Lately I was in my local Costco shop trying to find replacement cartridges for my "Mach III". Why anyone would be using safety razors instead of a Philishave/Norelco will be a future topic of discussion. Anyways, they didn't have any in stock, rather they were now carrying Gillette's newest line of razors, the "Fusion" and the "Fusion Power." The "Fusion" line of razors has five blades. I began thinking... At what number of blades do the razor manufacturers stop? Will there be a 14 blade razor in my lifetime? I decided to0 make a bold move at Costco. Instead of upgrading razors to the "Fusion Power", which is what most consumers would do, I downgraded to the "Sensor." This incidentally was the lowest model they sold. I have to report that without any doubts, the "Sensor" is a far superior shave to the "Mach III." It seems reasonable to extrapolate that it is probably superior to the "Fusion" as well.For those of you who are interested in the Gillette razors available to you, I have included the following list (note that there are several mundane variations on most of these models that I have not mentioined):
1) Trac II - First available 1971. This was the first two blade razor, and arguably the beggining of the epidemic.
2) Trac II Plus - The same, but with a lubricating strip.
3) Atra - First available in 1977. This is the same as the Trac II but with a pivoting head.
4) Atra Plus - First available 1985. It took Gillette 8 years to add the lubricating strip onto the original Atra. I am sure this was a big technological feat.
5) Sensor - First available 1990. This is my current razor. It features spring loaded blades (2 of them.)
6) Sensor Excel - 1995 - Adds Microfins, whatever the hell those are.
7) Mach3 - 1999. We all know about this one.
8) Fusion - 2006. Five blades.
Where did the four blade razor go? The Gillette Fusion was a response to Wilkinson Sword's product "Quattro."
Personally, I am going to go to CVS some time soon and pick myself up a Trac II. It's old school and I bet its better than them all.
Quick thought: Do you think in 1971 a man ever said "I just finished Trac II'ing my balls"?
5 comments:
Great call. I have been wondering the same for some time. Great stuff. Nice first post!
Love the end part about the balls.
sage advice to teach the kids how to shave their young sacks: before taking the blade to the boys make sure you practice on a rotten tomato
I think that the Fusion was not a response to the quattro, but an attempt to kick the crap out of any company dumb enough to only one up gillette by one blade. Very proactive in my opinion.
Where do we go next? Either Schick needs to go straight to seven blades or Gillette might as well preempt that one by going to 8.
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