Extra Double Edge Blades

The looksmaxxing internet will tell you that your shave is a foundational pillar of your 'facial aesthetics optimisation stack.' Ignore that framing, but not the underlying logic: a close, irritation-free shave does matter, cartridge razors are a genuinely bad deal, and the blade you choose inside a safety razor matters more than most wet-shaving content admits. Derby Extras are the blade most commonly handed to converts from Gillette Fusion five-blade nonsense, and there's a reason for that — though it's slightly more complicated than the Reddit wet-shaving community would have you believe.

Derby Extra blades are manufactured in Turkey by the Derby company and are platinum-coated, which in blade terms means marginally longer corrosion resistance rather than surgical sharpness. On the spectrum of DE blade sharpness — where Feather (Japanese, genuinely alarming) sits at one end and some of the softer Astra variants sit in the middle — Derby Extras land in the mild-to-medium range. For most faces, particularly those with finer or softer beard growth, this is a feature not a bug. You're less likely to take a chunk out of your chin learning to hold a safety razor at the correct 30-degree angle when the blade has some forgiveness built in. For men with coarser, denser growth who've been shaving for years, Derby might feel draggy by the third pass — and that's worth knowing upfront rather than discovering on a Monday morning.

Performance-wise, Derby Extras typically last 3 to 5 shaves per blade depending on beard coarseness, razor aggression, and whether you're rinsing and drying the blade properly between uses (you're not, but you should be). That compares reasonably to Astra Superior Platinums — the other budget stalwart — which tend to run slightly sharper and comparably priced, making Astras the marginally better all-rounder for most men. Feather blades, the sharpness benchmark, cost roughly three times as much per blade and reward experienced shavers while genuinely punishing beginners. Derby's specific value proposition is its forgiving entry point: you will not routinely bleed through your shirt collar learning technique on these. Against cartridge alternatives — a Gillette Fusion ProShield cartridge running approximately £3.50 to £4 each, lasting roughly a week — Derby's cost is so absurdly low (under 5p per blade at bulk prices) that the comparison almost isn't worth making. It is, however, worth making, because men are still buying cartridges in 2024 out of inertia.

The cost-value assessment is simple: £5 to £8 for 100 blades is essentially free, which means the calculus for switching to DE shaving is almost entirely about the razor itself (a Merkur 34C at £35 to £40 being the sensible starting recommendation) and your willingness to spend two weeks re-learning something you thought you already knew. Derby Extras make that learning curve cheaper to fail through. If you're already an experienced DE shaver with coarser growth, you'll probably graduate to Astras, Gillette Wilkinson Swords, or eventually Feathers — and Derby is the training ground rather than the destination. That's not a criticism. Training grounds serve a purpose.

Jamie's verdict: Derby Extras are the correct starter blade in the same way that a beginner snowboard isn't the board you'll want in five years but is absolutely the board you want now. If you're still on cartridges, this is the economically rational softmax that requires zero hardmaxxing-adjacent commitment — no surgery, no bone-smashing, no 47-step morning routine. Just a safety razor, a blade that costs nothing, and ten minutes of YouTube tutorials. The shave quality ceiling is meaningfully higher than anything Gillette sells you at markup. The floor, for beginners, is also more forgiving than sharper alternatives. Experienced shavers might find them slightly underwhelming. That's fine. You're not the target.