I was more than persuaded by both [Gillette and Schick] that [disposable razor blade] technology isn’t some kind of con: the researchers I met were all gifted, dedicated people, responding with infectious enthusiasm and flair to the real technical and intellectual problems with which they were presented. So, yes, the business is about fulfilling the consumers’ desire for a better shave. But it’s also about creating that desire: if the two out of three men who prefer the Fusion to the Mach3 had never been offered the Fusion, they’d never have known what they were missing.

—

From a fascinating article in The Guardian by Thomas Jones about the Shaving Industrial Complex [via Give Me Something to Read]

I abandoned the Gillette blades of my misspent youth a few years ago for a decidedly old school Merkur razor fitted with Feather blades from Japan and haven’t looked back. Even accounting for the badger brush and fancy soaps, I feel like I’m coming out ahead, or at least breaking even. But I genuinely feel like my single blade gives me a better shave than any combination of laser honed, diamond edged, teflon coated, microchip controlled gimmicks ever will. (For what it’s worth, apparently the science behind the multi-blade razors, hysteresis, is mostly, and this is a technical term, bullshit.)