Conceding to the hype (or,yes, OK, the Schick Quattro rules)

Many moons ago, I bought a Gillette twin-blade razor of the sort that ruled the razor roost for such a long while. I loved it. The first razor I ever had was one of the old standby models that you unscrewed the top and dropped a full sized razor blade into, so this new one was a revelation. It flexed when it went over a curved surface, it was efficient. I turned my dad on to it.

“The best shave I’ve ever had,” said he.

We scoffed when Gillette and Schick warred by putting 3 and 4 blades into a single cartridge. Pure marketing. Hype. Utter adman crap.

Snake oil.

Problem is, I’ve been noticing that, like the late, lamented floppy disk drive, the twin blade razor architecture was slowly dying. It was all I could do the last time to find refills, and I just had to go ahead and concede this time. I couldn’t find a single twin blade refill.

So I up and bought a new razor, reluctantly. I chose the Quattro to try to stay ahead of the technology curve , and because it was the same price as the Mach 3, and I figured, somewhere deep in the foggy depths of my brain, that if it costs the same as the Mach 3, but I was getting an extra blade out of it, hey, whattadeal, huh?

Wow. This thing is incredible. I chopped through 4 days of beard with scary efficiency. I mean, a single stroke would leave my skin perfectly hairless. Shhhk, shhhhhhk, shhhk, done!

I love my Schick Quattro. The hype and silly over-the-top “Xtreme” ad campaign are perfectly correct. This thing rules.

Plus, the gap between the blades is wide enough that hairs don’t get jammed between them. That was always a big problem with my twin blade razor.

I’m old school. I just picked up a double-edge safety razor (the Feather) because I didn’t always have time for my straight-edge razor. Love the shave, easy-to-find blades, and they’re cheap!

I’ve been using Gillette double blades since high school and I absolutely love it. I tried the Mach 3 for a while but I wasn’t impressed at all…it didn’t seem to do any more than the two-blade and when I have to recover areas (which is inevitable) it burned me more. I don’t feel inclined to buy a Quattro, but I may try one someday. For now, I can still find my double blades pretty easily.

I did the same thing with the Gillette M[sup]3[/sup] Power.

“Oooo…it’s got a battery in it…oooo, it vibrates. What a load of crap…like that’ll make a difference.”

Then I got a free one in the mail. Holy crap! This thing works like a charm! It’s really cut my shaving time in half. Ok hype machine…you win this round.

I have three Schick Quattro for women razors (don’t ask) and they kick ass. I swear the fourth blade threatens the hairs not to grow for a few days, if they know what’s good for 'em.