Brian Ellis Rules!
This year's Superbowl won't be remembered for the half-assed referees or even the epic half-time show. No, it'll be remembered for the unveiling of Gillette's latest and greatest... the Fusion. This is Gillette's latest offering in the shaving market.
Like the rest of America, I was skeptical at first. "Do we really need a 5-blade razor?" "How much better can it be than 3 blades?" (I won't even get into the trainwreck that Shick calls their Quattro. Good grief!) I'm a sucker for new gadgets and gizmos so of course I had to try it out.
Seeing as how I'm fiscally aware, I balked at the price tag at first. Costco was offering the Fusion + 5 blades for like $18. Ha! CVS was offering the Fusion + 2 blades for like $9. We're getting more into my range. Rite-Aid was offering the FUsion + 2 blades for $8 (and a $2 rebate) - Holler! So now with the razor in hand, it's time to get this party started!
I've never really written a head-to-head review before, so I'm just going to freestyle here and see what happens. I'll break it down into a couple areas and give a final review at the end. Oh yeah, and this will be geared towards head shaving, which you probably expected. Anyhoo, here goes nothing...
The Headblade is a shaving system designed specifically for shaving heads (as the name would lead one to believe) and it uses a generic 2-blade cartridge. The Fusion is Gillette's latest and greatest 5-blade shaving system. Are 5 blades better than 2? The answer might seem obvious, but there's only one way to find out.
The Headblade may look funky, but man that thing is a breeze to use. It slips over
your middle finger and after that it's game on. I can usually handle my business in
about 5 minutes with this piece. On the other hand, the Fusion isn't exactly designed
to shave heads but c'mon, that shouldn't hold it back, right? Well, not so much. It
took me a bit longer to get the job done with the Fusion. Edit: I should also
add that the additional trimmer blade feature on the Fusion is pretty freakin' sweet.
With the Headblade I'd have to use an additional razor to get the area around my ears
but this isn't the case with the Fusion.
Advantage: Push
The Headblade usually knocks it out of the park on the first try - one pass
(sometimes two) is usually all it takes for a nice smooth shave. The downside is that
if I nick myself, it's almost always a bleeder and that's never a party. The Fusion,
on the other hand, took a few extra passes to take care of business. That said,
even after taking a few extra strokes the Fusion got the job done with virtually no
irritation. And maybe it's my imagination, but the Fusion left me feeling a *tad*
bit smoother than the Headblade. Just a tiny bit.
Advantage: Fusion
Both razors definitely aren't cheap. I think the start-up cost for the Headblade
is close to $15, while the start-up cost for the Fusion was about $6. On the surface,
it sounds like the Fusion wins out, no question. In the words of Lee Corso, "NOT SO
FAST, MY FRIEND!" The Headblade uses the cheapass dual-blade replacement razors that
average out to $1 each. I don't remember the exact price of the Fusion blades, but I'm
pretty sure they're close to $5 a piece. Damn, the wallet's going to take a hit on
that one!
Advantage: Headblade
Cuteness factor? What am I, some kind of queer? Nah, but I figure I need to add a
few more features to the review so why the heck not? You can look up at the
top and figure out which one is the sexier of the two. The Fusion looks big and bulky
while the Headblade looks like an engineering marvel. I think it even won some award
from Time magazine when it was released and heck, it's even
featured in the MoMA.
That's one sexy razor!
Advantage: Headblade
Well, it looks like the Headblade wins out in this review. Even still, I'll probably play around with the Fusion for a while. The quality of shave was really top notch and the fact that there's no irritation is a huge plus. I'm guessing that I won't have to wait as long between shaves which means I'll be looking my best at all times (pssh, when *don't* I look my best?!).
No comments from the peanut gallery, please.
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