Schick Hydros...meh. 
I will never purchase from Schick.
I will never purchase from Schick.
Schick Hydro 3 or Schick Hydro 5?
- Thread starter StanSmith
- Start date
Normally I'm not a huge fan of Schick products either, but both versions of the Hydro give me excellent shaves and less irritation than just about any other cartridge I've tried. I'd certainly choose the Hydro over the Fusion any day.
...and I would choose the Sensor over the Fusion.
My experience has been the more blades the less shaves per cartridge, before a DE I used a Schick Quattro and before that a Gillette Mach 3 and or a Sensor Excel. The three blade razors did a fair job. Since switching to a DE and better face prep (better skin cleansing technique) my acne problem has been reduced, of course as always YMMV.
They were giving away free Hydro 5s at the college last week, so I gave one a try.....immediately gave it to my wife because that little slime bar it had is the nastiest thing I have ever used on a razor. WTH. Forget about the fact it uses $3 carts! I prefer any razor over that ***.
Good point and I heartily agree. I only mentioned the Fusion because for the vast majority of shelf space at most of the local retailers I've seen, it's three feet of Fusion/Proglide razors, about a foot of Hydro, and six inches or so of everything else.
I'm currently trying to find a decent DE razor at some of my local antique stores, but no luck yet.
In the meantime, I've tried several new (to me) carts, including the Personnas and the Hydro 3.
The Personna Matirx3 was very good and quite a bit cheaper than Mach3, but Walmart stopped carrying it. The Magnum5 gave me a much rougher shave than the Matrix3.
The Hydro 3 (just got it, 4 shaves,so far) works very well for me. The "goop" doesn't bother me at all, though it takes a little more effort to rinse off after the shave. The way the Hydro 3 is designed makes it feel a little weird, as in a bit of a disconnected feeling, but it seems to deliver a very smooth, non-irritating result, both ATG and WTG.
It's a bit cheaper than the Mach3, so until I find the used (read: cheap) DE I'm looking for (for my first DE shave since I was a very young man), I think I'm sticking with the Hydro 3.
In the meantime, I've tried several new (to me) carts, including the Personnas and the Hydro 3.
The Personna Matirx3 was very good and quite a bit cheaper than Mach3, but Walmart stopped carrying it. The Magnum5 gave me a much rougher shave than the Matrix3.
The Hydro 3 (just got it, 4 shaves,so far) works very well for me. The "goop" doesn't bother me at all, though it takes a little more effort to rinse off after the shave. The way the Hydro 3 is designed makes it feel a little weird, as in a bit of a disconnected feeling, but it seems to deliver a very smooth, non-irritating result, both ATG and WTG.
It's a bit cheaper than the Mach3, so until I find the used (read: cheap) DE I'm looking for (for my first DE shave since I was a very young man), I think I'm sticking with the Hydro 3.
just curious -- is this a conclusion based on some testing/research, or a personal opinion?
i ask because i have seen examples here of blade analysis under a microscope, A/B comparisons, etc. and am wondering if someone has actually tested the multiblade theory.
my experience is that i get the best shave with a DE and 4 passes, with a little touch up.
but
keeping the other variables constant (prep, lather, etc) a 2 pass plus touch up with a cartridge razor yields a result very close to the 4 pass DE. a 2 pass DE shave is nowhere near as good as a 2 pass cartridge shave. for me.
also, the 5 blade 2 pass is a little superior to the 2 blade 2 pass (this is fusion vs a schick 2 blade, which is all i currently have for comparison).
so, i'm trying to interpret the why of the above. one conclusion is that the extra blades make a difference, which is why your comment got my attention. the only other factor i can come up with is that the way the cartridge is mounted and/or pivots maintains more consistent contact of blades to face and this takes more beard off with each pass.
any thoughts?
to the OP:
unfortunately, wet shaving is very much a YMMV pursuit. i don't think that anyone is going to be able to tell you with certainty which product(s) are going to be right for you. you may get in the ballpark if you can find some folks here with similar beard types and similar problems, but what works for me may be a disaster for you and vice versa.
to narrow things down to what is really best for you is going to take some investment and trial and error testing. fortunately there are often members here who will sell you stuff to try very cheaply or even pass along things for free.
while i really enjoy shaving with a DE, i can say that i get more nicks with a DE and more post shave tingle with the alum block which suggests to me that the DE is removing more skin. thus i would think that for someone with acne, the DE may not be the best choice, and one of the hydros may be better due to it being less aggressive with its blade guards.
and per my comments in the above post, my personal experience is that more blades remove more beard in the equivalent number of passes, so you might get a satisfactory result with a 1 pass 5 blade hydro compared to a 2 pass 3 blade hydro. less passes equal less chance for irritation.
