Before giving up, try the Gillette Guard.

[brucered]

For anyone new and struggling, before giving up on Wet Shaving, please give the Gillette Guard a try.

This a I highly under rated razor, that holds it's own against any Double Edge razor in terms of comfort and efficiency. It's basically a no brain shave, so long as you can produce a decent lather.

It isn't fancy, isn't collectible, isn't SOTD pic worthy, but gives an amazing shave.

For those who don't know, it's a 1 blade cartridge, not 5-6, no lubricating strip, so much closer to a traditional DE or SE shave. They are marketed for India, but are available to purchase from select N/A vendors or eBay.

 

[Toothpick]

Gillette Guard is now a 2 blade? Mine have always been single blade. Been a while since I bought one. Kinda bummed it’s 2 blades

 

[Rhody]

I haven’t used a guard in awhile I don’t remember it looking like that or 2 blades. I actually figured out a way to cut the back of my neck with it doing cleanup back there.

 

[brucered]

Gillette Guard is now a 2 blade? Mine have always been single blade. Been a while since I bought one. Kinda bummed it’s 2 blades

Oops....it is a single balde. Shows you what I know. I have a hundred refills in my drawer. Use them when I travel, which I just finished doing and thoroughly enjoyed it. Even shave with it at home the odd time now.

@Toothpick can you please edit my OP. Thanks for catching that.

@Rhody I just took a closer look, it is a single blade. I always assumed it was 2. The one above in my pic has the blade cover on it. Put it on after my shave.

Mine resides in the shower for a lot of the time. I use it to clean up the back of my neck and sometimes a neck shave between full shaves.

 

[Toothpick]

Oops....it is a single balde. Shows you what I know. I have a hundred refills in my drawer. Use them when I travel, which I just finished doing and thoroughly enjoyed it. Even shave with it at home the odd time now.

@Toothpick can you please edit my OP. Thanks for catching that.

@Rhody I just took a closer look, it is a single blade. I always assumed it was 2. The one above in my pic has the blade cover on it. Put it on after my shave.

Mine resides in the shower for a lot of the time. I use it to clean up the back of my neck and sometimes a neck shave between full shaves.

I use mine when I ain’t traveling. Just whenever I want a quick no frills shave. I’ve used the same cartridge 3 or 4 times too.

 

[NorthernSoul]

Gillette Guard is now a 2 blade? Mine have always been single blade. Been a while since I bought one. Kinda bummed it’s 2 blades

Still a single blade, AFAIK.

There's another razor, confusingly called the Gillette Skinguard, that has two blades, though.

 

[shave/brush]

Here is a picture of it if it helps.

 

[deafficianado]

Now they have a Gillette Guard 3 with 3 blades available in India.

 

[BigJ]

Good suggestion and a great travel option!

 

[reformedshavr]

I grabbed a Guard and some refills last minute for a trip next week after hearing the TSA is taking even disassembled DE razors now (even if there are no blades) .... kinda bummed not to take my Heritage which I bought recently for traveling. Seems like everyone likes them well enough so we shall see!

 

[BudgetShaverGuy]

I second the above, the Guard is a great razor that is utterly comfortable and almost impossible to cut or irritate one’s self with.

 

[DG109]

+1

I bought it for carry on trips and use it at home when I want a lazy quick and very easy shave.

Wish I discovered it when I was starting out 25 years ago. Although then I wouldn’t have such a distracting hobby and daily ritual.

 

[SharpieB]

The BIC Metal is similar and a great shaver. 1 blade disposable.

My travel razor.

 

[DougK]

The Guard is now my daily razor and it's done wonders for me in terms of shaving comfort. I get 5-7 shaves from each cart which I think is pretty reasonable. I can't get as close a shave as with a DE, but I do get a shave that easily lasts the workday with zero irritation. Because I shave daily anyway, I think that's a fair trade-off to avoid razor burn or irritation.

 

[ylekot]

The BIC Metal is similar and a great shaver. 1 blade disposable.

My travel razor.

The Bic Metal is a terrific razor for a disposable and it is probably what I would still use with canned goo if I hadn't found this amazing forum.

 

[hariph creek]

I was going to leave a glowing review of the Guard... but I see there are already a bunch.
I would say, if I had tried the Guard before trying DE, I never would have tried DE... but I see a bunch of people have already said that.

I know a lot of people do not like how light it is. This does not bother me, at all. I am a backpacker and have been an EDC nerd since before it was a term. I have spent a lot of extra money and time to have great gear that is a light as possible.
I really like the Guard. It does not give quite as close a shave as my DE set up. But, it is cheap, irritation free, consistently smooth, mindlessly easy, cheap, quick, does not clog, and cheap.
I only use it for air travel. If I cannot have my DE, the Guard is not much a compromise.
I also now keep one in my "Go Bag". It is cheap enough to set one aside and hopefully never need it. The design criteria make it well suited to less than optimal emergency situations.
I may look at using it for camping, too? We do dispersed camping, which is not far removed from 3rd world living. While I do not shave every day in the woods, I cannot stand more than 2 or 3 days stubble.

I joke about it being cheap. I like that it is cheap. I do not like it because it is cheap. I like it because it works great.

 

[dmshaver]

Thanks for the suggestion. Sounds like a good option for some to look at, or for a good travel razor.

 

[abershaver]

Lots of people here had the same experience with the Gillette Guard as I had! I was a wet shaving hobbyist/collector for a good ten years, trying everything I could get my hands on. But the Guard works so well that I just use it every single day now. I get 6 shaves from a cart. My Twig and my Schick Type J have been kept but I have sold everything else. Luckily I have managed to stockpile a couple of hundred Guard carts. Yes it’s plastic. Yes it isn’t aesthetically awe-inspiring. But it works incredibly well for me!

 

[Quaznoid]

Reminds me of the old Wilkinson Bonded, a single blade cart that came out in the early 70’s. Simplicity itself, and a great shaver.

 

[arnuld]

Been a cartridge user from last 20+ years. Just a few weeks ago, I switched to a Shavette and now DE razor. In my experience, Mach3 feels better than Guard. I am saying this after I used Gillette Guard for over a year. In the beginning I felt Guard was the best razor but after a year of exclusively using Guard and then shifting to Mach3 made me rethink my belief. But it's all personal. One thing true for everyone is: disposable blades cause a lot of pollution. EPA has estimated that there are at least 2 billion disposable razors which are thrown into the landfill every year. One of the reasons I switched to safety razor