The Essentials: Meet the Best Pound-For-Pound Safety Razor We've Seen Yet
As long as man breaths air, he will fix things.
It’s just in him to be that way.
Sometimes he’ll even break something if it means pulling out the tool belt.
We’re odd creatures.
As men, we’re impelled to better what needs bettering, to forge new ways of efficiency, that we and our close ones may evolve and live well. Men of virtue get stuck in, as the Brits say (the Scots say it, too).
In other words, if it can be improved, it shall be.
Image: Henson Shaving
So, when it comes to a close shave, the less cuts, the better, right? Solving this has been the life’s work of many a shaving business, ones just like ours.
The closest shave possible is the holy grail of our collective crusade. And ain’t it funny how something as simple and as ancient as depilation can still stand to improve?
We even went into depth on the matter on this blog last year; Some guys bleed easy come shave time (or they’ll get ingrown hairs), hence the existence of our Supreme Glide Pre-Shave Formula. Like its name proclaims, you apply it before the shave cream part, then laugh as friction makes way for fun. And don’t say grooming can’t be fun.
But, believe it or not, you can make your morning (or night) shave even better, especially if you pair that aforesaid Pre-Glider with what what we’re about to show you.
Meet the AL13 by Henson Shaving, a safety razor made by a Canadian brand bent on perfecting the wet shave. How exactly are they doing that?
This Guy’s Machined From Aircraft Grade Aluminum
Henson holds a 20+ year pedigree in aerospace engineering, enabling them the resources and know-how to craft one tough razor.
Fact: All Henson’s razors are made at their Ontario-based aerospace manufacturing facility, B&R Machining, and it faces the same standards a satellite would before getting approved.
The AL13’s light, too, and at 1.3 oz, it’ll grant your grip a lot more say than a heavier counterpart. And there isn’t a trace of plastic in these things. We love that.
The brand also guarantees their razors last forever, or at least long enough to get passed down to future shavers multiple times. Who doesn’t love that?
Henson’s All About Geometric Precision
The guys might’ve found the best possible blade angle for the smoothest shave, and they cite simple geometry as the key in doing so.
Basically, once you’ve slotted in your favourite double-edge blade (any will do), said blade will rest at an exact 30-degree angle. The results’s a damn close shave, and those with steady hands may even see less cuts.
Henson cites the benefits of machining their razors rather than casting or molding them, and they guarantee that because of this, key features of their razors are “kept consistent within a thousandth of an inch.”
“At Henson, our aerospace machinists thought that good blade support — keeping a blade rigid — would limit flex and chatter,” says Ashly Knox, Chief Operating Officer at Henson. “Part of the solution here has to do with very controlled blade extension, which was something our machinists expected they could control at scale. So we tried to solve the mechanical issue we saw present in most razors, without knowing if the customer would benefit from the change or not.”
Don’t worry, the experiment paid off.
“Luckily, thousands of customers have shared their positive results with us. It's super neat for us to look at a problem on a purely geometric level and have that result in a benefit for people.”
They Respect Mother Earth
Henson’s stance on sustainability is clear, not to mention respectable. Like us, they believe we ought to make less waste when we groom. And if there’s an industry in dire need of more awareness, it’s grooming and cosmetics. We know that well.
Did you know your average disposable razors isn’t biodegradable, and that at least two billion of them get tossed into landfills every year. That’s straight from the Environmental Protection Agency, too.
It’s never been a better time to go old-school and ditch those disposables.
By the way, you can (usually) recycle safety razor blades, let alone Henson’s.
One More Thing
In case you’re wondering, no, this wasn’t an ad.
We’re just happy to endorse products made with the same fastidious care we put into making ours, especially when they’re made right here, in Canada.
Henson AL13 (Comes in five different hues—Jet bBack, Aircraft Aluminum, Steel Blue, Tan, and Copper)
$89.99 CAD