Shave Of The Week - 19th Dec '10

Well I had a shave of the week all lined up for this week but then lo and behold I get this wonderful little package in the mail from my friend Randy on B&B. I was so excited to try it I had to give it a go!

Here's the set-up:

- Schick Adjustable Injector
- Injector Blades
- Cremo Cream


I had never tried an injector before and was curious to see what they were all about. I hadn't read too much about them to be honest and so when it arrives I had no clue how to go about loading one. I'm sure plenty of people will laugh at the fact I spent a good 5 minutes trying to figure it out sticking that little metal part of the blade holder into anywhere I thought it could go on the razor and trying to work out which way around it went! The smarter shaver would have just gone on YouTube and found this handy video by Mantic59 but I like a bit of a challenge. Still for those of you curious here's a funny little video showing you how it's done:

So once I had it loaded up, into the bathroom I went. You'll notice them was no brush in my set up and that's because Cremo is a brushless cream. Now again I have no idea if I was using it right or not but I figured I'd just work out this week's shave as I went along! So I took a blob of the Cremo and rubbed it on my leg, thinking it'd burst into lather. It didn't. It was more like spreading a slightly thick lotion onto my wet skin. I was a little unnerved by the lack of visible lather thinking that this essentially translucent thin layer of cream on my skin (was it even really there?) would provide zero protection. I was very wrong. It seemed to provide great protection and my legs felt lovely and smooth and moisturised afterwards. I was very surprised. I had to use quite a bit as I wasn't sure how much was needed or how much was going on as I had nothing to visually compare it too. I might try a little less next time I use this cream. As for the razor. It was GREAT! I almost felt like I was cheating as it was so similar to using a cartridge razor that I didn't even have to think about the shave at all. The "be vigilant" part of my normal routine went out the window and I could daydream away without having to think about angle or pressure.

This is an adjustable razor and I set it to what I believe is the least aggressive setting (the number dial is no longer on the razor so I couldn't tell other than turning it and watching the plate move). I found that my normal long single strokes up the leg weren't really working and instead used shorter multiple "buffing" passed up the leg which is why I felt it was so similar to a shaving with a cartridge. In saying that I didn't have to go over the same areas over and over or anything. Using short strokes and working upwards (against the grain as I always do) I got an incredibly silky smooth and irritation-free shave quickly and without the need for more than a couple of touch ups to get missed areas. Even going over the knee was super-easy, and that's normally one of the tricky areas as any DE woman will tell you (or any straight razor using woman, but they're a rarer breed. You need to set out traps of chocolate and a nice shiny custom made worked frameback razor in order to catch one of these!).

Were the injector blades more readily available I could see this becoming my go-to razor when I'm in a hurry. For now though I'll save the blade and see if I can buy them in bulk somewhere. As always next week will be a new shave for a new week but I can see me returning to this one again very shortly to see how it performs with a more "traditional" lather.

- BE