A smooth, close shave at a price (Gillette Fusion)

Member Name: larsbaby

Product:	Gillette Fusion
Date:	26/02/08 (168 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very smooth and close shave

Disadvantages: Not good for irregular shavers, expensive

INTRODUCTION

I am a hardcore wet shaver. I've never tried electric in my life and I don't intend to any time soon. As with many blokes, I have my favoured weapon of choice; the Gillette Blue II Slalom. Unfortunately, in The Netherlands this isn't available, only the cheese grating Blue II fixed, and so I am pushed towards trying what is in the shops. The Gillette Fusion razor has been advertised amid much hoo ha and so I thought I'd give it a whirl. Here are the results.

THE RAZOR

When I first got the razor I felt like Luke Skywalker with his first lightsabre, as I've only ever used completely disposable razors before. It's certainly an impressive and imposing looking piece of kit. The fancy contoured handle is a big improvement on anything I've used before in terms of comfort in the hand. The 5 blades are supposed to distribute the shaving force of the blades for less pressure. The blade head itself is very big, with those 5 blades, comfort guard and lubrastrip housed on its front. The stand is quite impressively soft contoured and moulded and the razor clicks in snugly on top. Below, 4 spare blades can be stored. Replacing the razors is quite simple, you just press the button at the back to eject a blade and simply push the holding mechanism into a new one.

You can get the razor for about £7.49, and 4 replacement blades for about £8. This is pretty expensive when compared to my usual purchase.

THE SHAVE

I reckon the shaving experience depends on how quickly your stubble grows. As a lazy, hairy git, I have lots of very tough stubble after only a couple of days, and so this razor isn't so fun to use. It's OK when you shave all the way down your face, with a smooth, low friction action, but if you want to start in the middle somewhere or if you have bits you have to be careful with on your mush, it's quite scary the way it digs into your face; I don't like that at all. Perhaps this is down to the angle, as some previous reviews have suggested, but it does nothing to inspire confidence. It makes you really reticent to put pressure on your face to shave and this isn't a good thing at all for a wet razor. I would happily trade a couple of nicks for being able to really get stuck in with the blade, which is my usual technique.

You do get a really close shave, and it's closer than the Gillette Blue II Slalom I would usually use. It's probably right up there with the closest and smoothest shaves I've ever had. But the Blue II is much gentler at digging into my stubble at funny angles and starting at any point on my face, which is more to my requirement. One thing that I noticed was that it was particularly good at shaving on my chin, which is usually problematic and not particularly smooth, but thanks to the spring loaded blades it glided round it with ease (as long as I didn't have to dig into it first).

Hairs do not seem to get stuck between the blades like I would normally expect on my Blue II, where I have to dig away with the plastic cover to get rid of them, so I am quite impressed by that. I only have to rinse under a tap to remove any hairs.

Shaving after a few days produced a close shave but some cuts, whereas shaving every day produces no cuts at all, which re-inforces my impression that this is designed with a specific mode of use in mind. I also noticed that the blade doesn't last long if you shave every few days like I do; the Blue II would definitely last longer.

I'm not that impressed with the trimmer blade on the back. It seems almost useless for trimming sideburns, as it can't dig into any amount of hair at all, and the main blades just don't have the manoeuvrability to do that either, so this is a big let down. It is quite useful around the nose area though.

I used this with the special Fusion shaving gel as well as the regular Gillette stuff and noticed no difference at all. I don't really suffer from razor burn and this didn't give my any problems.

CONCLUSION

This really does give you a close shave and is perfect for people who aren't hairy monsters. It's OK for hairy monsters too who shave every day. But for lazy hairy monsters, or those who need to shave in an irregular way, I would say approach with caution. I think this has been designed assuming that men shave in a set pattern, every day. Or perhaps it's for the virtually hairless metrosexual man, I really don't know. For such a high price I would expect more, and certainly for it to last longer, and for me, this is something of a let down, even if the shave is impressively smooth and close.

CONTACT INFORMATION

I add this as there are some useful shaving tips on the website. Gillette are also very good at fielding complaints, as once I had a problem with some blades and they gave me some vouchers, so they do take customer feedback very seriously:

Consumer Relation Team

Tel : 0800 085 0367 (UK)

Email from this link:

http://www.uk.pg.com/contactUs/contactUs.html

Website - http://www.mygillette.co.uk/Pays/uk/?source=

Summary: Close but no cigar