Brand: Schick
Model: Hydro 3
Bought at: Giant
Cost: S$10.90 for handle and 1 cartridge
Let's get to the bottom line: bad, but not dangerous.
Hydro 3 is exceptionally
gentle, which means it is suitable only for those that have exceptionally
sensitive skin as to proactively avoid having a close shave or for those who prefer having a
5 o’clock shadow early in the day because that's their look.
Schick Hydro 3's key highlights its moisturizing gel, which are mounted like little bricks above the razor. It is ostensibly the same as the Wilkinson Sword brand Hydro 3 that is sold in other markets. However, I cannot confirm that they are interchangeable. The “hydro gel” laid down in a thick,
luxurious carpet that did a great job acting as a lube. Since I use shaving cream, this seems a bit redundant. But for what it was worth, the gel was thick, slick, and left my face soft.
The bad news is that the Hydro 3 gives an overly gentle shave. It is hard to identify exactly why the shave was so gentle. Perhaps it was too much lube. But after a few weeks of use and a wearing down of the lube strips, the shave was still bad. Why was it so bad?
The Hydro 3 mounts to the handle into a half-moon track, with a low-resistance spring that pushes the mounting to the bottom as a default. When looking at the razor along the side, one can see that the point-of-pivot axis is the first razor. As a result, the Hydro 3 did fine along jawlines thanks to that centralized pivot point, but it continued to give unbearably gentle shaves. So it's probably not the mount that gave the bad shave.
Perhaps the razors are just set far back from the casing so that the edge is not close to the skin. When shaving downward, I had to shave over the same place several times. And when it did shave, it left a 5 o'clock shadow, akin to a half day's worth of growth.
The shave was so bad that I essentially HAD to shave up against the grain. Normally, shaving against the grain leaves the hair too short as to promote ingrown hairs. But shaving upwards with the Hydro 3 left the shave at a normal shaving length.
I tried to shave even closer by pushing a bit harder and got what I deserved - razor burn. I am writing this post 4 hours after shaving and it feels like a full day of growth.
The Hydro 3 cartridge head is one of the largest on the market, with its razors set quite far down from the top. This means that it is tough to get those whiskers closest to your nostrils.
And the large head and gentle cut also meant it was difficult to trim edges of sideburns. My sideburns are a mess and I have to trim them with another razor.
Flipping the cartridge around, one sees a lot of plastic on the back. Below is a picture of a Wilkinson Sword version of the same razor. It is difficult to see, but the back of the razor blades themselves have what appear to be plastic supports in the gaps between the razor blades to the left and the right of the pivot slide channels a big support beam in the middle and another fin that goes into between the middle and bottom razors in the middle between the pivot channels. It is not important to understand exactly where all this plastic is, but what is important to notice is that this is a lot of plastic that blocks the way of rinsing the razor out. This was an exceptionally hard razor to clean out. I have been using the razor for a few weeks and it became so clogged that I had to unclog it with an old toothbrush. If I am working that hard to keep a razor clean, that is a major design flaw.
All in all, I am quite disappointed in this razor. I have gone through many, many different razors throughout this little exercise of trying out different razors and one of my key benchmarks is to see how I feel after using it for a few weeks. The feeling of this one is relief. Thank goodness I get to throw this one away.
