Singing the praises of the lowly yellow Bic Sensitive

There it sits in a Walmart bin...unloved...not noticed...waiting.

I'll tell something about this remarkable shaver and piece of engineering...it's AWESOME!!

Simple single blade design, very light, very close smooth multipass shaves and lasted me about four days. Zero weepers.

There is someting about the design. The blade is setback and exposed perfectly.

I can't figure out why it is call "sensitive". I'm getting very close shaves. I think "sensitve" would be a comparision to the Gillette five-bladed cartridge design that loves to butcher faces.

Hail the lowly Bic Sensitve! Pick up 10 in a pack for less than $2 bucks.

This sounds like a good alternative when I am on a short trip and cannot carry my DE blades on the plane.

This is one of those YMMV situations. Bic Sensitives drag and skip through my old grey beard. Quite a few guys like them though.

I travel with them, but they're so light compared to my honkin' Cooncat Bob Bull Mastiff, I have trouble with pressure. I use too much, then get ingrowns.

In my shaving career since I started at 13, I've used the Gillette Sensor Excel, Mach 3, Fusion, and the Schick Quattro.

The Bic Sensitive disposable has them all beat, and not just for price.

Why, you ask? Well, they call it the Sensitive because it causes a lot less irritation than the multi-blade razors. The caveat is that it's a bit easier to cut yourself, like you might expect. It's not bad though, I had a weeper or two the first few days using them, but that also has to do with the lack of a pivot, so you can (read: have to) manually control the blade angle.

My personal opinion is that pivots require you to apply pressure in order to align the head correctly on your face, and as such I prefer the lack of a pivot on the Sensitive.

It's difficult to gauge the objective sharpness of a blade wrapped up in a cartridge when I don't have a microscope handy, but I didn't really feel any pulling. It seemed to be cutting the hairs pretty easily.

Comparing it to the Bic "Comfort" 3 disposables is almost comical. The Comfort 3's blades have a substantial gap and quite an aggressive angle. Looking at the front of the cartridge always makes me feel like I'm staring into a chainsaw. I used one of THOSE the other day and felt like half my face had been scraped off, though I didn't bleed. Definitely NOT a comfortable shave. The lube strip made a nasty gunk with my Proraso that was harder to wash off my face, too. Another benefit of the Sensitive is the absence of a lube strip.

Shave Cat said:

This is one of those YMMV situations. Bic Sensitives drag and skip through my old grey beard. Quite a few guys like them though.

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+1 They don't work on this dial! Horrible things.

I never understood the need for a lube strip in any disposable razor or modern cartridge style multi-blade system.

If one uses an excellent soap or cream, it should eliminate the need for any additional lubrication. And speaking of "lube strip", why is it placed at the top of some razors, so the "lube strip" passes over the skin after it has been shaved. LOL!!

I'd actually like to see something as simple as the Bic Sensitive with a pivoting head come to think of it.

Zepher said:

I never understood the need for a lube strip in any disposable razor or modern cartridge style multi-blade system.

If one uses an excellent soap or cream, it should eliminate the need for any additional lubrication. And speaking of "lube strip", why is it placed at the top of some razors, so the "lube strip" passes over the skin after it has been shaved. LOL!!

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Most people who buy multi-blade razors and canned goo do not re-lather between passes. The lube strip on the razor keeps some lubrication on the area in question by virtue of being difficult to wash or scrape off, like a shave oil.

Of course, if you re-lather between passes, that's not going to do you much good. Mostly it'll **** you off by being difficult to wash off.

Well for me those Bics are terrible. Never could manage a decent shave. After shaving my skin aches. Creams, foams, soaps, no matter what. And it is not a technique thing. I'v been DE shaving for more than 20 years. And I tried every cartridge razor out there starting with Trac II and ending with Hydro
YMMV

They don't work for me other than a quick WTG pass. As soon as I attempt XTG or ATG, forget it...it's a blood bath.

A few years back, my father decided to get rid of his full beard, as it was starting to itch. Since his beard growth is thick and heavy, he soon found out that multi-blade cartridges was out of the question, as it would take forever to try and get a decent shave. He turned to the yellow Bics, and only turned his back on them in favor of a Merkur HD last year.

I kind of like them. They will never be a daily razor for me, since it's nearly impossible for me to get my BBS shave with them. I guess I'm spoiled by my Merkur plastic and Tech with feather blades. And the light weight is not a factor in travel. How much does a razor weigh anyway? If you find a metal razor too heavy to carry, you need to work out a little!

What it IS good for is a way to carry a pretty good razor without having to worry about banging it up or losing it. *Thats* why I travel with one. I just don't care about them and if they get lost, so what? Plus they shave well enough that I'm presentable without facial damage. I have to stay pretty, ya know!

In all honesty it's a great shaving-tool.

Very boring, but provides a good, close, irritation-free shave every time.

I am in the "not fussy camp". find they irritate more than a non sensative razor, one of the worst razors i have tried in fact!

I can get passable shaves with them. I use them now to shave the nape of my neck with.

For the life of me I can't understand why people have trouble with these things. WTG, XTG, ATG, whatever you want, it's all GOOD. I have wiry, gray beard hairs, and the Bic mows them down just as well as any DE in my arsenal.

They have approximately the same aggressiveness as a Gillette adjustable set at 3, which is a real sweet spot for me (if the blade is very, very sharp).

these are very maneuverable, and the angle is completely intuitive. All you have to do is figure out the right touch and they give a great shave.

They work well enough. With the improved lathering technique I've learned in the past couple of years, they're good for a comfortable SAS to CCS, and will last at least two shaves, making them economical enough. When I got into this whole classic shaving thing, it did occur to me that the single blade on the Bics might be comparable to the single blade on a DE or SE.

Still, my end results with these are not quite as good as my best with a DE, let alone SE or injector. They're a possibility in some hypothetical situation where I don't have my regular razors, and need to grab something usable from a local drug store. They would never be a first choice, though.

owie! i have never had so many cuts in ten years of shaving, damn i've had dry shaves that were less painfull. i tried the bic disposables because of this thread, Perhaps i have been spoiled by my normal razors(Gillette mach 3 disposables) but i might just have no technique, or the Gillette's are just infinitely forgiving.


why do you think i had such a rough time?

Elfmaze said:

owie! i have never had so many cuts in ten years of shaving, damn i've had dry shaves that were less painfull. i tried the bic disposables because of this thread, Perhaps i have been spoiled by my normal razors(Gillette mach 3 disposables) but i might just have no technique, or the Gillette's are just infinitely forgiving.


why do you think i had such a rough time?

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Don't know. They work great for me. Use the lightest possible touch.

I think I'll pick up some Gillette Good News disposables (supposedly best disposables ever made) and make the comparison.