Grooming Garage: 3 to 5

For a long time I have maintained that there was no point in using a razor with more than three blades, so it's with some surprise that I find I'm now using five-blade razors.

It happened by accident: I ran out of blade cartridges for my Schick Hydro 3 handle. I went through my toiletry stuff to see what I might have that I could use that day, and found an unopened Hydro 5 razor that I think I'd gotten as a free bonus item in a shipment from drugstore.com. I used it and felt like it was an improvement over the three-blade version, and after two subsequent shaves I was still feeling that way. Since I had to buy more cartridges anyway it seemed like I might as well switch.

Then I found out that Schick offers a sensitive-skin version of the Hydro 5 cartridge. I guess the lotion is different or something, but for me it's even more comfortable than the regular version. The sensitive cartridges do cost a bit more than the regular ones, but for me it's worth it, and there are coupons for Schick products in the Sunday paper about once a month.

One other nice feature of both kinds of Hydro 5 cartridges that isn't offered on the Hydro 3 (or any other razor cartridge that I'm aware of) is the top part of the cartridge, the part above the blades that holds the lotion, flips back for trimming smaller areas like under my nose. The large head size was always one of my main issues with multi-blade cartridges, so that's no longer an issue.