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Gillette Mach 3

Am I going to ______ using my old Mach 3.

  • Love

    Votes: 18 33.3%
  • Hate

    Votes: 8 14.8%
  • Love but pretend to hate

    Votes: 11 20.4%
  • Other

    Votes: 17 31.5%

  • Total voters
    54
So I’m cleaning out the old den today, when I find none other than... an honest to goodness cartridge razor! My old Gillette Mach 3s! Ewwwwww!

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Lol! Ok so when I started wet shaving a little over 10 years ago, a big part of my reasoning was to save some money while I went to grad school. I got absolutely NO utility from shaving back then, so I’d have tried just about anything.

As most of us did, I fell hard for the culture and dove deep. I quickly spent way MORE on shaving than I ever did! I got into DE’s hard. Not long afterwards, I got into straights pretty hard too. I have a nice collection of DE’s with a bazillion blade’s to go with them. I have a great collection of straights too! I mostly use my Feather Artist Club “kami” now, but i’ll not “loyal” to it. On any given day, you’ll see me pull out a straight or a DE. I love em all.

And speaking of loving them all, I recall loving my old Mach 3 in the shower using hand soap, but getting a smooth shave all the same. Moreover, I just looked up Mach 3 prices, and they seem pretty cheap now!

I don’t want to ever go back to cart razors. But for nostalgia sake, I’m going to use the Mock 3 in about 5 minutes (shower first) with some great soap. What do you think? Am I going to:

Love it
Hate it
Pretend to hate it, but secretly love it
Other
 
Nostalgia weighed heavily on my vote. Ironically, you won't be secretive if you happen to secretively love the trip down memory lane. :p
 
Ok, so I used the skin food as a pre shave. The scent complimented the Acqua de Parma. The shave itself was incredible! The Mach 3 just slid over a couple days growth like any good blade should. There was obviously some resistance, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. A straight would have done miles better, but I’m not sure a DE would have pulled any less.

The second and third passes were pure sex. The razor is just SO forgiving! Around the chin, she pivots like a champ, and corners into divots and all those hard to reach spots like no other! It was a great shave! Truly. But keep in mind, the pre and the soap are making the experience awesome too!

Now, at the end of the shave, I ran the alum over the shave as I always do - no sting at all. None! Figures being it was such a smooth shave. That also meant the mentholated aftershave stung considerably less when applying as well. But that’s also when the shaves sheen started to come off it’s tracks.

Look, a Mach 3 has... you guessed it, 3 blades, so a 3 pass shave is the equivalent of 9 passes! If I did 9 passes with a DE I’d be exfoliating. So when I finished the shave off with a little balm to cap it all off, I was a little disappointed to feel the same amount of stubble I’d have had, had I had a lazy shave with a DE. There’s no question i’ll need to save again tomorrow. How disappointing!

So ultimately it’s sub par to a DE for me. And useless compared to a straight. But it was comfortable. But so are me DEs and my straights are as comfortable as it gets! The lack of smooth with a fresh blade is not a positive experience for me.

So where does that leave me? Well, the lazy me is disappointed. The fastidious me is like, whatever, toss it. All said and done, short of shaking hands, i’ll never look to a cart again (short of forgetting this). It’s too bad, and it makes me wonder how carts ever became more popular than DE’s in the first place? It’s baffling. I mean I can see a DE being desired if you can’t hone, but a good straight shave is still second to none.

Interesting. Maybe this only proves that marketing works.

Plow on gents! I vote “hate” though as pointed out, it’s a loaded word. Disappointed is accurate.
 
I've spent my life in a closet having never used one of those contraptions....LOL!!:)

I went from BIC disposables, to a Gillette DE, to Atra, again to BIC, back to DE razors. I've never used more than twin-blade cartridges. Funny, isn't it? Should I start now with triple blades?
 
The mach 3 was a savior to me back around 2003 or so when the Gillette atra plus was being discontinued (at least the handle was). Shaving was becoming very expensive for me at that time as Gillette was price gouging on the cartridges. I continued with the mach3 until 3 months ago when I got disgusted with Gillette and their outrageous pricing and decided to finally try out the safety razors. I tried out the supply injector but returned it and got the Rockwell 6s and was totally blown away by its performance. I have been using the Rockwell now since the beginning of March and I now have the Merkur Futur on order! (nothing wrong with the rockwell I just need a backup adjustable razor)
 
I liked Mach 3 a lot (still like it, although haven't been using it since I switched to DE about 2 years ago), and I have been shaving with it for nearly 20 years. It's good razor though it never could give me an acceptable shave only going WTG, which my DE razors give me every time I shave. I abandoned Mach 3 system due to outrageous expensive cartridges which I needed 2 per month and the cost of those 2 cartridges is about 5x more than I spend on high quality DE blades for a month...
 
Great post! Thorough and thoughtful. Had I read this years ago I may have sought out this rabbit hole sooner. I never did more than one pass with a cart--can't imagine how 3 passes would have felt afterward. Now I always do 2 on weekends and usually 3 on weekdays. Moreover, now I really enjoy my shaves, which I didn't before.
 
I'll use my Mach3 on my head in the shower if I NEED a quick shave - I've only recently started with the DE on my head and while I can get a nice 2 pass shave ita not near as quck and easy as the Mach3.
 
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