A Retro Shave with the Gillette Fusion ProShield

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Gillette at Sam’s Club for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

I’ve been using an electric razor for more years that I can recall. It’s easy, and the fact that I’m compromising a really good, close, smooth shave for convenience is something I try not to think about too much. Maybe it’s laziness, but there’s no question that a real steel blade gets my face smoother every time. Every so often I get a barber shave and that’s a real luxury, having a straight-edge shave by someone who knows what they’re doing is a decadent indulgence. But certainly not practical on a daily basis!

When Gillette asked me to check out the Gillette Fusion ProShield, I was definitely interested. Not only is it designed to have five blades tucked together, but there’s actually a lubrication strip that goes all the way around the razor’s surface too, making it even easier to get good results. The handle is also designed so that the blade has lots of freedom of motion, allowing it to easily flow around your jawbone, chin, along your neck, and everywhere else you have actual curves, not flat, straight surfaces.

Timing was excellent too as I was invited to an art gallery opening, so having a close, smooth shave would be quite appropriate, so I dropped into my local Sam’s Club and picked up the big kit, nine blades and the handle assembly, enough for almost a year of shaves.

It was a bit tricky getting the razor out of the packaging — and I was very aware of the irony of me potentially cutting myself while trying to open up a new razor — but fortunately I survived the experience and was ready to shave.

Next step was shaving cream and rather to my own surprise, I had some Gillette Foamy in the bathroom cabinet, “for sensitive skin” because I don’t like all the fragrances and chemicals. A quick splash of water on my face and I was lathered up and ready to go.

The first stroke showed exactly how nice the Fusion ProShield is, easily matching all the contours of my face and giving me a smooth, clean shave in a single stroke. In fact it was quite impressive how little work I had to do with the five blade design, I just gently dragged it down and it left a completely clean patch, as you can see in this extreme close up:

In fact, it took me maybe 60 seconds to shave one side of my face, jaw and neck, then I lathered up the other side and repeated. Yes, rinse, lather, repeat. On my face. Go figure.

I shaved in two steps because I wanted to ensure that the lotion didn’t dry out at all on the “far” side of my face as I shaved the other, but most guys will be able to do everything at once, which means that lathering up, shaving and rinsing off is about a 2-3 minute task total. Do this just before you step into a shower and it could be even faster. Nice.

There’s a selfie of me post-shave. My teen children would be so proud!

Us guys don’t do a lot to pamper and indulge ourselves, so it was a real pleasure to take the time to give myself a proper shave, and it did feel just a bit like a mini-spa treatment for my face, particularly when I rinsed off with some delightfully cold (okay, somewhat frigid) water afterwards and dried my face off.

And the end result? A smooth shave for way less effort than I’d expected. A definite win, and once I find the right shirt and tie, I’m ready for that gallery opening tonight too.

You can pick up your own Gillette Fusion ProShield razor, either the full kit with 9 blades as I did, or a smaller, starter setup at Sam’s Club. The big package cost $45 or so, which works out to a quite reasonable $1.15/week if it lasts you 9 months as the company suggests.