What cartridges really cost you: £208 a year, over £2,000 a decade

Most men have never done the maths on their razor. A pack of cartridges goes in the basket every few weeks, it stings a bit at the till, and then you forget about it until the next pack.

So let's do the maths once, properly.

The sum nobody does

A branded five-blade cartridge costs about £4. Most men get through roughly one a week, because by day five or six it's dragging.

• One week: about £4.
• One year: 52 cartridges, about £208.
• Ten years: over £2,000, on refills alone.

And it never stops. There's no point where you've paid it off. Next year is another £208, and the year after that.

Why cartridges cost so much

The handle is cheap, sometimes free. That's the point. The money is in the refills, and the refills only fit that handle. Once you own it, you're locked in.

It's a subscription in disguise. You never signed up for it, but you pay it every month, at whatever price the shelf says. Often from behind a locked security box, because the refills are worth stealing.

And for that price you're buying five blades per stroke, when the first one does the cutting and the other four mostly scrape.

What a double-edge blade costs

A standard double-edge blade is the opposite model. It's not tied to any brand. Pharmacies sell them, Amazon sells them, and any one of them fits.

They cost about 10p each. A box of 100 is under £10. That's roughly forty times less per blade than a cartridge, for one sharp edge that actually does the work.

The Mossae maths

A Mossae costs £37.95, once. It's machined from aluminium, with nothing to snap or wear out, so you don't buy it again. Your first 100 blades are included, which is about a year of shaving.

That's £162 kept in the first year alone, and close to £200 every year after that.

Cheaper, and a different shave

The bill is the easy part to see. The shave is the part you feel.

One blade, held at a fixed 30° machined into the head, cuts each hair cleanly in a single pass. No pivot, no springs, no five edges scraping the same patch of skin. Rest it flat, no pressure, and let it glide.

So it isn't the same shave for less money. It's a different shave: fewer passes, a calmer neck, and a razor you'll still be using in ten years.

"Blades cost me almost nothing now. I'd been buying cartridges for years without ever doing the maths."

Brian S., verified buyer

Same morning routine. Different bill. Different shave.