I’ve been using gillete for the past 11 years almost everyday because I thought they were the best blade on the market and the only blade that could handle my thick coarse beard which requires daily shaving….

I upgraded to every new blade that was produced by gilette and for the past 2 years I have found myself extremely frustrated with the “5 blade gillete fusion power” often I would open up a new blade from the packet to find it defective and would scratch my face or fail to give me a close shave leaving my face in a bloody mess….

Furthermore I found over the years their blades were becoming dull quicker and I would only use a blade for 5 days before it would fail and needed replacing, I was throwing out blades before the blue strip even faded, despite all this I stuck by them untill one day during a camping trip my friend offered me a basic 3 blade razor made by shick, because I had forgot my gillette razor, I hesitantly began to shave with it expecting to be disapointed but to my amazement IT WAS THE BEST AND CLOSEST SHAVE I HAVE HAD IN 11 YEARS!!!! I could not beleieve it, I had been fooling myself until now and wasting money on crapy gillette blades. Furthermore the blade my friend gave me outlasted the gilette razor 3 times longer! I have now converted and there is no looking back except for the amount of money Ive wasted over the 11 years on expensive gilette blades that required frequent replacement.

I HATE the 3 blade Mach 3. The head is so fat I burn my neck trying to get the nooks smooth. Then the fat blade misses the scrub under my nose!

I would prefer an Atra again than even fatter cartridges…

Schick I always found to have inferior sharpening to Gillette, somehow.

I’m almost ready to try a straight edge razor if I can’t find Sensor Double Blade cartridges and a new handle… IMO, the double blade cartridges get the neck and under-nose the best. I have a light beard, compared to my Greek friend. He has to change his blades often. I can use one cartridge for a few months. We both hate the fat cartridges.

The march of progress to more blades leaves the market open to actually a simple and “Better Shave”. Marketing nonesense, these giant thick useless cartridges.

For instance, the trim blade on the front edge of the 5 blade carts available now simple try to make up for the fact that more blades miss the under nose.

I want to find out what the stock price of Gillette was in 1955 for Capital Gains Tax purposes. That’s about when my Father bought the stock.
Thank you for your time and consideration on this matter.

Sincerely Yours,

Robert M. Sharman
of Houston, Texas

As Don above said, if you haven’t tried on of these, it’s worth it. The only thing is when I got the first free ones, I resisted using it for a few weeks because it was Florida Gators colors (blue and orange). Not sure about Gillette marketing ressearch on this but most FSU fans and ACC football fans are repelled by blue and orange.

I get about a week worth of shaves on a blade and I’ve found the best place to get replacements is at Sam’s club or to order them in bulk online. In fact, I was searching someplace to order a supply of replacements when I found this article.

So it’s not just blades, as far as I’m concerned. It’s design flaws. The Schick Quattro was a better, closer shave than even a Mach 3 Turbo for me, and I have pretty thick hair. But shaving took too long because of a design flaw. Even on stubble.

And I don’t enjoy picking hairs out of my razor. I prefer *rinsing* hairs out of my razor.

I’ll probably try the new razor, but just out of curiousity. Gillette has always said, “fewer strokes means less irritation”. I agree… I have horrible skin for shaving. But if you can’t take the hair off with three blades, and insist on five, perhaps daddy needs to teach you how to shave.

Now I use a Norelco (Philips) electric, to cut down on my lengthy morning ritual. I keep a Mach 3 around in case I decide to grow some hair and then turn back. These things happen.

Now that I think of it, Gillette sent me a Mach 3 with some other goodies in the mail for my 18th birthday. I think they are still doing this. Seems like great marketing to me…

With regards to Gillette sending you a new handle every year for your birthday, yeah, that is really great marketing. Didn’t even know about that. It’s a small and inexpensive gesture, but it would seem to be potentially quite powerful.

I tossed my gillette years ago for an electric razor. I was getting tired of paying absurd prices for replacement blades. Seems like the have gone the route of inkjet printers – sell the main item for cheap, and make money off the refills.

They send out packages for 18th birthdays only. It’s that “becoming a man thing,” I believe. I have only received the one free razor, but friends younger than me (turning 18) have also received the gift, so it still seems to be part of Gillette’s marketing arsenal.

So I got one razor. But that razor cut the competition’s legs out from under them. Gillette put it in my hand, I started using it, I liked it, and I saw no reason to try any other razor. Brilliant.

And to think I thought Bic was my only hope before I turned 18.