Bye Bye Gillette..

[portauto]

I've been using Gillette razors since my very first shave. First the Gillette Sensor Excel when I was young, then the Mach 3 when it first came out, on to the Mach 3 Turbo which was a great shave, the gimmicky M3 Power, and for some reason the Fusion and then Fusion Proglide (for reasons unknown to me, I just succumbed to the marketing I suppose).

Over time the price of razors creeped up and up and up, and corporate greed just became overbearing. With my coarse hair I find a single blade lasts me only 5-6 shaves, and becomes uncomfortable once that little moisture strip wears out, so at these ridiculous prices I'm going through 4 razors a month. That's hundreds of dollars a year.

Today I picked up a Schick Hydro 5. Just an amazing shave, this baby is a step up from the Fusion in every way. I've read online that the blades can last for weeks, the moisture strip goes on and on, and the blades are significantly cheaper.

Goodbye Gillette, it's been a good run but I won't be looking back and you won't be getting any more of my hard earned money

Kindest Regards,
Portauto

PS - For what it's worth I do own a Merkur Double Edge Razor, Badger Hair brush, Truefitt & Hill shaving cream, and use pre-shave oil. Although I loved a DE razor it's really an aquired skill and takes a lot of patience, I just found myself getting too many nicks and I'm getting lazy with day after day of shaving

[gnuyork]

Interesting... I'll have to try the schick. I had the original Gillette Sensor (not even the excel) that I used since college up to a couple of years ago when, ahem.. somebody - not me -packed the razor into a carry on for a flight. So that got confiscated. I was very sentimental about it... I then went out and got the Mach 3 and it took a while to get used to it, but since it's been fine. I never did try the gimmicky M3 power or the others because I didn't want to spend the bucks. I got the mach 3 cheap because it was already old news by many years...

[Beau8]

Yeah, I been eyeing the replacement razors too for the Mach 3, they're pricey and they don't discount too often. I all ready have a Schick Titanium and I'll probably switch to the replacement razors too, eventually.

[SgtClaymore]

Gillette prices their blades like they were gold or something!

[wuyeah]

I LOVE my Merkur!

[Raza]

I haven't shaved with a razor since my first day of work. Beards for life!

[hans caravan]

Another beardy here. Forget the razor and have some fun with your facial hair.

[dbakiva]

Well, I took Portauto's recommendation and picked up a Schick Hydro 5. This morning was the first shave. One thing I did notice is that it was more difficult to navigate around my goatee, and to get the sideburns done efficiently. It may be great for the smooth shaven, but it just didn't corner well around the beard, and with that pivoting head, was particularly difficult to get that area at the edge of my mouth.

I'll probably just go back to the Schick disposables I was using.

[BrentYYC]

Over time the price of razors creeped up and up and up, and corporate greed just became overbearing. With my coarse hair I find a single blade lasts me only 5-6 shaves, and becomes uncomfortable once that little moisture strip wears out, so at these ridiculous prices I'm going through 4 razors a month. That's hundreds of dollars a year.

Invest in some high quality shave cream. It will make all the difference in the world to your blade life. I use this, from Biotherm, and can't recommend it highly enough. What I was told by the rep is that the blade manufacturers (who also manufacture most of the shave creams on the market) incorporate micro-abrasives into the creams that cause the blades to wear.... and after all, they're really in the business of selling expensive blades. Whether that was a sales pitch or not, I can't say, but what I can attest to is how well the stuff works.

A can of the Biotherm foam is expensive ($20), but the benefits are 1) it lasts me about 6 months because you don't need to use much, 2) it provides a more comfortable shave than any of the big name brands, 3) it will at least quadruple your blade life with a coarse beard (5-6X longer life for me), so at the end of the day the more expensive shave cream will end up saving you a lot of money. Personally, I've been getting three month's use out of my blades (I just tossed the one out that I started using at the end of December) and I was still getting a reasonably comfortable shave out of it. Prior to Biotherm, I'd get about two weeks use out of a blade before it got uncomfortable enough that I needed to change blades. I see you're in Vancouver, so you can pick it up in the cosmetics section of any Shopper's Drug Mart or Hudson's Bay.

It's all a CONSPIRACY, I tell you.....

[portauto]

Invest in some high quality shave cream. It will make all the difference in the world to your blade life. I use this, from Biotherm, and can't recommend it highly enough. What I was told by the rep is that the blade manufacturers (who also manufacture most of the shave creams on the market) incorporate micro-abrasives into the creams that cause the blades to wear.... and after all, they're really in the business of selling expensive blades.

A can of the Biotherm foam is expensive ($20), but the benefits are 1) it lasts me about 6 months because you don't need to use much, 2) it provides a more comfortable shave than any of the big name brands, 3) it will at least quadruple your blade life with a coarse beard (5-6X longer life for me), so at the end of the day the more expensive shave cream will end up saving you a lot of money. Personally, I've been getting three month's use out of my blades (I just tossed the one out that I started using at the end of December) and I was still getting a reasonably comfortable shave out of it. Prior to Biotherm, I'd get about two weeks use out of a blade before it got uncomfortable enough that I needed to change blades. I see you're in Vancouver, so you can pick it up in the cosmetics section of any Shopper's Drug Mart or Hudson's Bay.

It's all a CONSPIRACY, I tell you.....

I used to use Biotherm Homme products, and I've also tried multiple varieties of other shaving creams and gels

I take shaving very seriously.. these days I'm using Truefitt & Hill pre-shave oil ($35), Truefitt & Hill 1805 shave cream ($35), Baxter silver tip badger brush ($99), Baxter after-shave balm ($20). I also use an Anthony face scrub and Anthony exfoliant every day.

Been using the new Schick blade for a week now and still going strong, this is more than I've ever gotten from any Gillette blade on my coarse hair. I agree its a challenge to get your sideburns and any trimming accurate with that jumbo sized head, but the blades are still altogether superior to Gillette.

Kindest Regards,
Portauto