Ideal World

I enjoyed the comfort of the shavette shave (Personna hair shaper blade) quite a lot, and thought the skin condition very good compared to the controlled, high traction shaves as the Baili DE blade reached the end of its life. (Though I pusillanimously skipped the alum.) Part of me wants to start on a new adventure in shavettes, figuring out the strokes that make up more than just an acceptable shave.

What a giant waste of time that would be, though, with semi-safe razors like the Yuma and R41 around. The T handle isn't just for dummies -- it's better, at least for shaving yourself. It sets your hand off of your face, so you can see what you're doing AND use your dominant hand. Nice round tool handles make manipulation a simple act of will, as opposed to a solitaire version of Twister.

Proud though I am of U.S.-based Personna, and as respectful as I am of Feather Artist Club quality, I think the Turks (speaking of Yuma) laid the best foundation for a standard that reconciles the two technologies, for the betterment of society. What I'm noticing is something that the internet seems to have overlooked, that the blade holder on a Sedef, almost the same length as the hair shaper blade, was probably designed to accommodate the Dovo professional, long blade. Unfortunately residing in the same marketing prison as Merkur DE blades, at a ridiculously high price, this appears to be simply a longer DE blade, that you have to break apart before loading in a shavette just the same. It's weird, because Dovo's "Shavette" is what I would call a hair shaper: short, with a piece of black plastic where your thumb goes.

But just imagine (cue John Lennon's piano)... what if, at the age of 13 or whatever, instead of getting an electric piece of future toxic landfill, a young man could go to the barber, and have the professional select from an array of longer, large corner-radius versions of our familiar DE blades? He could get a little lecture on self-care, and buy a cheap DE before leaving, along with a good blade for home use.

Congratulations, you're a man. The worst years of your life have begun... now don't kill yourself!