ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, August 1, 1996 TAG: 9608010035
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-10 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BOSTON
SOURCE: BARBARA CARTON THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
TRUTH BE TOLD, most of us throw it away when we've cut ourselves. And that's not exactly science.
Gillette Co. brags that its blades are ``the best a man can get.'' But for many stubbly faces there is a more pointed issue: What is the most a man can get?
How many shaves, that is, from a single blade?
This isn't an idle inquiry. Some 90 million men in the U.S. shave an average of 5.33 times each week. Industry experts have determined that over his lifetime, the average man scrapes nearly 27 feet of hair off his face. (Women use their razors just under 10 times a month, but shave more than nine times as much skin area.)
That adds up to a lot of scratchy blades. But neither Gillette, which dominates the $1.2 billion U.S. razor market, nor other razor manufacturers offer guidance on when to toss a blade.
Most shavers haven't a clue. Daniel Rouah, who runs the ``Shaving Advice Centre'' on the Internet's World Wide Web and operates a shaving hot line from his London hair salon, says callers often ask when to throw out old blades. Rouah suggests they jettison them after four shaves, just as he does. Any more, he says, and ``you might as well break a bottle and use that to scratch your face.''
Thomas Buell, on the other hand, generally scrapes along for two or three weeks with a single blade. ``By 5 p.m., I'm not an ape or anything,'' he insists. But Buell, a medium-bearded senior manager for Pier One Imports Inc. in Fort Worth, Texas, does have a cutoff point: ``First blood, that's my rule.''
It is no accident that shavers are working in the dark. To John Darman, Gillette's vice president for blades and razors, disclosing when a blade loses its cutting edge is a touchy subject. ``What if the only ones who listen to us are the ones who are currently changing more frequently?'' Darman asks.
Gillette's research shows that men toss out the Sensor Excel, the company's most durable blade, after an average of 11 shaves. Refillable cartridges usually go after 10 shaves, and the average number of shaves with Gillette's disposable razor is eight.
Moreover, Gillette maintains a maze of laboratories dedicated to whisker research. Its scientists can wax on about the ``Hysterisis Effect'' - how long it takes a whisker lifted by a passing blade to snap back to the skin (one-eighth of a second) - or the ``lubricious value'' of shaving gel (up to twice as slippery as shaving cream). They can also describe the ideal beard length for shaving (about 24 hours worth of growth, just after the hairs have cleared skin level.)
But blade life? Don't ask.
About all Gillette's scientists will say is that all blades are roughly the same thickness - roughly 0.00006 of a millimeter. Beards differ, and it is the positioning of the blade in relation to a whisker, not its thickness, that determines razor life, they say. The Sensor Excel, for example, perseveres because its tiny rubber fins stretch the skin with each pass, allowing its two blades to mow whiskers especially close.
Equally mystifying, at least to legions of male shavers, is why blades seem to deteriorate instantly when they are used by women. Mark Conley, a cable splicer for Nynex Corp., chucks his blade as soon as he finds out his wife has used it on her legs. ``I don't know if the diameter of the hair is larger or what,'' he says.
He has touched on a shaving truth. Women usually use their razors less often than men, so when they do get around to shaving, the hair on their legs is longer than men's beards. That causes razors to clog up and blades to wear out more quickly. Also, women often shave with water and soap, which is less slippery than shaving cream and more likely to leave blades dinged, experts say.
Boston resident Robert Porter says he recently found a way to beat the battered-blade syndrome. Porter used to switch blades every Monday and Thursday, but not anymore. Reaching into his shower, he withdraws a magnetic gadget the size of a cheese wedge with a blade stuck to it. The device is a ``blade extender'' that he bought from a catalog for about $20.
``I've read all the documentation and the testimonials,'' Porter says, quoting the theory that blades go dull because they bend with each use. The extender magnetizes and straightens the bends, he says. His current blade, he says proudly, is still sharp after a week of use. (Gillette's Darman dismisses this as fantasy. The No. 1 reason for blade fatigue, he says, is corrosion, not bending.)
Cynics have also wondered if the moisturizing strips on disposables aren't part of a plot by companies to force shavers to toss their blades sooner than necessary. The strips - bands of polyethylene oxide that are activated by water to reduce friction - often give out before the blades, making disposables look used up.
No way, blade-makers say. Moisturizing strips do break down much faster if a razor is left sitting in hot water - the hotter the water, the quicker the deterioration. But, says Fred Wexler, director of research for Schick, a division of Warner-Lambert Co., ``There's no built-in correlation between the two.''
Years ago, razor companies were a bit more forthcoming about blade life. A 1905 Gillette ad promised ``10 to 50 delightful velvety shaves without stropping.'' Another manufacturer, Rolls Razor, offered a blade in 1940 with a ``semiautomatic strop and hone,'' promising it wouldn't wear out in 10 years. The razor may have been too good: Rolls went out of business.
Edwin C. Jeffers, who ran a barber shop in Columbus, Ohio, for 15 years, remembers that a well-stropped straight razor would last indefinitely. Jeffers, 68, is retired and uses disposable razors that he says last up to 10 days. Not everyone can do that, though, he says. ``I've seen guys with hair so squirrelly, it's just like wire,'' he says. ``That'll knock the edge off a blade real quick.''
LENGTH: Long : 113 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ROGER HART/Staff. Even Gillette won't solve the mysteryby CNBof a razor's lifespan. But a few facts are known: About 90 million
men in the United States shave an average of 5.33 times per week.
Women may use their razor less than 10 times a month, but over a
greater skin area. Women are much less likely to use shaving cream,
though, and wear out their implements of self-torture more quickly.
color.