You cover your table with a tablecloth so it doesn’t get messy. You cover your grill so rain doesn’t mess it up. If you have kids, you cover your electrical outlets so no one gets hurt. Why wouldn’t you do the same for your razor?
No, razors don’t get food on them unless you use them to eat, or get rained on unless you leave them outside, or hurt your kids unless you leave them lying around your house, all of which are terrible and (hopefully) unlikely ideas. But even so, razors do need to be kept in good condition, kept clean, and kept safe, and that’s where a cover comes in.
“It’s like putting a mask on your razor blades,” says Jason “The Germ Guy” Tetro, author of The Germ Files. Leaving your razor exposed makes it more susceptible to collecting the myriad bacteria that live in your bathroom, which in turn makes it more likely to cause infection when you shave.
Of course, a cover won’t do you much good if you don’t clean your razor thoroughly, but once that’s done, a cover is the best way to keep it clean — especially if you’re traveling and keeping it in your toiletry bag. Dirt and lint and specks of things like toothpaste live in there, and giving them access to your razor is a nightmare, to say nothing of the damage to the blade that could occur while it’s jostling around with your deodorant and shampoo. “I’ve had many a time where I’ve been traveling and forgotten to [use a cover], and usually by day four of my travel, my face is looking a little bit — what’s the word I’m looking for? — zitty,” says Tetro.
Likewise, a cover helps protect your razor if you drop it — and, while your kids are presumably not in danger of getting their sticky mitts on it, a cover helps protect you in the small-but-not-zero chance you get distracted and accidentally grab your razor by the wrong end.
“At the end of the day, if you have any kind of barrier protection to be able to make sure those blades are safe, then you don’t have anything to worry about,” says Tetro. So wrap it up!