My father has had a Gillette razor (I’m not 100% sure, but I think it’s a Gillette Fatboy) for close to forty years now. It looks like this: It took a double-edge razor blade, the kind that’s sort of getting to be less prevalent, or at any rate, less in vogue these days, in India, replaced by the ever-expanding array of products with ever-increasing number of blades, each promising a better shaving experience than its predecessor which had itself been marketed in the past as the best thing a man could get. I’d shaved with it on a couple of occasions, and I remember it as being quite amazing; it was quite exquisitely hefted, which meant one simply didn’t need to apply any pressure while shaving. The razor was also an adjustable one, but back then, I’d just used it at the least aggressive setting and that had been more than sufficient.

Since then, I’ve owned and used a bunch of razors; a wide variety of twin-blade disposable razors, a Dorco which used twin-blade cartridges, a Gillette Sensor Excel Twin Blade, which I used for a long time as my primary razor, and even a Wilkinson Sword 3-piece double-edged (DE) safety razor, which I favored when I started shaving less frequently. Then, the beard life sort of beckoned, and I found both the beard lengths and the lengths of time increasing, between shaves. The twin-blades, the Sensor Excels or any of the many fancy and overpriced razors were hopelessly inadequate for the job of mowing down a thick beard, as they’d get totally clogged after a single abortive half-sweep, so on the rare occasions I did shave myself, it was the trusty Wilkinson Sword DE, which worked reasonably well. It was only late last year that I started shaving regularly again, and I then quickly remembered why I’d kind of given up shaving regularly in the first place.

The problem

My facial hair grows thick and fast, so if I’m not growing a beard, I really need to shave every day. My skin is rather sensitive too. A brand new cartridge of say a Mach 3 or Fusion Proglide feels super nice, gives me a good, close shave and doesn’t irritate my skin, but the nice feeling only lasts me a couple of shaves; after the fourth or fifth shave, my skin feels like it’s been subject to the business-end of industrial-grade sandpaper. These cartridges also cost a pretty penny, so throwing them out after every third shave seems not only very expensive, but also terrible from a waste-generation/recycling perspective. I don’t think those bits of metal encased in plastic are easy to recycle at all. When I tried the trusty Wilkinson Sword, I quickly realized that while it’s extremely efficient at getting rid of a full beard in a matter of seconds, it’s not really good at giving a close shave; the angle of the blade is fixed, and it’s designed to be forgiving, not aggressive. For a short while, I tried using the DE for a quick first pass, and following it up with a second pass with the Fusion Proglide; this seemed to be a step in the right direction, as the DE did the grunt work with minimal fuss, while the fancy-pants Gillette gave me a closer shave, without irritating the skin too much. While the situation was better than before, I wondered if a better solution could not be found, eliminating the cartridge razor entirely.

The game is on!

I started doing some research on double-edged razors, and before long, it became quite apparent that a lot of people seem to like their DE razors. I tried to find something like my dad’s Fatboy, which was both adjustable and a butterfly-open type razor, and found the options either extremely expensive, or not to my liking. I found a lot of really beautiful butterfly-open razors, from brands like Parker Shaving, Noberu, and Merkur, but they were not adjustable. The adjustable razors were rather expensive; Merkur had options like the Futur, and Progress, but while I liked the look of the Futur better, it was going to be quite an expensive buy, as it cost 750 SEK (5750 INR). The Parker Variant was another razor that looked very promising, but that was not exactly inexpensive either, retailing at 600 SEK. I wanted to not only buy one of these for my own use, but also gift one to my dad, as his Fatboy had recently given up the ghost, and my father would not hear the end of it if he heard what I’d paid for it, so the hunt was still on. After a bit more of searching, I came across references to a razor called the QShave, which was supposedly a cheaper clone of the Merkur Futur. While it looked almost exactly identical to the Merkur Futur, it was supposed to be lighter and that meant it felt different. Considering that the QShave was available at less than half the price of the Futur, at 299 SEK, I decided to give it a shot, and placed an order for it online.

It arrived!

I ordered the QShave from an online store called Rakgrossisten, which delivered it quite promptly. The razor came with five QShave blades too, but since I wanted to be sure I was doing an apples to apples comparison, I not only wanted to use the same blade type as the one I used in my Wilkinson Sword razor, I in fact wanted to use the very same used blade, to see how big of a change the razor itself was capable of bringing in. The razor looks rather futuristic; here it is, with a blade inserted.

Now, since the blade itself is a very important part of the shave, I wanted to use the very same used blade that was already in my Wilkinson Sword razor, so I could recognize the difference the new razor brought in. I tested it out, and I was just completely blown away; even in the least aggressive setting, the QShave delivered a shave that was much, much better than the one I got from my DE. When I finished a second pass with a slightly higher level (2.5), I got a shave that matched the kind I got with the Fusion Proglide, with almost zero irritation, and this was from a pre-used blade, not even a totally new one. Since then, I’ve shaved a few more times, and each time, it’s been a nice and close shave, without irritation. On the least aggressive setting, I can shave just as fast I did with my Wilkinson Sword, so I can be done with a first pass in mere seconds, and finish a second, slower pass, and still be done with the whole shave in under 7 or so minutes. And yes, these normal blades are so much easier to recycle, and cost a fraction of what the other cartridges cost.

Drawbacks? The adjustments can be tricky and dangerous to make with a wet hand; I recommend drying both the hands and the razor itself with a towel, before attempting to change the setting, mid-shave; the surface should have been more grippy. The heft of the razor though is beautiful. In conclusion, am I happy with the QShave? Yes, definitely. I think my dad’s going to like it too, so I’ll most likely order a second one soon too.

Dimension comparison of the QShave, with my Wilkinson Sword DE.