Shaving Myths......

I didn't see anyone bashing Gillette.

I saw people taking the marketing claims made by Gillette and their own, personal team of "scientists" with a reasonable grain of salt and an eye for skepticism.

Nobody made a claim as to false advertising, just to how valuable advertising is as a mark of quality.

Still doesn't necessarily make it a complex design or procedure.

And saying that doesn't mean I think Gillette is the Devil, nor does it mean I dislike the company. I have 2 Gillette razors and hundreds of their blades which I like quite fine. I just do not believe that the design and manufacture of a cartridge razor head is complex to the umpteenth degree, nor do I believe that it is complexity of design that limits what factories are capable of producing them.

Here's a myth:
If you don't take all the marketing claims of a huge corporation at face value, you must think that corporation is the spawn of the devil...

I have played the film over and over. I have stopped it at numerous points. It does not bear out what the scientist said.
She said there was a continuous sequence of pull, cut, pull, cut, and so on.
Watch the film. Every blade cuts the hair and every blade pulls the hair. Both operations diminish as blade follows blade.

"This has revealed how the blade cuts through the hair, and in the case of multiple-blade models, the first blade pulls the hair up, the second cuts it, the third blade acts in a similar way to the first, and so on. "

Seeing is believing.
How could she be so wrong when the evidence is before her eyes?

The shaving protocol she recommends is exactly what I and most other wet shavers follow and have followed for decades and, perhaps, centuries.
We did not need a scientist for that. Experience and advice has taught us very well.
What she needs in order to really know and experience shaving is to grow her own beard.

Mickey

I am not disputing your descriptions of the various workers.

I use my own which makes sense and seems logical to me.

Starting from the bottom: Craftsman. Artizan. Artist.

That is not to diminish the value of each of them but I find it a way to describe the level of their skills.

Mickey

grim, ... I also think  Gillette/P&G isn't about making the best product for us but rather for itself.   ... I think it is a "myth" to think that this company has the best interests of it's consumers at heart, anymore than any other large, epecially publicly held, company does.  By necessity, these companies are beholden to their stockholders.

I concur with this 100%. These companies are fiscally liable to their stockholders. Period. ALL publicly held companies are. And lets not kid ourselves, privately held companies in a capitalistic economy have one prime motive, make money. Otherwise they would not be in business.

That doesn't mean their advertising cannot be misleading. If they are lying, thats false advertising and can and have been prosecuted. Companies are not ethical giants. Many, many pay huge fines. Look no further than the pending $18B fine to VW. It happens all the time.

Mickey Oberman  

I think you totally miss my "myth". Its not about whether it was good for you or anyone. It has not nothing to do with price

Rather, it was  " - cartridges are simple and easy to make ....

They are not. They each have 78 spot welds. The edge width is 25nm. Only 2 factories in the world have the equipment to make them.

None of this has anything to do with how well they work for you, me, or anyone else. "Our" opinions on how they work have nothing to do with this.

Just trying to help you understand.

I have played the film over and over. I have stopped it at numerous points. It does not bear out what  the scientist said.
She said there was a continuous sequence of pull, cut, pull, cut, and so on.
Watch the film. Every blade cuts the hair and every blade pulls the hair. Both operations diminish as blade follows blade.

"This has revealed how the blade cuts through the hair, and in the case of multiple-blade models, the first blade pulls the hair up, the second cuts it, the third blade acts in a similar way to the first, and so on. "

Seeing is believing.
How could she be so wrong when the evidence is before her eyes?

The shaving protocol she recommends is exactly what I and most other wet shavers follow and have followed for decades and, perhaps, centuries.
We did not need a scientist for that. Experience and advice  has taught us very well.
What she needs in order to really know and experience shaving is to grow her own beard.

Mickey

[Image: smiley.gif]

"I have no doubt, whatsoever, that major corporations twist the truth or use words to their advantage in advertising"

Is that not akin to lying????

Mickey

I'm not finding Gillette bashing in this thread. Nor am I seeing where anyone characterized them as devil spawn. Thus, I view them as making a mountain out of a mole hill or being overly dramatic.

I'm really not seeing any major areas of disagreement between grim, Mickey, BadDad an myself.

I'm really not seeing any major areas of disagreement between grim, Mickey, BadDad an myself.

I don't know, man.   The only way you will be able to convince us that peace reigns in the land is if you guys hold hands and start singing Kumbaya.

Fascinating topic, and one that could be debated forever. As a general rule and overarching principle, I agree with BadDad that YMMV represents the only "absolute" when it comes to shaving. My myths are the next guy's eternal verities. Let's all celebrate the diversity of life and sing:

Kumbaya
That said, I will take issue with one of Chris/BadDad's myths: that using a shavette is [i.e., is not] a good introduction to using a regular straight. This may be a myth for most, but, for me,  learning a shavette (the Feather AC) was great prep for a regular straight -- not to mention for various other shavettes that use DE blades, which are even more unforgiving than Feather AC blades. Maybe this is just me, but I don't see vast differences between different kinds of razors the way some people do -- for example, SE vs. DE safety razors. Yes, there are differences, but they're subtle, not vast, and they're easily adapted to. Anyway, I'm going on shave #18 with a Feather AC Pro Super blade in the kamisori DX; once I got past shave #8 or #9, darned if I could tell the difference from a hand-honed blade. (I strop my DX after every shave -- 15 or so round trips on a terrycloth bath towel. It works wonders! Credit goes to @Lmarkow on B&B.) But this is small potatoes. YMMV.  

Fascinating topic, and one that could be debated forever. As a general rule and overarching principle, I agree with BadDad that YMMV represents the only "absolute" when it comes to shaving. My myths are the next guy's eternal verities. Let's all celebrate the diversity of life and sing:

Kumbaya
That said, I will take issue with one of Chris/BadDad's myths: that using a shavette is [i.e., is not] a good introduction to using a regular straight. This may be a myth for most, but, for me,  learning a shavette (the Feather AC) was great prep for a regular straight -- not to mention for various other shavettes that use DE blades, which are even more unforgiving than Feather AC blades. Maybe this is just me, but I don't see vast differences between different kinds of razors the way some people do -- for example, SE vs. DE safety razors. Yes, there are differences, but they're subtle, not vast, and they're easily adapted to. Anyway, I'm going on shave #18 with a Feather AC Pro Super blade in the kamisori DX; once I got past shave #8 or #9, darned if I could tell the difference from a hand-honed blade. (I strop my DX after every shave -- 15 or so round trips on a terrycloth bath towel. It works wonders! Credit goes to @Lmarkow on B&B.) But this is small potatoes. YMMV.  

Honestly, I was not considering Feathers as shavettes. I have never used one, personally, but everyone with whom I have spoken has said they are way different than traditional DE shavettes. One day I will be able to get a Feather AC, but as of yet, I've never used one.

The main advantage over standard DE shavettes, I would think, is the thickness of the blade. It's much stiffer than a standard DE blade, and I think that would make a HUGE difference in the margin of error...

I also learned to palm strop my DE shavette, and it improved the quality of the shave by a mile. After about 125 straight shaves, I went back to the DE shavette and had a MUCH better shave...