Through the years, especially with having had a mediocre experience with the long-ago migration from Trac II to Atra, I stuck with Trac II and generic fixed twin blades. I started my newfound shaving enthusiasm with the discovery that there were inexpensive buy-in-bulk options for replacement blades from eCommerce sources, and this razor kept turning up as a good choice for continued use of the cartridges.
As it was not available at a nearby Walmart or CVS, I tacked it on to an online shopping spree.
The razor has a lot of smarts that take handling of a 44-year-old twin blade design to a new degree. The mounting head is at the end of an arc that keeps the business end, and any cream or foam, away from your hand. The holding angle is comfortable for the force that has to be applied for cartridge shaving. The rubber handle cannot be topped for handling or control.
The main drawback to the design relates to the tendency for hairs to get jammed between twin blades. There are only two small access holes in the back of the head, so if you try to use a gush of water to rinse the blades from behind, you are not going to get a lot of flush-through. As twin blade razors go, I found it takes a couple tries to get the rails slid into the cartridge when changing blades. That may be the machining of the rails, or it may be the previous handling experience of the user.
The razor comes with two blades, which sport a "bump guard" design that recesses the edges slightly away from the face. This allows a tiny amount of whisker to remain at the follicle, helping to avoid curl-back and ingrowth. Being Europid and not suffering from shave bumps, I have had no immediate reason to try them, but I am keeping them in reserve in case back-to-back DE BBS shaves take a toll and force me to go easy on the face.
I keep a bump guard with a fresh generic twin blade ready, whether as a routine rotation with DE or if the clock dictates reverting to finger-painted Barbasol and a single pass with twin blade.
As it was not available at a nearby Walmart or CVS, I tacked it on to an online shopping spree.
The razor has a lot of smarts that take handling of a 44-year-old twin blade design to a new degree. The mounting head is at the end of an arc that keeps the business end, and any cream or foam, away from your hand. The holding angle is comfortable for the force that has to be applied for cartridge shaving. The rubber handle cannot be topped for handling or control.
The main drawback to the design relates to the tendency for hairs to get jammed between twin blades. There are only two small access holes in the back of the head, so if you try to use a gush of water to rinse the blades from behind, you are not going to get a lot of flush-through. As twin blade razors go, I found it takes a couple tries to get the rails slid into the cartridge when changing blades. That may be the machining of the rails, or it may be the previous handling experience of the user.
The razor comes with two blades, which sport a "bump guard" design that recesses the edges slightly away from the face. This allows a tiny amount of whisker to remain at the follicle, helping to avoid curl-back and ingrowth. Being Europid and not suffering from shave bumps, I have had no immediate reason to try them, but I am keeping them in reserve in case back-to-back DE BBS shaves take a toll and force me to go easy on the face.
I keep a bump guard with a fresh generic twin blade ready, whether as a routine rotation with DE or if the clock dictates reverting to finger-painted Barbasol and a single pass with twin blade.