Merkur 20C Long Handle Black Double Edge Safety Razor (90 20 011)

My very first safety razor.

I am very happy with it. It feels good in the hand, it was some weight to it which I like very much. I think it looks really really good, that chrome with the matte black handle looks just great!

I specially like the logo engraved at the bottom of the handle, it is quite a nice detail.

The grip is a swirl around the handle which makes it really grippy when shaving, this razor is not going to jump out of you hands.

This is a 3 piece safety razor, meaning that you unscrew the handle and you have 3 parts, the handle itself, the guard and the base plate. I like this style because is very simple, not a lot of moving parts like in butterfly style razors, I had never had one of those but I prefer not to have a lot of moving parts, if it breaks it will be difficult to repair.

I paid 50 EUR for this because I bought it from a retailer. But in my opinion it was well worth it. I truly enjoy shaving with it, is so much fun!

This razor comes with an included blade so that you don’t have to spend any more money. It is ready to use out of the box.

There is some advantages when shaving with safety razors and one of them is the money you can save. That was actually one of the reasons I got interested in wet shaving. I used to use Gillette razors with disposable cartridges and I would try to get the most out of each one of them because they are very expensive, in my opinion. You can actually buy a meal for the price of a 5-pack.

Here is an example.

Example: Hugo and Sam are the best of friends and they live in Milano, Italy.

Hugo uses a Gillette MACH 3 Razor with replaceable cartridges and uses one cartridge per week.

Sam uses this safety razor (Merkur 90 20 011) and changes the blade every week.

The initial investment for Hugo is 5.99 EUR for the razor.

The initial investment for Sam is 40 EUR for the safety razor.

Shaving at this pace will require Hugo to buy 52 disposable cartridges. If every pack has 5 cartridges, he needs 11 packs (12.49 EUR/pack) to cover a full year (not taking into account the one already included with the razor)

Shaving at this pace will require Sam to buy 52 disposable razor blades. If every pack has 10 blades, he needs 6 packs (4.92 EUR/pack) to cover a full year (not taking into account the one already included with the safety razor)

After 1 year Hugo would have spent 137.39 EUR in disposable cartridges for a total of 143.38 EUR spent on shaving.

After 1 year Sam would have spent 29.52 EUR in razor blades for a total of 69.52 EUR spent on shaving.

Sam saved 73.86 EUR. That is just the first year, due to purchase of the razor. The second year, Sam would save 107.87 EUR.

Again, this is just an example, they say that razor blades stay sharper than disposable cartridges, I can say that it is true because I have used both, not to mention the fact that a safety razor blade has two edges, if one goes dull you can still use the other side. There might be people who use the same disposable cartridge for 1 month or so, the way of shaving varies depending on the person. This is just to show you how inexpensive it is to use a safety razor.

Here are the photographs!