How to clean a razor: Step-by-step guide

Can we be real for a minute? Bathrooms are dirty. Even clean bathrooms are dirty. Unless you have been over every surface with weapons-grade chemical cleaners in the last half hour, the place is teeming with bacteria. That’s to say nothing of a bathroom that’s a little overdue for a hard scrub (we all get lazy from time to time).

Because of just ALL of this, we strongly suggest cleaning your bathroom—like, in general. But if nothing else, make sure everything you use in said bathroom is at least sanitary. You have a lot of special bits as a human and you should use clean stuff to clean yourself (crazy concept).  

Enter your razor 

Specifically, clean the razor that you use on your face. That’s the moneymaker! Take care of it.

As it turns out, razor care is extremely easy (when you have a good razor). Mild soap and water. That’s the secret to cleaning your razor. 

Seriously, the steps to cleaning & disinfecting your razor properly are as follows:

• Step 1 - plug your sink
• Step 2 - start running water into the sink
• Step 3 - lather up a bit of soap and make that water soapy
• Step 4 - wash your razor in soapy hot water 
• Step 5 - unplug the sink and rinse your razor blade so there is no more soapiness 
• Step 6 - store your razor properly, preferably somewhere dry so that bacteria doesn't build up 

Magic!

We will also add that if your razor needs a little scrubby scrub and some elbow grease then you can use a toothbrush during step 4 (a clean toothbrush). In addition, we'd also recommend avoiding sharing razors with someone else!  

A quick note: this advice is not recommended for electric razors. You might think that’s obvious, but here we are.

Soap is awesome

Ah, soap. Humans use soap (or should use soap) to clean and disinfect themselves, their laundry, their dishes, and their homes. Soap helps remove dirt, cuts through oil and grease, and kills viruses and bacteria. It’s such a seemingly small thing, but it does the trick. 

Dirt, oil, viruses, and bacteria have a way of accumulating on surfaces. Razors are physical objects and thus have a surface, so even if you consider yourself a clean person and have a clean bathroom, your razor is at risk of accumulating all of these things. And if you’re a dirty person or have a dirty bathroom, your razor has these things already accumulating. Hygiene, people. 

Soap and water will work to loosen up the physical gunk in the nooks and crannies of your razor and will also sanitize it—two birds with one bar of soap (or liquid soap, doesn’t matter). Then rinse and bye-bye, gross stuff! 

Hygiene is important

We want to take a second to plug in the importance of hygiene and your shaving routine. Your face is a very sensitive area of your body in general, but when you shave with a razor, you are exposing your face to a blade. Faces are also made up of these things called skin and bones which mean they have pores, pimples, scabs, hair, and curves like your jaw that make navigating the surface with a blade all sorts of fun. 

Blades on your razor not only cut the hair on your face, but they also remove a fair amount of surface-level skin cells (insert fancy term called “exfoliation”). Shaving affects the micro realm of your face and very easily can cause irritations like razor burn or even wounds if you cut yourself.

This is also why we cannot emphasize enough the importance of always shaving with a clean razor AND, equally important, a sharp blade. The sharper the blade the easier it glides over your face skin and cuts your hair quickly without pulling. This allows for what we in the industry call a “close shave” and leaves you with a “smooth as a baby’s bottom” face without looking red, splotchy, and bleeding. 

If you have a razor with blades that have even the smallest nick in the metal, that are rusty, or are full of hair or dirt from past shaves, they will not glide smoothly over your skin. These insufficient blades will catch, they will pull, and they will distribute bacteria along the way. None of this is positive, and you need a new blade. 

Clean razor and clean blades

Hopefully, we’ve established the importance of having a clean razor and, equally important, clean razor blades. Soap and water and then rinse is sufficient for cleaning the body of your razor, and that will work for your blades as well. But, blades also wear out, get damaged, and, in a wet environment, risk rusting. In order to ensure a clean blade, we ultimately recommend replacing your blades. If you do not have a razor that has replaceable blades, buy a new one. Or better yet, buy a razor with replaceable blades—you’re a grown-up and can invest in a good razor. 

What’s a good razor? Well, since you’re asking, we’re pretty fond of The Plow® 2.0 safety razor. It takes the classic two-edge safety razor design and updates it with modern engineering. You get a durable, safe razor that is easy to clean.

It’s also easy to replace the blades. In fact, when you take advantage of the Peak Hygiene Plan, you get replacement blades shipped right to your door at a very low cost. It’s at the point where you never have to shave with the same blade twice, and that’s great for hygiene and the quality of your shave.