review: gillette fusion, aka ‘the cinco’
Product review: Gillette Fusion
Msn: Gillette adds several more blades with which to cut you
“There was never a plan to go to four,” said Peter Hoffman, president of Gillette’s blades and razors business, who said Fusion was in the development pipeline for several years.
They went from three to five. Remember in “A Christmas Story” when the kid goes right from the “double dog dare” to the “triple dog dare,” creating “a slight breach of etiquette” by skipping the “triple dare”? And do you remember the fiasco that resulted? Fire trucks? Cops? There’s a progression to these things, I tell you.
A new miracle design allows you to carve chunks out of your flesh without removing the beard hair. How do they do that!? The result is a bloody, yet surprisingly hairy face. The only way they could make it worse would be to somehow cut your face up while simultaneously making your beard hair even longer. Come on science!
A few days after Schick launched four-blade razor the Quattro, I ran into my friend Dave in the shaving aisle at our local store.
me: Did you hear about this Quattro?
Dave: Yeah, what’s next: “The Schick Seis, one swipe shaves your whole face”?
Almost, Dave, almost.
Gillette can’t skip right to five and expect it to be easy. The Fusion is a stiff, painful shave. And don’t even get me started on the revolutionary single blade on the other side of the razor, the point of which is to allow precision trimming on those hard-to-shave-with-five-blades places — which is basically everywhere on your whole face unless you’re sporting unnaturally angular features, like Maria Shriver. The single blade would only be a good idea if it worked. But it doesn’t.
The one thing I can say about the Fusion is that I finished shaving in record time, spurred somewhat by the stinging, but also helped along by the sheer amount of cutting power that I was using. I don’t like to shave, so being done quickly is a plus, but the reason I don’t like to shave is because pain and blood are so off-putting. It’s not even a dilemma. I’ll take lost time over lost blood any day. Except Double Pay Wednesday at the blood bank.
Speaking of, I should probably stop by there on my way home from work. After using the Fusion, I think I need to make a withdrawal.
Robert wrote:
You just saved me ten bucks, my friend. Looks like the internet is useful after all!
Posted on 08-Feb-06 at 10:59 pm | Permalink
Mike wrote:
The five-blade may be a mistake, but I still think the pseudo-electric, vibrating razor that Gillette made is the biggest waste-of-space and -money to ever see the inside of a bathroom. Bathroom accessories for metros- must just make people happier.
Posted on 10-Feb-06 at 5:30 pm | Permalink
Mike at Geerluck wrote:
I laughed when they brought out the Fusion, marketed with their super shaving gel along with it. Until the wife has a coupon and says, “give it a try.” Bah! But I did, hey ya gotta pick your battles. And I was surprised that it does better than the 3 blade. And I change the blade less often. This was the most important factor to me….I shave intermittently so I go through 1 blade a week with the old system. But with the new one, it will last a month without tearing up my face.
I will note that the Single blade, which does appear to be like described, needed to get the spots that the five blade misses, really sucks. But overall, I do like it.
Posted on 22-Dec-06 at 11:26 am | Permalink