Shave #13: Improves with Age

After nearly three weeks into the Cheap Razor Experiment, I believe that the plastic wonder has actually improved as a shaver.  Today's shave, after a day off, seemed smoother than the last one.  I'd like to believe that my chiseled features have actually sharpened the razor, but I'd also like to believe that Sofia Vergara would instantly fall under my spell if she ever met me.

This all makes me wonder what kind of testing Schick and Gillette do on their razors.  In TV commercials, they like to depict torture tests, but those tests only happen after a razor has become a finalized product.

Razor test or beefcake?  You decide.

Years ago, a former researcher at Procter & Gamble told me that they used to pay people to take showers while being watched.  I think the test subjects wore bathing suits and, of course, the researchers cared how they used soap and shampoo.  Still, it probably beats sitting in a dark room behind a two-way mirror and eating M&Ms.

I also learned that packaged goods company employees know lots of little secrets.  For instance, a former brand manager in laundry care told me that powdered detergent actually cleans better than liquid (which I don't take advantage of) and that dryer sheets can be re-used many times (which I do).

I'd like to believe that somewhere, in the vaults beneath Gillette's or Schick's office lies a room like the one at the end of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" where they store reams of secrets about razors.

The steel in the blades comes from recycled mental hospital shackles.  Tell no one!

Then again, there's that Sofia Vergara thing.