This is part of a new, regular green living series I'll be adding to about changes I've made in my life to be more green. If you can think of a topic you'd like me to write about, don't hesitate to let me know!
For the last several years, I've been looking for ways to make me day-to-day existence greener. I switched from o.b. tampons to flannel reusable pads, and then to a
Diva Cup for my menstruation management. I made a concerted effort to switch to organic soaps and shampoos, with varied degrees of success.
But shaving my legs remained a decidedly resource-intensive activity, and it was expensive to boot while using my cartridge razor. I'm a pretty much hippy-feminist, so you'd think I'd be able to give up shaving and be liberated and furry, but I actually really enjoy the feel of shaved legs on clean sheets a great deal.
Giving up shaving wasn't an option for me.
My husband, G., had switched to wet-shaving several years ago, and while I was supportive of that for him, the safety razor scared the crap out of me when it came to shaving my own body parts. But we hit a really tight financial patch while I was in law school and I couldn't afford to replace my Sensor cartridges at the rate I needed to for a good shave. In a pinch one day, I used G's safety razor and a fresh blade from his sizeable stash of razor blades. He'd bought a sample pack when
he'd started, then settled in on a blade he preferred pretty quickly and ordered more of those, so we had a lot of spare blades from which to pick.
It wasn't a great shave: I cut myself pretty badly in the exact place I did the very first time I shaved my legs, in fourth grade. One inch-long strip of flesh right up the side of my ankle. It felt in many ways like being reintroduced to the skill, complete with the ointment and the big bandaid strapped over my ankle bone.
That year, on my birthday, he bought me my own safety razor so we didn't have to share: his blade was too heavy for my hand (I have carpal tunnel). I used that, with my own sample pack of razors, for months until I figured out that my birthday razor was too short and maybe still a little too heavy for leg shaving. I read up a lot about wet shaving for women at the reddit sub
r/wicked_edge, and deduced that the ideal razor for my leg shaving needs was a Lady Gillette.
Now, the Lady Gillette's production was stopped before I was born, but there's a reasonably good secondhand market in them on eBay. I bid on several, and eventually got lucky and won one in good condition. I sold my birthday razor (with my husband's blessing) to someone on
r/Shave_bazaar, and so helped another person make his first foray into wet-shaving with a minimal initial investment.
After some trial and error, I've found the razor and blade combo that works best for me. A couple of weeks ago I ordered what will likely be two years worth of blades and yesterday they arrived. For about a quarter (or less) what I would have paid to keep using the Gillette Sensor, I've been able to switch to a greener alternative that will last me the rest of my life. I'm not sure why more people don't take this route, except that maybe it requires a little experimentation to discover what works for the individual.
Once you've found your combination, though, you'll never have a better shave with the junk you buy at the drugstore. If you're interested in lady wet-shaving, you should take a look at this
Beginner's FAQ.
Defy by Sara B. Larson
