Extend the life of razors

Razorblade cartridges are really expensive. Practically highway thievery, really. If I replaced my razor head as often as I "should" or is recommended, I'd probably spend $10-12 every other month on a new set of cartridges. That's $60-$72 per year. And just for me! Emmanuel goes through blades faster and his are more expensive than mine.

The first thing I did to try to save money on razors was to switch to a two razor system. I shave my underarms everyday and have never had a problem with razorburn or anything there. I shave my legs 1-2 times a week and do occasionally have trouble with razorburn.

I found a couple coupons and bought 24 of those really cheap, disposable razors for $4. I now use those cheapie razors to shave my underarms daily. I bought them last summer, sometime in June or July, and I haven't even opened the second package of a dozen yet. Because it's a small area being shaved and the hair isn't coarse, the cheapie razors last me a really long time before they get funky.

This way I reserve my expensive razors for just my legs. This has at least doubled the lifetime of my cartridges.

Warning about stropping: If you do this before the moisture strip on your fancy razors is gone, the friction against the jeans will probably rip it off.

The newest trick I've discovered to extend the life of my razors is to use an old pair of jeans to strop them. This is the youtube video I watched about stropping using blue jeans. But basically, you just run your blades along the jeans backwards (not cutting into the fabric) a few times and this supposedly removes burrs and whathaveyou from the blades. I tried it first on Emmanuel's ridiculously expensive blades and it actually worked! (I of little faith.) Instead of going out to buy him a new $18 pack of razor cartridges two weeks ago, he's still happily using his old razor head without any issues.

I've heard of yet another trick: storing the razors head-down in a small baggie of rice. The rice should absorb all the moisture from the blades and keep them sharper longer while preventing rust. I haven't tried this yet because I don't have rice on hand and I don't eat rice so it's safe to say I will probably never have rice on hand, but the science behind it seems sound to me. I don't know that I'd want to deal with retrieving my daily-use razor from the bag everyday, either, though it wouldn't bother me to use it for my leg-shaving razor and Emmanuel's face-shaving razors since we already store those outside of the bathroom. I'll update if I decide to give this a try.