Sweet Redemption
Not for me, for the razor industry. Downblog, amid a lot of spoofing about infinite-bladed razors, Jaybird pipes up:
As a head (but not face) shaver, allow me to say that I eagerly await the next big thing.
The Mach 3 was a boon for headshaving. It was a quantum leap, if you will. The Fusion is another leap, sadly not of the same magnitude, but certainly in the same ballpark.
I did not know it would be possible to improve upon the shave my Mach 3 gave my scalp. The Fusion did. More importantly than that, it did so and made a razor that was cleaned under a regular stream of water from the bathroom sink.
I’ll buy the 7-bladed razor when it comes out.
Which is to say, there is demonstrable increased utility from these products; it’s not all marketing hype. They are a better buy for at least some people. Which matters.
Comment by Jon H —
March 29, 2006 @ 10:45 am
Jaybird obviously wants continuous a belt of Mach 3 or Fusion cartridges, perhaps attached to a belt sander.
Comment by SomeCallMeTim —
March 29, 2006 @ 12:33 pm
Jim Henley, shill for Big-Shaving. Oh, the humanity!
Comment by Jaybird —
March 29, 2006 @ 1:32 pm
Something I should note:
I bought the Schick Quattro (or however it’s spelled) when it came out and I attempted to use it once. Didn’t even make it through half the head before tossing it into the trash in disgust.
It didn’t shave that well, it didn’t clean under a stream of water like my Mach 3 did (which resulted in it shaving even worse), and I nicked myself a couple of times. NICKED!!! WITH A BRAND SPANKING NEW RAZOR!!!
Anyway, all that to say, more is not necessarily better. When it came to the Quattro, mockery was more than justified.
Gilette, however, made a damn good razor for headshaving when they made the Mach 3 and they made a better one when they made the Fusion.
And, for the record, I understand the mockery of the ”If the rate of blades being added to razors holds, by 2450, a razor will hold more blades than Las Vegas has Elvis Impersonators (which, if the rate of growth in Elvis Impersonators from 1975 to 2005 holds, by 2450, 1 in 5 people on the planet will be an Elvis Impersonator).” Trust me, I get how goofy the razor thing looks to people who don’t love to shave their head.
But if you shave your head? You’ll chuckle and laugh with the best of them but then you’ll get all serious and say ”It does a great job shaving, though.”
Comment by David Weigel —
March 29, 2006 @ 8:16 pm
I really like the Fusion too. It works about as well as the Mach 3, but for some reason lasts twice as long. I only have to change blades every other week, making it a better deal despite its higher price.
Comment by chuckles —
March 29, 2006 @ 8:46 pm
Dude, the headshaving problem has been SOLVED.
http://www.headblade.com/
Comment by wade —
March 30, 2006 @ 4:19 am
hmmmmm….. i smell a rat - guerrilla mareketing at work here?
jaybird, if your not getting paid for posting comments like this, you should be …
no doubt fusion gives an excellant shave, but how much are the blades going to cost? (also why do blades for older razors never seem to come down in price???)
Comment by Jaybird —
March 30, 2006 @ 11:07 am
The headblade, as I understand it, is a tool that holds the mach3 or fusion or whatever blades. It’s an ergonomic blade holder… but you’re still paying for blades when you go to the grocery store.
Wade, I assure you, I am yet another fat guy in a hawaiian shirt sitting in front of a computer talking about the details of my boring life for free.
Comment by Jaybird —
March 30, 2006 @ 11:18 am
Re: cost of the blades.
I agree, it’s insane. A pack of 8 refills for the Mach 3 costs about 16 bucks at my local store, a pack of 8 refills for the fusion costs 24.
24! That’s 3 bucks a replacement! That’s 50 cents a blade!!! And no one uses the single precision blade on the back of the damn thing!
To be perfectly honest, I don’t think that the fusion is necessarily a good razor for face shavers. Well, it’s a good razor, but I do agree that the opportunity cost is probably too high. I used Good News disposables on my face back when I shaved every day and those got the job done just fine without a problem.
I think that the Mach 3 and Fusion are good razors for people who don’t shave every day (as a headshaver, I shave twice a week in the summer, once a week in the winter). They clean easily even with big chunks of long stubble. If you shave every day, you’ll go through the blades a lot quicker and buy a lot more replacements. If I shaved my head every day, a good news disposable would probably be just fine (and a lot cheaper). I’m lazy, though.
If you are lazy and only shave twice a week, you may want to get a Mach 3. If you shave daily, just use whatever. Your stubble is short enough that you’d probably be better off using the 16 or 24 bucks on a beer and a table dance.
Comment by Frank —
March 30, 2006 @ 11:27 am
Jaybird- I shave my head too, but I use the same 3 bladed razor for at least 2 months of twice a week shaves. Thats what made the switch economical for me in the first place. When I used dual blades in addition to nicking myself about every third time I had to use a new razor after about 4 shaves.
Comment by Jeremy Osner —
March 31, 2006 @ 7:30 pm
Well it happened. This evening I was walking by the RiteAid(tm) and it occurred to me, ”hey — I need some new blades for my Gillette(tm) SensorExcel(tm). I will go into this purveyor of toiletries and purchse some.” As I scanned the rows of men’s toiletries, this thread surfaced in my consciousness. My gaze drifted to the lovely orange-and-blue packaging of the Fusion(tm). And I said to myself, ”it’s time I had a safety razor with more blades. Three blades have been outmoded long ago. I shall make the leap!” I strode to the cashier and thence out of the mart, into a brave new five-bladed world.
I eagerly await the experience of the Fusion(tm): The Comfort of 5, The Precision of 1. (If I find no such Comfort and Precision, I will come looking for you Jaybird, with blood lust in my heart.)
Comment by Jim Henley —
March 31, 2006 @ 10:33 pm
You mean you haven’t even used it yet???? Dammit, we all want to know, now!
Comment by Jeremy Osner —
April 3, 2006 @ 7:36 am
Used it yesterday morning. (I am an infrequent shaver, my hair does not grow very fast and I don’t mind looking a little unkempt.) I think it did give me a better shave than the SensorExcel(tm), and I liked the availability of ”The Precision of 1” — this is actually a pretty useful feature for somebody who has a beard and moustache as I do; the multi-blade safety razors are not particularly good at trimming edges. I’m not quite buying that 5 blades are more comfotable than 3 though, they felt about the same to me.
Comment by Jaybird —
April 3, 2006 @ 9:37 am
The difference between the Fusion and the Mach 3, for me, wouldn’t be described as ”comfort”, really, more something like ”speed”.
When I shaved my head with the Mach 3, I had to take shorter strokes, and had to wash the blade more, and I had to go over it again more often to get the ”baby’s butt” thing going on.
”Get it over with more quickly!” should be the tagline.
Comment by Jeremy Osner —
April 3, 2006 @ 11:43 am
By the way Jaybird, 8 refill cartridges for the Fusion(tm) are $14 at Amazon.
Comment by Jaybird —
April 3, 2006 @ 2:07 pm
WHAT?!?!?
It never crossed my mind that I could buy those things over the web.
That’s even cheaper than Mach 3 blades!
Comment by Jeremy Osner —
April 3, 2006 @ 8:42 pm
So don’t say I never did anything for you.