So since running out of my beloved King of Shaves blades and being forced to change my morning ablutions (cuz they don’t make ’em in this country any more), I’ve been playing around with a few things.
The first job, of course, is to find a new razor. Now, the Gillette Mach 3 Turbo is my gold standard blade, but those cartridges are just too pricey, and I find myself wanting to extend the cartridge beyond its useful life which means nicks, cuts and bad shaves, so something new must be found… something new.
By now, I’m sure all of you have heard of the Dollar Shave Club. Pick a blade you like, and they send you a razor for one low, low price. For your convenience, they also send you a four pack of cartridges every month (or every other month) for that same low price. Now, they just resell razors from Dorco USA, but you can’t really place a small order from Dorco, and there’s no auto-refills, so DSC scores heavy convenience points… plus if you just want to try the razors, you can get a few blades from DSC whereas with Dorco, it’s hard to walk away without a six month supply.
So, I went ahead and ordered the six-blade set from DSC. It was 9 bucks for the handle and 4 cartridges. With my Mach 3, I can get 8 carts for $22 at Meijer. If I decide to stick with the sixers, I can get 16 carts for $25 at amazon (or slightly less at Dorco), so definitely a good deal. Six blades seems excessive though, but it was the only option with a trimmer blade on the back for under the nose and the burns, because let’s face it… The tendency for razor manufacturers to but lifting ridges and aloe strips on either side of the blade has made it nearly impossible to get a decent shave under the nose… and since I can’t seem to grow a full mustache, I need that shave.
So how do they shave? Quite well actually… it’s definitely a close shave, and if I start a blade on Sunday, it’s good through the entire week without clogging or cutting. You can definitely feel that blade on skin… uncoated, I suppose. The trimmer is useful, but not quite as exposed as one might hope. As a result it’s an awkward angle managing the nosescaping, but it works.
I haven’t made my mind up yet, though. I’ve ordered a set from Harry’s. It seems like it’s the closest match to the King of Shaves, but we’ll see when it arrives, I suppose.
As per the shaving brush, I was mainly curious. Shaving cream from a can never really seemed to do anything regarding lifting the hairs, so I ordered a brush, stand and a can of Tribute Shave Cream
…and I like it. It really takes almost nothing on the brush to get a full-face lather, and it definitely seems to be working the whiskers!!!
The badger thing is weird though… from whence do they source all this badger hair?
I really did try to fight the urge to make this reference, but I can’t stop myself:
“MUSHROOM, MUSHROOM!”
Interestingly, my first take on the badger farm was an homage to the classic dancing badgers scene from that particular meme… with them all acting as scare crows…