Shave Sustainably & In Style

If you have been thinking about switching to a safety razor but aren’t sure if it’s right for you or which one to choose, you are in the right place! Safety razors can seem daunting at first; I know I was worried about getting one. I thought the blades may be hard to change or that just one blade wasn’t enough since every razor I’ve ever used has had at least three blades. Ultimately, I made the switch & I am so glad I did!

I have been using the Eco Roots safety razor for a little under a year now & I couldn’t be happier! Not only has it saved me a lot of money on razors this year, but it shaves really well & doesn’t irritate my skin as plastic razors do. All my life, I suffered from razor burn. I have pretty sensitive skin & I hated shaving because it would inevitably lead to razor burn. I tried so many different shaving creams & exfoliated my skin before and after shaving, but still, nothing helped. Then I switched to my safety razor & I haven’t had razor burn sense. It was miraculous! So, I wanted to understand why this was happening; I came to learn that bacteria grow on plastic very easily. Bacteria on razors is one of the main causes of razor burn. Bacteria doesn’t grow on stainless steel, so safety razors have effectively eliminated my razor burn.

On top of my skin feeling as silky smooth as ever, the blades are extremely easy to replace. I thought it would be a lot more difficult or that I would end up accidentally slicing myself in the process, but it truly a piece of cake!

The other thing I love about my safety razor is that I am keeping single-use plastic out of the environment & it feels so good! According to the EPA, the U.S. throws away two billion plastic razors every year. That’s enough to wrap around the Earth six times. I try not to think about the hundreds of pink, plastic Venus razors, razor heads, & packaging that I used prior to getting a safety razor; it makes me so upset that there was a superior alternative all along, yet I was buying plastic crap. Instead, I try to focus on how many razors I have kept out of landfills just this year and how many more I will prevent from littering our world in the future. That can always bring a smile to my face & give me the hope I need to keep improving.

The fact that I used plastic razors, as did pretty much everyone I knew, got me thinking: how did the plastic razor come to dominate the consumer market? I talked to my grandparents & they told me they used to use safety razors a long time ago & they even had to sharpen the razor blades themselves. I wondered how society went from something so sustainable to shaving with mass-produced plastic.

Well, it turns out that the safety razor was invented in 1847 & was used for over a century. The material changed from carbon steel to stainless steel over this time period & functionality improvements were made along the way. It wasn’t until the 1960s that Gilette invented a disposable razor head, that things changed. In 1974, Bic came out with a completely disposable razor, which soon dominated the market due to the low cost, ease of use, & marketing ploys used by these companies. Today, disposable razors are so mainstream, that some people don’t even know they are an option.

At the end of the day, choosing a stainless steel safety razor over a disposable plastic razor is a no-brainer. Once you are armed with the knowledge of better alternatives & the might to try a new product, you will be wondering why you didn’t make the switch sooner!