Often shaving commercials brag about how their razor has more blades than their competitors, are more blades somehow better, and if so why?
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Oh a nice easy one! There’s a really satisfying animation I saw about this years ago that has become ingrained in my memory, but I couldn’t find it so [here’s one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20SSZH2JI2s&ab_channel=Gillette) that’s effectively the same.
Basically, when a blade passes across a hair, it doesn’t just cut it, it also pulls it out of your skin slightly. If you then follow it up with another blade before it can sink back in, the next blade can cut the extra bit that got pulled out, that the first blade didn’t get. Then, it pulls it out even more, allowing a third blade to cut even further down.
The reason cutting further down is better is because the remaining hair will stick out of your skin a shorter distance, resulting in a smoother feel and less irritation.
Two blades make it a little easier to get a close shave with one pass. Razors with more than two blades come from Marketing, not Engineering.
If you are shaving using a straight razor, only one blade is necessary. However, very few people shave with straight razors because it is dangerous and time consuming in its own way. Instead, nearly all razors are safety razors. Safety razors have guards around the blade to ensure it can’t cut too deeply into the skin. Hair can build up between the blade and that guard, making the blade less effective and more likely to snag on the skin. You can (usually) dislodge this hair just by rinsing the razor head, but the more blades there are on the razor, the harder it is to clog all of them, and the less frequently you have to rinse.
There are very few places on the body where the skin is tight. Most skin surfaces on our body are flexible. Unfortunately this makes getting a close shave difficult because light pressure on the skin would pull the surface away from the blade ever so slightly and you reay don’t want to press hard with a single razor blade for obvious reasons. That’s why with single blade razors it’s important to pull on your skin slightly to stretch it tight and allow the blade to cut the hair with minimal pressure.
Multibladed razors do this on their own. Imagine the classic physics experiment where someone lays on a massive bed of tightly packed nails. They can do this because while each nail is fairly sharp, they each distribute the weight of the person equally meaning no single point places enough pressure to break the skin. The 3+ bladed razors distribute the pressure over all blades allowing you to press on the skin more and pull it tight beneath the razor without using a second hand to assist.
Answer: some of the ads for those blades will show you why. It’s akin to having a dual-deck riding mower–you get multiple attempts to cut each blade of grass you go over.
The first blade “cuts” (really, drags/lifts the hair out of the pore and rips it with the leading edge of that blade), then the second blade comes along immediately, before the remaining hair retracts, and again “cuts” (separates) another segment of the hair, and so on.
There’s a limit to how efficient multi-blade razors can be (six blades doesn’t get you much more than three or four), but it gives you a little “cleaner” shave (the hair remnants are now at pore level or slightly below–which has its own host of issues), which makes your face/legs/whatever smooth to the touch.
On a multi blade razor each razor has a job. The first blade hooks on to the hair follicle and pulls it up (it cuts it as well), the second blade then cuts that more exposed hair, and the third blade makes sure nothing is missed. Further blades serve as further backup. This allows you to shave faster, and do less passes. You also need less pressure, and the blades are angled in a specific way, which results in a lower chance of cutting yourself. It make shaving easier. However there are downsides to a multi blade razor. They give you a higher chance of razor burn, skin irritation, nicks, and ingrown hairs (since they cut the hair beneath the skin).
A single blade razor, either a straight razor or a safety razor, is going to give you a “cleaner” shave, there is a way lower chance of razor burn, skin irritation, nicks, and ingrown hairs. The downside is that you are more likely to cut yourself, and can do so quite badly. Shaving with a single blade razor requires much more care and practice than shaving with a multi blade razor.
At the end of the day it’s really about your preference. That said a multi blade razor makes shaving quicker and easier, while a single blade razor will give you a better shave if you’re willing to put in the time.
I think just Marketing. After 3 blades, I feel it becomes pointless as in it clogs up easily. I also take off the blue stripes after reading about them. Gillet lets you take those off with ease. Others try so hard to stop you taking them off
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