Happy Father’s Day!
This seems like a good time to wrap up the razor blade test inspired by Gillette’s Toxic Masculinity ad.
Side-by-side testing with multiple subjects and some female perspectives revealed that the Dorco Pace 7 is superior to Gillette’s latest and greatest 5-blade cartridges.
What about Schick? The present company is the result of a merger with Wilkinson Sword, the inventors of the modern razor blade. So they should know more about making blades per se than anyone else.
After testing the Schick cartridges that are compatible with Gillette handles and the Schick Xtreme 5 Pivot Ball system, my conclusion is that Dorco Pace 7 remains superior. The Schick blades may actually be sharper and possibly therefore better for certain skin types. At first it seems that the razor isn’t working because, unlike with Dorco and Gillette, there is no feeling of tugging. However, stubble is removed from one’s face so plainly the blades are working. I ended up preferring the Dorco and finding it easier to control.
Related:
- Gillette’s advertising has moved on to address the challenge of shaving by the transgendered (latest ad with father and daughter-turned-son; unfortunate comments: “Does the razor shave away the 40% suicide rate?”, “We have to stop promoting mental Illness”, and “Gillette: the best my wife’s boyfriend can get”). Is the ad actually insulting to the LGBTQIA+ community? A cisgender teenage male is generally considered intelligent enough to use a cartridge razor system without a lot of assistance from a parent.
- “Dorco Pace 7 Vs Gillette Pro Glide” (Gazette), concluding that the Pace 7 is superior, but Gillette’s flex ball is nice
- https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2019/01/26/gillette-compatible-blades-from-schick/
- https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2019/05/01/cremo-versus-edge-shaving-creme/ (Edge, now sold by Schick’s parent company, is the winner)
Have you seen the Google Doodle? It features the same bunch (it’s impossible to tell if it is a “family”) of androgynous, single-parent ducks that it did on Mother’s Day. I understand. Resources are scarce at Google, and it must have been too much of a hardship expenditure to make a completely novel Doodle for Father’s Day. The caption also changed as the day wore on. It began as “Happy Father’s Day” but evidently that must have encountered some pushback because it was replaced with: “Here’s to every parent taking on the role of a lifetime.” No more Father and his Day.
I decided to surf around a little bit and took a gander at the June, 1965 issue of Boy’s Life Magazine (Boy Scouts of America.) Note in particular the literacy level required to read and enjoy the articles and stories. There are a lot of words, the fonts are relatively small, no video games existed yet, but even the cartoons and comics are fairly sophisticated. In 1965 the workshop project was building a “cubmobile” but in at least one issue from 2005, there are no projects to build. An issue from 2012 features a much simpler project (a picture frame, basically a single piece of wood with a hole cut in it), complete with a warning label.
1965:
https://books.google.com/books?id=MixUVHHhs88C&lpg=PA71&dq=Boys%20Life%20Magazine%20June%201965&pg=PA31#v=onepage&q=Boys%20Life%20Magazine%20June%201965&f=false
Here’s an issue from 2005 for contrast. I’ll leave the comparative analysis to readers but there are profound differences that speak for themselves. It’s a lot easier to read and packed with big, splashy pictures – and a lot more video games.
https://books.google.com/books?id=TfwDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA1&dq=Boys%20Life%20Magazine&pg=PA44#v=onepage&q=Boys%20Life%20Magazine&f=false
Comic comparison:
2012:
https://books.google.com/books?id=lmKMs0yvmnEC&lpg=PP1&dq=Boys%20Life%20Magazine%202013&pg=PA42#v=onepage&q&f=false
1965:
https://books.google.com/books?id=MixUVHHhs88C&lpg=PA71&dq=Boys%20Life%20Magazine%20June%201965&pg=PA53#v=onepage&q=Boys%20Life%20Magazine%20June%201965&f=false
A left a long message about today’s Google Doodle and a comparison of Boys Life Magazines from 2012, 2005 and 1965, but it’s awaiting moderation. Short version: check out today’s Google Doodle and caption, and compare it to Mother’s Day. The caption was changed sometime during the day: “Happy Father’s Day” (morning) to “Here’s to every parent taking on the role of a lifetime” (afternoon).
I like the Schick Hydro 5 Sensitive very much.
I mail ordered and have tried the Dorco 4 ( just because it is so inexpensive) is is fine but not as good as the Schick and I have the Dorco 7 standing by, but have not tried yet, which looks promising.
Let me try to post a capture of the Google Doodle: https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/fa725607-e35d-432c-a63d-6207d0a7df03/
Related to previous posts on child support, here’s a fun read for father’s day about sperm donor who gave his 50th donation (in a cup, while meeting at a beach) to an 18yrold and her 21yrold girlfriend (who live in a different homeless shelters in NYC). The mother doesn’t plan to ask for child support, and hopes to complete her high school degree this month. Her girlfriend intends to finish high school one day and get work as an engineer. The parents-to-be plan on getting a voucher for an apartment in time for daughter’s birth.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7146183/Sperminator-gives-50th-free-semen-donation-teen-homeless-lesbian-couple-wont-support.html
Wilkinson didn’t invent the modern (stainless steel) razor blade, but they were the first to actually sell them. Gillette invented them but they refused to sell them because it would kill their sales. Stainless blades last 8 times as long as the former blued steel blades so once stainless blades came onto the market, the sales of blades fell to 1/8th of the former volume.
Why do the histories that one can find easily all credit Wilkinson? What’s the source for Gillette secretly developing this innovation?
This info is stated right in the Wilkinson Sword wiki. The footnoted source, however, doesn’t really support the text on this point.
Other sources state that the real Wilkinson innovation was some sort of PTFE (Teflon) coating that made the blades comfortable to use. Apparently uncoated stainless blades existed long before 1962 but tended to drag – perhaps the grain structure of stainless is rougher than carbon steel.
https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/coated-vs-un-coated-blades.446201/
The other aspect was some sort of marketing innovation, similar to the modern Dorco/Dollar Shave/Harry’s situation. Apparently Gillette had (still has) the drug store channel locked up but Wilkinson broke thru by selling in hardware stores.
It’s not usual for superior products to go unsold because of inability to break thru in the market against established competitors. The technical merit of a product is only one small aspect of the production and sales process and often not the most important one.