Moving back to carts - what is the overall best (quality / price / longevity) non-Gillette system to try?

[Umma2gumma]

After over a year of DE shaving, I decided to move back to carts. I got to the point where I can shave most days with little to no irritation and no weepers, however it did make me realize a few things:

1) Even after a good DE shave, my face is more sensitive than after a cart shave.
2) I shave every day. In a week of DE shaving, I am pretty much guaranteed to have at least one day when I don't pay enough attention, or am rushed, or sleepy, and while I never cut myself anymore, I do get some redness or irritation in spots when I am not careful, which take a week to completely subdue (they stop itching in a few hours, but the skin is more red than the surrounding skin for days). This may be due to me having a very pale skin to begin with. At any rate, I always have a spot or two that is more red than the rest of my face, and I am getting tired of this.
3) I can DE shave very quickly, but not nearly as quickly as with carts, because I can start with ATG right away.
4) Using soap and brush with carts leads to much more pleasant and clean shave, so the overall quality of shaving is still better, and I retain most of the part of the traditional shaving process that I like.

So, I am looking for a cart system to switch to. It will not be Gillette.

The last carts that I used before going DE were Schick Hydro 5, and while I still think they are great, they are also very expensive and overall seem like an overkill.

I am currently trying out Schick Extreme X (2-blade), they seem like a decent system and one disposable had so far lasted me 2 weeks, but they have a little too much blade flex for my taste (the cartridge is really flexible).

What else is out there to try?

 

[doug1066]

My travel cartridge is a Harry’s Winston. Try them. www.harrys.com


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[galopede]

I have an own brand five blader from Aldi. Good shave and the blade really lasts. Use it fairly often in my rotation and still on the first cart!

Gareth

 

[EclipseRedRing]

If I were going to move away from DE/SE shaving then I would much prefer a razor with a single blade, a fixed head, and no lubricating strip. I am not aware of any such cartridge razor so to avoid Gillette I would go for the orange Bic Sensitive or even better the Bic Metal. I get excellent shaves with both of these razors and often use them as my travel razor. The Bic Metal is the best disposable razor I have ever tried and although it is more expensive than the orange sensitive model, the blade lasts significantly longer. Good luck.

 

[Chandu]

I'd say look at the Bic Flex 4 or 5, but you want t a blade with less flex so these may not be the answer.

Dorco off Amazon Get the Pace 3. Handle and 10 carts for $15. Should you like it you can get the Pace 6 or 7 handle which is a bit nicer and takes the Pace 3 carts. Most of Dorco's handles and carts are inter-mixable.

If you weren't diametrically opposed to Gillette, I'd say you would get on well with the Guard (not Skin Guard). It's single blade, and a more rigid design.

 

[FaceScraper]

i went back to carts last year after 6 years of DE shaving (shaving 6 days a week). I am getting fantastic shaves, however i do use mostly gillette products.

I would recommend getting a Trac II handle (you can buy Schick made handles) and then buy vintage NOS schick or wilkinson sword carts. I have been able to buy these for under 50 cents a cart especially the schicks.

I get zero irritation with the twin blades and very close shaves.

 

[Big Jim]

Dorco. They also happen to be the maker of most Dollar Shave Club razors.

Except for the two band the rest of them enjoy common docking so you can use any 3 and above cartridge on any of the handles. My personal preference is the 3 and the 7. Don't laugh about the blade count until you try it. It is extremely comfortable.

 

[slybrewguy]

The personna twin blade carts are great. They fit atra handles, they are insanely sharp, and buying in bulk via Amazon they can be had for between $0.10-$0.20 per cart.

 

[ajkel64]

I prefer Schick cartridge razors myself. The rabbit hole can be just as bad with Cartridge Razors as it is with DE or SE razors.

 

[Umma2gumma]

Thanks.

 

[modernshaver1965]

Good morning. new to the forum. Italian, always shaved with carts and now started with electrics too. I would advice the OP with my preferred carts, BIC flex5 and dorco pace6.

 

[Umma2gumma]

I'd say look at the Bic Flex 4 or 5, but you want t a blade with less flex so these may not be the answer.

I don't mind head flex (like on most Gillette or Schick razors). What is a little unusual with Schick Extreme is that the blades themselves flex very noticeably, the cartridge frame is thin and not rigid at all. I don't know if this really affects performance, though.

Dorco. They also happen to be the maker of most Dollar Shave Club razors.

Except for the two band the rest of them enjoy common docking so you can use any 3 and above cartridge on any of the handles. My personal preference is the 3 and the 7. Don't laugh about the blade count until you try it. It is extremely comfortable.

OK, thanks. Will take a look.

The personna twin blade carts are great. They fit atra handles, they are insanely sharp, and buying in bulk via Amazon they can be had for between $0.10-$0.20 per cart.

How long do they last?

I prefer Schick cartridge razors myself. The rabbit hole can be just as bad with Cartridge Razors as it is with DE or SE razors.

I think Schick Hydro 5 is the best cart razor I used, ever. Also very long lasting, I'd get over a month from one cartridge. So far, I am early in week 3 with Extreme. So I may just stick with them. At $1 a pop, if I can make them last at least 3 weeks, it's a bargain, and they are very gentle on the face. But it looks like the ones I have are the old model, there's a new one in the stores, I have to try it to see if they've screwed up anything in the process.

Yes, it's a rabbit hole allright... one thing I did find though is that using proper soap with carts makes a whole lot of difference over the canned goo. A much better quality of shave. One of the reasons I stopped using Mach3 years ago was because the new batches that I bought were tugging and pulling. Well it seems they were tugging and pulling because their lube strips were bad, I used an old (used) Mach3 cartridge with Arko soap and got a decent shave. I am starting to suspect that the canned goo is just placebo.

 

[slybrewguy]

@Umma2gumma I used them more for head shaves but I could get anywhere from 5-7 full head shaves out of a single cartridge (at 10-20 cents per cart). By comparison, I could get 1-2 head shaves from a de blade, 2-3 from an injector blade, and 4-5 from a guard blade.

Looks like the price went up (likely due to the world right now) as I've bought these many times and never spent more then $12.99 for x100. Regardless, even at the current price you are looking at $0.22 per cart and you should expect atleast a week of use per cart. All you need is an atra handle, dorco/dsc twin handle, col conl atra handle, etc (ant handle designed for twin blade atra style carts that has the two fingers to grab the blade). Pretty sure they fit trac2 handles, if these ones don't then they do for sure make a trac2 version

 

[modernshaver1965]

@Umma2gumma i have tried wilkinson hydro 5 and i found out that while it shaves quite well i wholeheartedly hated the "snail slime" it released from the "gel reservoirs". I think it impacts the shave in a very negative way since it prevents the blades to actually be in perfect contact with the skin. IMO I think the lubrication should come from the lather not from the cart itself. But hey, it's just me.

 

[charliemilano]

4.14.2020.

Rabbit hole? What rabbit hole?

 

[StuMcB]

I have an own brand five blader from Aldi. Good shave and the blade really lasts. Use it fairly often in my rotation and still on the first cart!

Gareth

The 3 blade disposables also fit. Just remove from the handle and place on the metal handle of the 5 blade keep the adaptor though.

 

[lurchbrian]

The 3 blade disposables also fit. Just remove from the handle and place on the metal handle of the 5 blade keep the adaptor though.

I think these are made by dorco for them .

 

[StuMcB]

Think so. I get really good shaves from the 3 blade.

 

[Tomo]

Oneblade?

 

[Asland408]

Another vote for Trac 2 razor you can get the handle for $5 on Amazon and 100 persona trac 2 carts for $13 to $20 dollars.


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