Shuyanin In A World of Razors (Gillette SensorExcel)

Member Name: Shuyanin59

Product:	Gillette SensorExcel
Date:	29/12/02 (575 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: User-friendly

Disadvantages: Easy to fake?

ABSTRACT.
Strong and weak points of Gillette Sensor Excel, Wilkinson Sword FxDiamond and Gillette Mach3, among others, are discussed. Sensor Excel is proposed as most plausible consumer choice.

INTRODUCTION.
I was 14 (back in 1973) when I shaved myself for the first time in my life. I remember that day very well. It was one of those very rare occasions when my parents took me to a theatre to watch Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake”. We were pressed for time, nevertheless my father insisted that I needed a shave and showed me how to proceed. As I was a slow learner, the result was a sulky mood and a nasty skin irritation. The Tchaikovsky’s ballet helped to dispel the mood but it couldn’t heal the irritation.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION.
Long years of single-blade shaving followed. I cannot recall the brands I have been using at the time (the time of the former USSR), but I do remember that imported razors were by and large better than those of domestic make, except for a brand they produced in the then Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg). Generally speaking, I was dissatisfied with single “safety” blades because I would get those irritations all too often. Experimented with electric shavers, but eventually had to give up because of their poor performance and, importantly, on the strength of a popular belief that when you use them, you cannot but inhale some part of the minute hairs you cut and some part of those caught inside the shaver. I couldn’t expect anyone to do something about it and invent something new. (I remember how as a boy I discovered by chance a Solingen cut-throat razor (somehow I feel to use it is the manliest way to shave) that my grand father brought from the occupied Germany at the end of the Second World War. Even then, I felt that there must have been quite a story behind it. But I never asked my grandpa, sadly. He is no longer with us.)

Well, they did something about it, an
d the collapse of the USSR saw, among other good and bad things, the advent of brand-new razors with twin safety blades.

I want to discuss at some length my experience of using the following three razors: Gillette Sensor Excel, Wilkinson Sword FxDiamond and Gillette Mach3. I use all of them, or rather keep on using them. Some day I’ll confine myself to the use of a favourite brand, but not now.

In terms of practicability and ease of use the winner is Sensor Excel. I can hardly remember when I cut myself with this razor – at least, cut myself badly enough to have caused any discomfort or inconvenience. I have a rather sensitive skin that is sensitive to the way I eat, wash and care for my face and… shave, of course. I have a mole on my chin that has been getting me into lots of trouble throughout my shaving years. Whenever I shave, I have to be on the alert – and it’s a hard thing to do the morning after. But, somehow Sensor Excel safety blade makes it easier and more comfortable to cope than the other two brands. FxDiamond has a particularly sharp pair of blades that’ll make you bleed more often than you deserve unless you take care. Gillette Mach3 blade is too big to reach and do away with hairs at and around the base of my nose. So you’ll get the best results with either FxDiamond or with Gillette Mach3 if you use Sensor Excel as a follow-up.

In terms of durability, again, the winner is Sensor Excel, with FxDiamond coming as a close second. Gillette Mach3 has the shortest life of them all, though it does appear that they are trying to do something about it of late.

In terms of quality, Gillette Mach3 is the winner, with FxDiamond and Sensor Excel both truly deserving a silver medal. So, if you are looking forward to a most promising date today, Gillette Mach3 is the brand to choose.

That takes us smoothly to the issue of occasions. You can use Sensor Excel whenever, whatever
the circumstances. It’s a good traveler’s companion. It is a good lover’s companion, too. If anything, I would rather leave FxDiamond at home when I am going on a prolonged business trip. It won’t do to appear before foreign partners with a bleeding lip, earlobe, chin or nose. Nor with blood on your collar, either. (Oddly enough, looking back, I cannot recall an occasion when I (or anyone, for that matter) should have cut myself in more spots than one). They say Frenchmen make it a rule to shave, among other things, before they go to bed. Women may applaud this, but it is a good rule to follow, too, when you are all alone on a business mission far away from home and have a very hectic schedule and not enough time to sleep.

I want to touch upon some occasions when used safety blades may come in handy. The traditional, “single” safety blades may be used to do away with hair on the back of your neck, to remove paint from window panes, to make a newspaper cutting, to tighten the hinge of your glasses frame or whenever you need a sharp if flexible cutting tool. I use used “modern” safety blades only to remove unwanted hair from the back of my neck, from armpits and the rest of my body when I fancy the hour has struck – once in a blue moon, that is.

By the way, if you want to get rid of that obnoxious hair on your ears, do not hesitate to use any safety blade. Make them wet and go ahead moving the blade smoothly, carefully and assuredly over the outer perimeter of your ears, working your earlobes freely. Never get inside. Never use a shaving foam.

Speaking of shaving accessories, I’d love to mention the shaving foam brand I absolutely admire – FLORENA! Whatever Florena brand I would take, I’d absolutely admire the fragrance, the smoothness and abundance of the foam – anything I’d expect from a quality shaving cream. (I would never opt for the grotesque shav
ing cream sprays, they seem ludicrous to me. And the disadvantages of carrying them around are too obvious to discuss.)

When it comes to shaving brushes, it is advisable to buy more expensive ones, made of natural bristle. (You are expected to dispose of your toothbrush after three months. What about shaving brushes? Can anyone advise?)

SUPPLEMENT: OF SHAVING AND ETHICS.

“As a beauty, I’m not a star,
There are others, more handsome, by far…
But my face – I don’t mind it,
For I’m behind it –
It’s the people in front that I jar.”

The limerick had been accompanying me (it had been my motto, in fact) through the most of my youth, and the ten or so minutes I was spending each morning in front of a bathroom mirror, a razor in my hand, cheeks and chin white as snow, were the only period during which I was paying any attention to my face. It was a bad mistake. I realized when it was too late, perhaps, but it was a bad mistake. I do not want anyone to repeat it.

“My eyes with your vision,
My choice – but always your decision,
My play – your direction,
My link – but always your connection…” – sing the pretentious Alan Parsons Project, my favourites and arguably the most schizoid-on-the-recovery band in the world. Yes, we should keep in touch with the man within. S. Prudden (see below) describes many useful techniques in her ground-breaking book to prevent you from repeating my bad mistakes.

So, what am I thinking now, as I confront myself in the mirror, my safe Gillette Sensor Excel in hand? At best of the times, the bristle on my chin reminds me of the Little Prince. He told a story about a lazy man who had neglected to observe a strict rule that says that you should get up in the morning, wash yourself, dress up and get your planet in order; and, first and foremost, you should do away with the ba
obabs. That man came to no good: the baobabs tore his planet to pieces.

There is a darker side to everyone (to that man within each of us), and the baobab trunk (however young) is too strong even for a cut-throat razor to cope, but there are other means at hand.

The time is running out. There are lots of bad things around, let us do good things – and make haste.

RESOURCES

Saint-Exupery, A. de. The Little Prince (1943). Ch. 5.

The Alan Parsons Project. You Don’t Believe in: Ammonia Avenue.

Prudden S., Meijer-Hirschland J. Meta Fitness. Your Thoughts Taking Shape (1989). Hay House, Inc. Santa Monica, CA.

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