Grandpa's Guides

Grandpa's Guides

An old man's outlook on life, love and growing up

Great Razor Challenge 2 Week Update

The Great Razor Challenge of 2017 – 2 Week Update

I know someone said I’d report on my great razor challenge ‘tomorrow’, but for an old folk like me, ‘tomorrow’ just means sometime after today. Not necessarily the very next day.

Anyway, this is Grandpa Tic here with an update after the first 2 weeks with a new razor cartridge. I tried to get the little ones interested in my quest, asking them to rub their hands on my face. I was thinking maybe I could come up with a friction meter thing, a way to judge the smoothness of the shave.

They both ran out of the room screaming like banshees. Which reminded me when I was young, and went to a drive-in double feature with The First Man in the Moon and Darby O’Gill and the Little People. It was in the 2nd movie that the banshees came out. I still remember that. But no, I don’t think it scarred me for life.

Back to the task at hand. I think I’ve discovered the key to extending the life of a razor. I kept track of the number of strokes it took to complete the shave. Don’t call me anal, either. I’m being scientific. The first week, I was over 50, which I thought was good, because I started shaving more deliberately, using longer strokes on the side, and not a bunch of little ones around the mouth.

Towards the end of the week I was below 50, and the average for the week came out to 51.

The second week, I got more deliberate still, and dropped the average to 40! Plus, 3 of the last 4 days were under 40, the lowest being 35. I’m tracking the smoothness on a rough basis of 1-5, with 5 being smoothest. I had a couple days that I figured were a little rougher, so I marked them 4.9. But overall, so far, the shave is almost as good as when it was new. The only difference is I can feel the scraping more than I could in the beginning. So I know it’s not as sharp as it started out. Still, it’s giving a good shave.

I’ll report back again after another two weeks with my 1 month update. So far I think 2 weeks is normal for most men. Those with really hard whiskers I’ve heard go through blades once/week. We’ll see how far I can get.