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.

And Adam is right, the price of 4-pack of refill blades for the Mach 3 is over $10 most places now, its rediculous. My wallet wouldn’t be able to handle the stress of buying refills with 5 blades in them.

I think the razor blade industry needs to change their business philosophy if they want their new products to survive now that the functionality has plateaued. 1) Stop supporting old versions. 2) Give us 30 day trials of the new version, then have the blades go dull on day 31 (hey, its the 21st century, there’s gotta be a way). 3) Plant in our subconscious the idea that we HAVE to have the latest, greatest version in order to function in our daily lives, even though the new product is all flair and no function (for example, make the grip look cool, toss in 2 extra blades even though you know they don’t do anything, then call it Windows Vista and offer it in 7 colors.)

That should do the trick.

Ahh, the good old days…