers claims about why you should use their products.

Nevertheless you're the richer for what you've learnt !

 

[lasta]

"Sometimes I touch my face several times a day because because I have never felt this smoothness before"

Money well spent!

 

[Star_Wahl_Clipper_Treker]

Very nice collection of goodies. That auda keep you going for a couple years indeed! There is a lot of stuff I don't recognize, as we don't have them in our country. So I will leave it to you, to inform us on all that is good. Congrats!

These pictures cover most of my collection thus far...

Razors & Brushes

-----------------------------Timeless TI95-------------------------------AP Blue Lagoon G5C Synthetic 24mm
-------------------------Gillette 1959 Fatboy---------------------------CaYuen Dark Nebula Synthetic 26mm
-------------------Fatip OC Grande Gold-----------------------------Maseto Avatar ST Badger 30mm
-------------------Rex Ambassador------------------------------------Omega 636 ST Badger 21mm​

--------------------------Henson V1 AL13 Blue--------------------------
--------------------------------Merkur Futur--------------------------------
-------------------------Yaqi Mellon Rose Gold-------------------------

​

Not Shown:
PAA Copper Ascension Rose Gold
Merkur 37C
Gillette Red-Tip SuperSpeed

Shaving Bowl Hardware​

Captains Choice Cobolt Blue Bowl
Captains Choice Starry Night Scuttle
Captains Choice Starry Night Bowl
Cayuen Workshop Dark Nebula Bowl

Razor Blades​

Feathers
Bics
Gillette 7 O Clocks
Astra's
RK's
Nacets
Gillette Platinum's
Gillette Silver Blue's
Wizamet Super Iridium's

Shaving Soaps

​

And yes, I do have more soap then this, but the other's I don't use anymore, and are kept in the pile of broken dreams under the sink!

Aftershaves & Menthol​

This is of course, a collection that I've acquired, over the course of 1.5 years. It doesn't take much time to fall down the proverbial rabbit hole. But I can tell you this, its so much fun to do it!

 

[rbscebu]

@arnuld you are fortunate that you didn't choose straight razors and strops and whetstones .

 

[BigJ]

First, congratulations on your progress!

Once your ADs settle down, ‘traditional‘ wet shaving becomes a ’hobby’ that you can enjoy every day!
That makes everything very worthwhile IMO!!

 

[ivan_101]

You can see the result of the DE hobby in the pics. So much stuff.

What you got there in these photos is what we call a starter kit here on the forum. So, welcome to the rabbit hole.

If I used Mach3 then its 100 Indian rupees cartridge it would have given me 15 comfortable shaves (Gillette claims 15. I think they mean 2-pass shaves, but not sure). So I would have bought one blade every 15 days. Thing with Mach3 was that it could not handle 2-3 days of stubble (lots of tugging).

I can get 16-17 3-pass very close shaves out of a MACH3. And I have thick terrible black whiskers (just like the Indian guys ). The trick is to use cream and brush, not canned rubbish. The brush should be small diameter (22-23mm), and the blades should be constantly rinsed under a hot water from the tap (using a bowl with hot water doesn't work as the dirt accumulates in it). The main reason why most users can't get many shaves out of carts is a layer of cream forms on the blades and that doesn't allow the blade to cut.

 

[Multum in parvo]

No worries you just overbought on consumables. Once you have settled you will see the economical side of switching to a DE.

I shave every other day, so approximately 16 shaves per month. A blade for me lasts about 6 shaves, so three blades a month in total. Being very generous with 100 grams of soap/cream and 50ml of AS I guess I end up with 5-6 bucks per month.

 

[The Blackadder]

@arnuld you are fortunate that you didn't choose straight razors and strops and whetstones .

Don’t worry, a couple of years in the forum and he’ll get there, 100% guaranteed

 

[LRod]

I discovered early on that wet shaving wasn't gonna save me any money, Oh well!
At least I enjoy shaving now!

