Bye bye King Gillette, Hello Harry

It's not that I am cheap.  I'm really not, but I do like to beat whatever the system is in front of me at the time.  In this particular case, it's saving a few bucks on a necessary evil: shaving.  I will try to use the same razor blade for an entire month.  Around the third week, I've been nicked so many times, I leave the house with enough toilet paper bandages on my face that I could be an ad for Charmin.

But I persist.  For a great shave, at $3 plus a piece for blades, Gillette owns my face.  My goal is to get the same great shave for a whole lot less.

I know, there are less expensive blades, but if I buy the ones for the amount I would like to pay they are nothing more than miniature wood planes.  In order to remove the whiskers, they have to remove a lot of skin as well.

This is not a good thing.  I take an aspirin everyday, and as the little TP swatches will atest, I bleed like a geyser.

$3.00, plus change, is the price blades have crept up to.  We have obediently paid it because we were seduced by two blades on one disposable head , then three, four, five, and a trimmer blade.  Some of them vibrate.  Gillette, and the other big names in the shaving game,  are always coming up with some new thing to get me to turn loose of the Jacksons in my wallet in order to continue on with my lifelong quest for the perfect shave.  I'm waiting for Schick to develop a shaving drone that will hover near the ceiling until it senses a need, and then swoop down and remove any sign of facial hair.  My aunts upper lip would live in constant fear.

The other day I stumbled on an online ad for Harry's shaving equipment.  I clicked on the link for Harrys.com,  and was brought to a nice clean web site.  No extraneous nonsense, just a message, and some products.  A sort of clean shaven look.  I was impressed.

I checked out the products they offered.  Shaving kits, razor holders, blades, and shaving creme in a tube.  I read the story of the company, and then searched out reviews of the new company, and its products.

The reviews were very good.  The founders of the company have a great plan.  Again, I was impressed, but what impressed me the most was the quality of the workmanship, and materials offered in their products, AND Harry's offers razor blades for HALF the price that Gillette sells theirs for!

Half.

Imagine, $1.80 a blade.  And, they say their razors will last as long as the big boys razors do.   Well, that did it for me.  I ordered up a razor holder for $15.00, and a pack of eight razors for $15.00, and choose the least expensive shipping: FREE.

The remains of my Gillette Fusion.

The next afternoon, as I was shaving, I was thinking of that brand new razor arriving UPS in a few days, and all the money I would be saving in the coming year.  Suddenly my Gillette Fusion razor broke. 

The head snapped right off.  It lay motionless on the vanity except for the now spastic vibration in the handle.  Then...nothing.  It was gone.

I am not sure if inanimate objects have the power of telepathy, and that this was either lesson being taught to me once it learned of my plans to replace it, or it simply became so distraught that it chose the easy way out.  What ever it was, the timing was eerie.

For the amount of money we men spend on the tools for shaving our faces, one would think that the tools would last forever. They apparently don't.  I think mine just lost its will to go on.

Later in the day I received an email from Harry's stating my new razor was on its way, and should be here soon.  The mourning period for the Gillette was gone!

In the meantime, this guy was going to be without a razor for the weekend, and was thinking, "How sweet",  when Mary tossed me a Lady Schick, and that smile that told me differently. 

(sigh).  So much for being a Neanderthal this weekend.  My wife won't let me.






For more on the expense of shaving, and how it is a rip off, click here.