if i were you i'd try the 5 blade hydro, and move to some other choices if it is not satisfactory.
unfortunately, wet shaving is very much a YMMV pursuit. i don't think that anyone is going to be able to tell you with certainty which product(s) are going to be right for you. you may get in the ballpark if you can find some folks here with similar beard types and similar problems, but what works for me may be a disaster for you and vice versa.
to narrow things down to what is really best for you is going to take some investment and trial and error testing. fortunately there are often members here who will sell you stuff to try very cheaply or even pass along things for free.
while i really enjoy shaving with a DE, i can say that i get more nicks with a DE and more post shave tingle with the alum block which suggests to me that the DE is removing more skin. thus i would think that for someone with acne, the DE may not be the best choice, and one of the hydros may be better due to it being less aggressive with its blade guards.
and per my comments in the above post, my personal experience is that more blades remove more beard in the equivalent number of passes, so you might get a satisfactory result with a 1 pass 5 blade hydro compared to a 2 pass 3 blade hydro. less passes equal less chance for irritation.
if i were you i'd try the 5 blade hydro, and move to some other choices if it is not satisfactory.
To my knowledge there are no scientific studies looking at the amount of skin irritation as a function of the number of blades on a shaving device. It's pretty much dogma around here that any blades more than one add to the irritation factor, but I think that it really does amount to dogma, and nothing more.
In fact, I questioned said dogma for quite some time, and posted similar questions to yours. I never got satisfactory answers. One of my theories was that more than one blade allows whatever pressure is applied to be spread out over the blades, which should reduce irritation. I also believed that two blades would remove more stubble than one.
To test these hypotheses, I began shaving one side of my face with a Trac II and the other with a Bic sensitive one-blade disposable (which was the one blade razor I could wield with the most skill at the time). To my surprise, a two-pass shave was very similar with either razor.
Over time, I developed more skill with my DE. I also began to appreciate the feel of a single, sharp blade moving over my face. I continued to use my Trac II. I lose more stubble on the first pass with the Trac II, to be sure.
In August, I took a weekend trip to Boston. I had one Mach III blade left in my shave den. I decided to take that with me and use the Mach III so I wouldn't have to throw it away. When I put the Mach III to my face I was astounded at how much tugging and scraping I felt (having become accustomed to one sharp blade). A single pass removed almost all the stubble and I only required a little touch-up under the chin, but I HATED the way the it felt dragging that cartridge over my face.
That experience pretty much sold me on the single blade, although I have a bunch of Trac II blades left and I'll probably use them up at eventually, because I hate wasting money.
I think that irritation after a DE shave depends almost entirely on the skill of the user. It took me almost a year and a half before I became proficient enough to reap the benefits of the DE shave, but now I'm becoming a believer.
B&B people still overestimate the badness/irritation of cartridge shaving systems, though. But they are designed to keep people who lack even an ounce of shaving skill from hurting themselves. Hence the blade guards on the Schick hydro razors. People around here prefer to gain shaving skills and take the training wheels off, so to speak. YMMV.
interesting comments, kingfisher.
whenever humans are involved, there is going to be some dogma and psychology always plays a role.
i definitely agree with you on the comfort aspect. the DE feels much more comfortable against my skin than the fusion. but i don't really find the fusion objectionable unless i have a couple of day's growth.
whenever humans are involved, there is going to be some dogma and psychology always plays a role.
i definitely agree with you on the comfort aspect. the DE feels much more comfortable against my skin than the fusion. but i don't really find the fusion objectionable unless i have a couple of day's growth.
IMO, the pivot is the single most important 'innovation' that led to the "We need more blades in there" thing.
It worked so well, Gillette figured anything worth doing, was worth overdoing. Which fits in nicely with their concepts of overselling and overcharging.
I used an Excel the other day. The pivot works really well to keep constant contact, but the blades are dull as a spoon. I have enough familiarity and ability with my own razor to duplicate the pivot, which is precisely the skill the pivot makes redundant. Like the above poster, I felt like I was dragging it across my face (and felt no different to the Mach 3). I got a decent shave, but the experience was unpleasant. I don't know how I managed to put up with it for so long.
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It's mostly just opinion.
However, unlike quite a few on this board, I still do frequently use a cartridge razor. I gave the Hydro 3 a fair shake, and have worked through 2-3 cartridges on the Wilkinson Sword Tech 3 (which I hear is a re-branded Schick Xtreme 3).
I use two bladed razors quite often, having a stockpile of cartridges for the Trac II, Atra, and Sensor.
The results for me, are very similar whether I am using a two bladed cartridge, or a three bladed cartridge. I have thus concluded, that the extra blades beyond two are rather pointless.
Extra blades might mean less passes, but the end result is just as close.
