Continuing research … (see Test 1 and Test 2)
Test 3:
- one day of growth
- shaving in the shower
- Edge shaving gel
- Dorco Pace 7 on right side of face
- latest and greatest Gillette Fusion 5 ProShield with Flexball on left side of face
- third shave for each cartridge
Results: More or less equivalent.
Still to try: Dorco Pace 6 Plus ($6.50 for handle and two cartridges; free shipping and no sales tax collected for MA residents). This one has a single trimmer blade in addition to its 6 regular blades, so it is more directly comparable to the Gillette product.
Related:
- a 2014 review of the Dorco Pace 6 by a serious shaver-experimenter. He concludes that the Dorco product “is comparable to the Gillette Fusion Proglide” (but he had only 6 blades, not 7, at the time!) and that the Dorco cartridge is good for 20 shaves before requiring stropping (i.e., being thrown away, since a new one is less than $2).
Thank you for donating your face to science. I call this one official – Dorco shaving products are a viable, reasonably priced alternative to Toxic Masculinity Social Engineering Lecture brands. Their Frugal Dude pack is still on sale for $28.65, and I reckon such a dude who shaves every other day can get a full year of smoothness out of it, The Issue notwithstanding.
Wire Cutter does a good job of reviews, they liked the Gillette Mach 3 the best overall.
I used that but now have to change.
I might try the runner up-BIC.
https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-manual-razor/
Joe: Thanks for the link. I’m disappointed that wirecutter with its testing panel did not quantify the results of power vibration versus plain (I personally never bothered to switch on the vibration of the Gillette handle that I had with this feature; I don’t want uncertainty as to where the razor blades are at any given moment!). It is interesting that the 5-blade fusion comes up short compared to the decades-old Mac 3: “Much of the Mach3’s performance advantage comes from having less in a world of more. First off, it’s smaller and thus more agile than newer competitors. Gillette has tried to make its larger Fusion line more maneuverable with the new Flexball handles, but that’s like putting race tires on an SUV.”
But then lower down in the article they contradict this statement: “Shavers who want the most technically advanced cartridge razor available right now will be pleased with the five-bladed Fusion ProGlide, which is perhaps just a hair better than the Mach3 in every way. In our view, though, any thin strand of superiority does not justify a near-100 percent premium on cartridge prices.”
So is the Fusion system better or not? (I used to have the Mach 3 and agree with Gillette that the Fusion is better and the blades do last longer (maybe just because there are 5 so the cutting burden on each blade is lower?))
The main knock on wirecutter against Dorco seems to be the handle. I wonder if there is a business opportunity here to make luxury Dorco-compatible handles. We know that Gillette will sue people make handle-compatible cartridges. But would a razor company be unhappy with someone making a high-end handle designed to encourage consumers to buy their cartridges?
I don’t understand their environmentalist preaching against disposables. Gillette Fusion cartridges come packaged in a crazy amount of plastic, way more than the plastic in the same number of disposable razors!
I don’t understand their environmentalist preaching …
Preaching by definition is about religious belief. It doesn’t have to bear any relationship to reality.