 

[TheBurgh]

One word

TUITION

 

[arnuld]

Some amazing replies I got here. Did not expect so much welcome on my shaving stuff

• I have been wet shaving for 7 months now and even today I touch my face because last 20 years it was never a smooth face after shaving. I think it will take me a year to get used to it
• It used to be mundane task and a burden everyday. I used to avoid it and eve bought a trimmer for I won't shave for 7 days and then Mach3 won't cut it, Presto won't cut it either. So I used to trim and avoid wet-shaving with carts. These days I look forward to shaving. I look for opportunities when I can use my DE razor
  
  . I have two razors that I use mostly, one very aggressive open-comb and other medium aggressive close-comb
• The razors are pretty cheap. Actually everything I have shown above does not match the quality of shaving creams, razors and aftershaves like Proraso, Sterling, RazoRock, Rockwell, Muhle etc but there are these 3 shaving creams known as the best here in India, in that order, according to both my personal experience and of other guys I talked with. If you want to get just one then get the first on the list. Since these are not shipped internationally, you need to get these from someone who can bring them personally.
  • Sunny Herbals
  • Patanjali
  • VICCO

Thank you all for your sweet replies and support.

 

[arnuld]

Very nice collection of goodies. That auda keep you going for a couple years indeed! There is a lot of stuff I don't recognize, as we don't have them in our country. So I will leave it to you, to inform us on all that is good. Congrats!

These pictures cover most of my collection thus far...

Razors & Brushes

-----------------------------Timeless TI95-------------------------------AP Blue Lagoon G5C Synthetic 24mm
-------------------------Gillette 1959 Fatboy---------------------------CaYuen Dark Nebula Synthetic 26mm
-------------------Fatip OC Grande Gold-----------------------------Maseto Avatar ST Badger 30mm
-------------------Rex Ambassador------------------------------------Omega 636 ST Badger 21mm​

--------------------------Henson V1 AL13 Blue--------------------------
--------------------------------Merkur Futur--------------------------------
-------------------------Yaqi Mellon Rose Gold-------------------------

​

Not Shown:
PAA Copper Ascension Rose Gold
Merkur 37C
Gillette Red-Tip SuperSpeed

Shaving Bowl Hardware​

Captains Choice Cobolt Blue Bowl
Captains Choice Starry Night Scuttle
Captains Choice Starry Night Bowl
Cayuen Workshop Dark Nebula Bowl

Razor Blades​

Feathers
Bics
Gillette 7 O Clocks
Astra's
RK's
Nacets
Gillette Platinum's
Gillette Silver Blue's
Wizamet Super Iridium's

Shaving Soaps

​

And yes, I do have more soap then this, but the other's I don't use anymore, and are kept in the pile of broken dreams under the sink!

Aftershaves & Menthol​

This is of course, a collection that I've acquired, over the course of 1.5 years. It doesn't take much time to fall down the proverbial rabbit hole. But I can tell you this, its so much fun to do it!

You can open a small street-corner shop with these many . Nice collection for sure

 

[texasdw]

In my experience, you have to run out of room to keep / add stuff before wet shaving becomes economical.

 

[Quaznoid]

Doesn’t have to be that way

 

[GaryTha]

You forgot the 24 sticks of ARKO.

 

[ButterfaceX]

 

[mikhou]

While I'm always intrigued by new stuff, I rarely purchase new things. The vast majority of my shaves are with a Henson AL13+ or a pre-war Gillette Tech. I typically use 1 of 2 brushes and 1 of 2 soaps (1 of which was gifted and 1 of which is a mash-up of cheap soaps). And I have been involved in enough PIFs and have been gifted blades such that I wouldn't need to purchase anything for at least a year.

So it can be expensive or it can be economical depending on what you want out of it. Now...am I tempted to buy a new razor, brush, soap pretty often? Yes, but I just can't justify those purchases when what I have works like a charm.