Saturday, May 07, 2005

Attack of the Razors!

Has you ever noticed how the number of blades in a shaving razor are increasing with the years?

Initially, all razors had one blade, and everyone made do with that. The Gillette ads would show that single blade lopping off the stubble at the very bottom, leaving nothing behind. Then suddenly someone came up with the bright idea of adding another blade to the razor. I think they called it Mach 2. What's interesting though, is that now in the new ad the first blade (which initially did all the work) cuts off only half of a particular strand of stubble! Then the second blade follows through and completes the job! Why? Why the need for a second blade when the first blade did the entire trick in the earlier model?

As if that wasn't enough, they then came out with the Mach 3. Now there were three blades. So in the ad the first blade would now only tickle the stubble, the second blade would lop a little bit off, and then the third blade would finish the job! Suddenly the first two blades aren't enough. The first blade which was doing everything in the first model, is now rendered practically useless!

So either the first (and second) ads were wrong, or the people at Gillette have less brains than a retarded chimpanzee! Which one is true, is left to the reader's discretion!

I'm not sure, but I think they've already come out with a 4-blade razor! When is this going to stop? At this rate we'll soon have razors with so many blades, the average human male won't even be able to lift them. They'll be stationary while the man scrubs his face against them! How will one manage to shave those tough spots under one's chin and at the corners of one's jaw and neck is not yet certain.

I can imagine the ad for the Mach 13462! The first 13460 blades will go by without even touching the hair at all! Then the last two will come in and perform the deed! But everyone will run to the stores to buy one, because after all how can you be so old-fashioned to use a razor with only 13461 blades when there's one with 13462 in the market?

Maybe after some years, the reverse trend will kick in - Gillette will advertise that its new razor is better because it has fewer blades than the currently existing models. The sizes of everything are shrinking in today's market and maybe the razor will go the same way. So after a lot of wasted time, energy and money they'll be back to the single blade razor! Which, by the way, is exactly where we started!

For my part, I've successfully managed to stay clear of all the fuss by shaving only once a month and using an electric razor!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The single-blade razor is actually the best for your skin. Double-blade is okay, but the triple-blade damages your skin with extensive use. (That's info I got from a US lab study. It might have been sponsored by makers of safety razors.)

Anonymous said...

i think the best ploy is what kunal n i hv come up with (see other comments box).. shave as infrequently as possible!

a lot of people hv mentioned tht the triple-blade models are not very good, incidently!

Saurav Chakraborty said...

good sense of humour you got man.Great read.