How often do we get good things in the mail? Hardly ever anymore, now that pen pals are a thing of the past – unless you subscribe to a shaving club. Then you find yourself excited to crack open the mailbox. Shaving clubs are a pretty convenient way to automatically get the stuff you want and the stuff you use delivered right to your door.
Although you often can’t choose exactly the items you want, clubs are a quick and easy way to make sure you’re never out of stock on a Monday morning.
Each club offers something slightly different, and it can be hard to know if one is right for you. That’s why we’ve put together this convenient guide with prices and info on some of the most popular shaving clubs.
Harry’s
Monthly fee: ranges from $8 – $24, depending on the options you choose.
Harry’s offers lots of high-quality blades at what most people feel are reasonable prices, and you can increase or decrease your subscription frequency. The free trial package (you just pay for the shipping) includes a Truman Razor with a blade, foaming shave gel and a travel blade cover to last about two weeks.
Bonus: They publish Five O’ Clock, a pretty cool online magazine.
Bevel
Monthly fee: about $40
The Starter Kit comes with Priming Oil, Shave Cream, Restoring Balm, and Blades with an optional razor and brush for an extra $40 (which they say is an $80 value). The benefit of Bevel is its specialization in products for people of colour that help reduce razor bumps and irritation. You can sign up for monthly or bi-monthly delivery.
Dollar Shave Club
Monthly fee: Ranges from $3.50 – $9.50
Subscriptions are divided into three categories: the Humble Twin, the 4X (also recommended for women) and the Executive. New members get a free compatible blade handle; the type of plan you choose determines the styles of handle available to you.
Bonus: They also publish an online magazine, MEL, which is a great read.
Birchbox Man
Monthly fee: $10 or $20 – $110 for Birchbox Plus.
Each month get a good supply of five grooming samples like anti-ageing moisturizers or beard care products. The Birchbox Plus Men also includes a lifestyle item in each shipment. Just fill out your grooming profile and tell them what you like instead of getting surprised with what you’d rather not receive.
Bonus: They’ll often offer a free gift with your subscription.
Public Goods
Monthly fee: about $5 + price of products
The Public Goods subscription is a bit different. Pay $59 a year, and then get access to products at lower prices, every day. PG promises that you can save about $70 a month on this model. Whether the math checks out or not, we don’t know. But they do offer a shaving cream for $18, or $3.25 for members.
Makers of healthy premium products, from bathroom essentials and shaving goods to bamboo, biodegradable toothbrushes and non-toxic cleansers.
Bonus: All products are claimed to be vegan.
Dollar Beard Club
Monthly fee: $1 and up
The Epic Beard Club doesn’t involve a whole lot of shaving, so whether this qualifies as a “shaving” subscription depends on your point of view. Instead, they sell beard oils, waxes, balms, and more. How’s it work? The first step is to choose your beard oil, choose balms, beard spray, waxes and shampoo or conditioner (priced individually as you add them to your shopping cart).
They also offer accessories like beard combs and brushes, hats, and even “growth vitamin” capsules. Don’t feel obligated to load up your box, just select one item if that’s all you want. That’s how we got our minimum $1 price. The max price? Well, that depends on just how many ball caps you want to receive each month.
These are only a small sample of the clubs out there in the world, so don’t feel limited to what we’ve listed here. Let us know in the comments whether you’re subscribed to any of these and whether you enjoy their products and services!
My problem with services like Dollar Shave Club is that they aren’t environmentally friendly and would still cost me too much. Since I started wet shaving, all I need is a double edge razor and a pack of blades. I bought a 10$ pack of 100 or so blades (on Fendrihan) and it will last me more than a year. I can recycle them too.
I switched to Harry’s due to the constant rising costs of Gillette blades. I love the Harry’s razor (I have had both the Truman and the Winston) but, the rest of the items they sell are meh. I shave my face and head every day, so I use a lot of product. The Gillette Fusion razor with the top blade used to cut me pretty severely sometimes but, I have never had a problem with the Harry’s product. I love Fendrihan’s products – Taylor of Old Bond Street Coconut shave cream and Pre de Provance No.# 63 Shave balm are my goto products. My friend signed up for the Harry’s shave club and got so much product coming every month – he couldn’t keep up with it. He started giving the shave cream and blades away – to anyone that had the Harry’s razor just to keep ahead of it. Everyone uses different amounts of shave cream, etc. and depending on how often you shave and how much product you use – a blanket plan might be a waste of money. In the end, they have a great razor, but I will still come back here for the rest. I like to choose how I smell. I have sensitive skin, so I need to be careful as to what products I put on it and I really like to choose which products I end up using. One other quick note; I have hard water and living here in Edmonton, I found that the Harry’s gel worked okay but, the shave cream was the pits (no lather and you needed a lot to get it to lubricate properly using a brush). It might work better elsewhere but here, a luxurious cream goes a long way.
No thanks,
I think I’ll continue to support Fendrihan. Does it cost more, probably. In return I receive better than average product and the best customer service that I compare all other online retailers to.
As a shaving enthusiast, I must comment that emphasis on blade comparisons is often misplaced. The blade is but a part of the shaving equation, and appropriate attention must be placed on skin preparation and lather.
If the beard is properly soaked in advance, such as with a wet towel, and if the skin is treated with some form of pre-shave oil, even as simple as a combination of glycerin and water, and finally, if a superb lather is applied and allowed time to be absorbed into the beard, then the work of the razor is greatly lessened, and the shave is made more enjoyable.
Thanks to Fendrihan for providing the greatest shave creams to be found!!