Gillette Cartridge Ad and a question

[natchez]

I just saw a Gillette cartridge advertisement featuring a young man going on a five week trip and using one cartridge. The gist of the ad is that a cartridge can last up to five weeks. At $5+ for a cartridge that works out to at best $1/week. Since a decent DE blade costs about 15 cents, even if you use two blades a week, that seems to mean that the cartridge is still three times as expensive as DE shaving. And, of course, there is the environmental impact.

Has anyone out there used a cartridge for that long and does it really still shave after a month?

[rockviper]

The key is "up to" 5 weeks, not "will last 5 weeks." I think there's also text in there about shaving every other day or something like that.

[mikey]

FTFY.

Thanks,
Mike


The key is "up to" 5 weeks, not "will last 5 weeks." I think there's also text in there about shaving peach fuzz once a week or something like that.

[salisburyyates]

For most people who don't know about shaving in "passes", a shave with a fusion takes about 2 minutes and it will give you a reasonably good shave. Before I started DE shaving I just went WTG in one pass and maybe over a few other areas afterwards just to smooth it out. If you spent 2 minutes shaving with a DE - you would have leftover stubble all over the place as it requires a longer and slightly more complicated approach and while it can drastically reduce stubble in just one pass, it is one blade and requires more passes. This is what tends to discourage me from recommending DE to people who clearly don't have the patience for that kind of thing.

And it is possibly why people will still pay the 4+ more dollars to use a cartridge.

[The Kiwi]

I'm sure the commercial ran before, and got attention here.

[D.W.B.]

lBefore I made the switch to DE I was using the Mach 3. I would apply the gel and make a single WTG pass, and call it good. I did this once a day and still switched cartidges about every 10 days. Looking back I was walking around with a crappy shave. "Up to 5 weeks"? I can't see it.

[BlackBard]

I have shaved with a single Mach 3 cartridge for up to 30 days. Here is my thread about the experience:

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/141344-30-days-with-a-single-Mach-3-cartridge-REDUX?highlight=

I now only shave with a cartridge razor when I travel, so I have not used up one cartridge since I switched to a DE about a year and a half ago.

[Go West Young Man]

Lots of people use a cartridge for weeks or months.... it's a combination of cheapness and lowered expectations.

[Sledgehammer39]

Back in my hay-day I would push a Mach 3 blade to the edge, but was rewarded with irritation. I was too cheap to switch out the cartridge blade.

[KeithTheSnake]

Lots of people use a cartridge for weeks or months.... it's a combination of cheapness and lowered expectations.

Yep. That was the case with me. First couple shaves were okay as long as I shaved every day. Skip a day and it would clog. After four shaves or so, the cartridge needed replacement. Of course, I never did that on time. I suffered. Looking back on it, if I treated my shaving the way I do now with proper preparation and taking it easy on the pressure, using cartridges probably wouldn't be all that awful if I just weren't so darn cheap.

[dymaxion]

Back in my hay-day I would push a Mach 3 blade to the edge, but was rewarded with irritation. I was too cheap to switch out the cartridge blade.

I did the same thing. I would go 3 - 4 weeks with a cartridge changing them whenever I started getting too many ingrown's.

[OldSaw]

I just saw a Gillette cartridge advertisement featuring a young man going on a five week trip and using one cartridge. The gist of the ad is that a cartridge can last up to five weeks. At $5+ for a cartridge that works out to at best $1/week. Since a decent DE blade costs about 15 cents, even if you use two blades a week, that seems to mean that the cartridge is still three times as expensive as DE shaving. And, of course, there is the environmental impact.

Has anyone out there used a cartridge for that long and does it really still shave after a month?

I have, with a Schick Hydro 3. The shaves after a month's worth of shaving were still very good and irritation free. I did this long after joining this community and my whiskers are anything but peach fuzz. I did not lower my expectations either, but I was using premium lathering products and a brush, as I have done for many years.

[ZJ68]

I get plenty of shaves out of ProGlide cartridges. I haven't counted each one, but I don't think 5 weeks is out of the question. Af for the environmental impact, is one cartridge really much worse than ten blades?

[LouBarraza]

I have a fresh unopened Fusion blade.Im so very tempted on trying this to see how long I can stretch it.Maybe next month I'll try it.I would rather focus on improving my DE and straight razor techniques right now.

[D.B. Cooper]

I couldn't get more than 1 week out of a cartridge with daily (or nearly daily) shaving. By then, the blade would have dulled and I would have more irritation and cuts. I have a heavy beard, and my skin seems to be very sensitive to subpar blades. Even with very light hair growth and tough skin, I still don't see how a cartridge razor would last five weeks.

