Monday, August 8, 2016

My Love Affair With Men's Razors and my loyalty to Dollar Shave Club

I began my love affair with men's razors on October 13, 2006. I remember because it was Friday the 13th and in my attempt to avoid all responsibility, I blamed my tardiness on that rather than on the fact that I’d pressed the snooze button about 7 times before finally getting up. I’ve never been an early riser so it wasn’t a big of a deal to me, the “real” issue,  was the fact that I had less than 30 minutes to get to class and no clean pants to wear.

Living in California means we live in perpetual spring weather, so the fact that it was October didn’t mean I couldn’t wear shorts, but with that came a second problem...I hadn’t shaved in weeks. My legs were so hairy I could supply wigs for the entire Hair Club for Men. If speed shaving was an Olympic sport I’d take the gold every time so shaving quickly wasn’t a problem, the third problem was I had absolutely no razors left.  

In my desperation I decided that my dad’s manly razor would have to do. So I pulled out a new refill and shaved with the speed of an Olympic athlete, put on my shorts and peeled off to school. On the drive there I touched my leg and felt what could only be described as baby smooth skin. I didn't have any of the dry patches I sometimes get after shaving and I hadn’t even applied lotion but it was by all means the best looking shave I’d had in years.


Fast forward 10 years and guess what, I’m still using men’s razors. The only difference is that now I buy my own, and I get them delivered at home. I, like many other women fall victim of the “Pink Tax." Products marketed towards women are 48% more expensive than comparable (and often times identical) items marketed towards men, this includes razors. The pink-ness of a razor isn’t going to make it shave any better than the silver razor I get from Dollar Shave Club. So if getting a razor delivered to my door for a fraction of the prize is crazy then I don’t want to be sane.