There are bigger fish to fry than the best razor to shave your face; nonetheless, when we get on that WebCam in these days of remote work amid the coronavirus crisis, we still want to look good. So despite the times, or maybe because of them, I want to relate to my experience between Gillette Pro Glide, Harry’s, and the dark horse, Defender razors.
So let me tell you a bit about my journey with blades. (There’s a sentence I thought I’d never write.) Much of my shaving life was lived in the Gillette world. I still remember when the original Gillette Mach came out; it was so much better than anything else available. (With shaving, “better” means the closest shave without pulling or roughing up your face.) I continued to follow their line even as the prices jumped up and up and up. The joy of this walled-in shaving garden was interrupted by the Dollar Shave Club. Gillette blades had become expensive enough that I kept a blade for as long as reasonable. The Dollar Shave Club comes along and says here’s a cheap razor that’s “good enough,” and you can toss it after a week. The overall shaving experience is better than one blade trying to last too long. Then I discovered the Chinese company that Dollar Shave Club uses, Dorco, and had even more inexpensive blades available to me.
I stayed in this mode for quite a while, then I saw Harry’s blades. Harry’s founders are the same folks who started Warby Parker glasses. I decided to check out what all the cool kids were using to shave. These blades struck a happy medium. They weren’t quite as good as the Gillette blades, but they were within a whisker’s hair, and they were inexpensive enough to refresh more frequently than Gillette. Plus, I love the all chrome handle of theirs. I think I’ve finally found my niche.
Here’s where the story gets very geeky and a little cheesy. The siren song of Gillette’s Star Wars-themed blade set came out around Christmas. It’s been a hot minute since I last used Gillette, I say to myself. That’s a good reason to give them another try and has nothing to do with my inner Jedi. When I read about these blades, they suggested you could change them out monthly. That never really worked for Gillette in the past. When I had tried to extend the life of their blades to a month in previous use, the shave got pretty rough. Not so with the Fusion Pro Glide! I have no idea what wizardry they engineered, but between the 1st shave to the 30th shave, it was a beautiful thing. Here is a blade superior to all the rest! Not only that, but due to their longevity, it was actually less expensive than Harry’s and close enough for government work to the rest. I think I finally landed into shaving Nirvana.
Then along came in the Defender. Their Ad laid out all of the usual razzmatazz about new technology in the blade, it seemed to have a nice sculpted shape in the Ad, so I gave it a shot.
I was a little surprised about how inexpensive they were, and then I saw the handle. It is not cool. I guess if you’re into a Marquez Brownlee “Matte Black Everything” design, it will be your cup of tea. They’re basically just rubbery black with a little bit of gray on the side. (I do, however, like the shape.)
However, the razzmatazz turns out to be real. Some new sort of engineering wizardry makes these the best shave of any bar none. While they last reasonably long, they’re inexpensive enough ($8 for 4 blades, $6 for the handle & a blade) that I will replace them twice a month. (For comparison, Harry’s is $9 for 4 and $13 for a handle, $5 blades and travel size shave cream. Gillette Fusion is $17 for 4 blades, $13 for a handle & blade. All of the folks run deals and have subscription plans which are cheaper but the relative pricing is similar). Their average price puts them on par with Harry’s in terms of cost; they’re better than all the blades in terms of the shave. Who knew. So the only thing I hope is that the folks at Defender come out with the cooler looking handle at some point (keep the shape). The current one works well; it’s just boring as all get-out despite the Matte-Black-Everything vibe.