[Moondancer]

My experience with the Mach 3 was around two weeks of daily shaves.
When I switched to the Fusion I found I could get decent shaves for four weeks. Edge gel was my lather of choice. My beard is not peach fuzz.
I can see some truth in the ad.

[jrocker]

I'd grow a beard if I had to use any blade for 5 weeks.

[TheVez2]

I used to push a Mach3 cart to up to 2 months, but it was an awful experience that led me here.

[DachsieSlave]

Wow, I didn't think my beard was that tough. But I was happy when I made it a week on a cartridge before it would start to pull. I am so glad I found DE shaving, just wish it had been years ago.

[TheVez2]

Y'know when I first read your post title, I thought you said Cartridge AD. I thought you'd gone to collecting them!

[bkfist]

When I moved about 5 years ago, the box I had placed my straights, strops, lapping films etc. into got packed away and misplaced. I shaved for almost 5 months on a single Schick Quattro cartridge... Single pass, daily. I did, however, have my brush & soaps, those were packed in the same box as the ex's makeup from the bathroom, so obviously *that* box didn't get buried against the back wall of the garage...

My Schick Quattro came to an end when my ex used the cartridge to shave her legs and clogged the razor, leading to me trying DE razors.

I've since found back my straights, purchased a new strop, lapping films... (I still have 2 missing strops somewhere)

[Chevyguy]

I have, with a Schick Hydro 3. The shaves after a month's worth of shaving were still very good and irritation free. I did this long after joining this community and my whiskers are anything but peach fuzz. I did not lower my expectations either, but I was using premium lathering products and a brush, as I have done for many years.

Same here Dennis, and with the same razor. I can even go longer if I strop the cartridge on a piece of silicone rubber, it cleans the outer edges that are exposed and straightens them. The Hydro-3 is a pretty good razor.

Clayton

[MACGI98z28]

When the Mach III first came out, it would last me about three weeks of daily shaves. When I switched to DE, I was getting exactly six shaves from one. I have no complaints about how they shave, I think they do a great job. The M3 and Fusion just cost way too much per blade if you only get one week out of them.

Gillette obviously changed the metal used in the blades or the edge design so that they required more frequent replacement.

Now that I have spent more on DE stuff than I would have spent on 10 years worth of cartridges, I still feel vindicated that I can get four great shaves out of a 10 cent DE blade.

[Rob72]

Lots of people use a cartridge for weeks or months.... it's a combination of cheapness and lowered expectations.
Ding! Ding! I used to use a cart until the "lubricating strip" was a vague skid mark.

[polardude1983]

A 4 pack of cartridges would last me 3 months. I back then only shaved every 3 days and would use 1 cartridge 7 times.

[huntingdan]

Mach 3 was my blade of choice when I used cartridges. Did not like the fusion, could never get in the corners and tight places, like under the nose. One of my friends said he uses blue jeans to "strop" his cartridges and he could make one last for a long time. Close to 6-7 months. I was actually looking that up and started looking at other shaving ideas, and that is when I found videos by mantic on the tube. I probably would have gone that route, but then I got hooked on the wet shaving experience which has led me to where I am at now. In case you still wanted to know what I was talking about here's the link to the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjSkgz3-2Ig

[wurls]

I have no idea how someone could get good shaves with a cart at the 5 week mark. Maybe when I was 14 and had enough fuzz the dog could lick it off.

My only question about the Gillette commercial is why that dude had to travel around the world for 5 weeks to get a 5 week shave? Couldn't he have just stayed at home and waited 5 weeks, thereby saving hordes of cash vs travelling around the world?
Oh, I know...the guy probably works for P&G and used R&D money to finance the trip. Makes perfect sense.

[NickyBobby]

Wow, I didn't think my beard was that tough. But I was happy when I made it a week on a cartridge before it would start to pull. I am so glad I found DE shaving, just wish it had been years ago.

+1

[OldSaw]

Same here Dennis, and with the same razor. I can even go longer if I strop the cartridge on a piece of silicone rubber, it cleans the outer edges that are exposed and straightens them. The Hydro-3 is a pretty good razor.

Clayton

I gave up on cartridges a long time ago and could never get a full week from a cart, except the Schick FX Diamond. I hated nearly every cart with more than 2 blades. I'm not even sure why I tried the Hydro, I'm sure I posted about it on here somewhere, but this cart is one I can live with.

All this talk about it made me break it out and use it again today. The cart that I used is well over a year old and I have lost track of how many shaves it has on it.