€17.50 for five cartridges: the modern shaving rip-off

€17.50 for five refills: modern shaving spirals out of control

A customer enters his local supermarket expecting to spend forty or fifty euros. He leaves with seventy-three. Checking the receipt, he finds the culprit: a box of replacement cartridges for his razor, five units, €17.50. The anecdote, told without fuss, summarizes a reality that millions of Spaniards face every time they restock blades: the price of disposable shaving has decoupled from any reasonable logic. The box came with an image of five heads, the clerk hesitated between the handle and the refill, and the confusion ended up costing nearly twenty euros for a product thrown away in weeks.

The real annual cost of shaving

The calculation circulating among meticulous consumers dismantles the multinational narrative. A classic double-edge safety razor, like those used by grandparents, is bought once and lasts decades. Blades cost pennies: a hundred blades for nine euros, and each blade lasts several shaves if cared for properly. A decent brush costs about ten euros and is replaced every ten years. Cream or bar soap costs two euros per year. Total: five to six euros annually for daily shaving.

In contrast, the five-blade system with a pivoting head requires replacing cartridges at gold-standard prices. The user who raised the issue summed up the bewilderment in one sentence: he was used to four refills of the previous generation costing twelve euros. Now it’s nearly twenty. Cartridge inflation far exceeds general grocery inflation.

Why classic shaving wins on numbers and skin

The most repeated technical argument is counterintuitive: the more blades in the head, the worse the shave. Hair gets clogged between the blades, the razor pulls instead of gliding, and the close shave lasts fewer hours. A single blade with the proper gap between edge and guard cuts cleanly, without irritation, and allows angle control. Those who have tried both describe it as moving from dragging sandpaper to sliding a blade.

Personalization is another factor that the closed multinational systems do not allow. With double-edge razors, you can combine blade brands, razor openings, and foam types to find the formula that fits your skin. Some need an aggressive edge; others cut themselves with anything. Everyone’s skin is different, yet disposable shaving treats them all the same: with haste and overpricing.

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Time, skin, and the ritual not everyone wants

The most honest objection isn’t price, it’s time. Someone who wakes up at 5:30 AM doesn’t want to spend half an hour lathering. Defenders of the classic method respond that with technique, one can shave in fifteen or twenty minutes, and that the quality of the shave compensates for the extra minute. Others argue that anything over five minutes is too much, and tired morning skin isn’t ready for experiments.

Here appears the nuance almost no one disputes: not all faces are equal. Some beards turn into visible sandpaper in an hour, while other skins irritate with any blade. Each person’s requirements depend on their job, appointments, and genetics. A customer service director with meetings at 7 PM doesn’t have the same needs as someone working from home in shorts.

The business of forcing you to buy the same thing always

The five-blade model is a lock. Each manufacturer designs its own fitting, so one brand’s cartridge doesn’t work on another’s razor. Users get trapped in a closed ecosystem where the manufacturer sets refill prices without real competition. It’s the same logic as coffee pods or ink cartridges: give away or cheapen the hardware to bleed money on consumables.

The classic alternative breaks that lock. Double-edge blades are standardized: any blade fits any razor, whether it’s a German Merkur, a Chinese clone, or a family heirloom. That universal compatibility is what allows prices to plummet. When consumers can choose between twenty blade manufacturers, none can charge seventeen euros for five units.

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The disposable shaving market won’t correct itself. As long as the majority keeps replacing cartridges out of inertia, multinationals have no reason to lower prices. The prediction, with all the caution required in a sector where habit outweighs calculation, is that the bleeding will continue until users do the math. And doing the math, in this case, means looking at the receipt calmly.