MEN'S GROOMING The battle

By EILS LOTOZO
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
PHILADELPHIA -- For most of the past century, the story of shaving has mainly been about one man, one blade.
The man was a shrewd traveling salesman named King Camp Gillette, who turned shavers into a lucrative consumer market in 1901 when he invented the safety razor with disposable blades.
The single blade ruled until 1971, when the Gillette Co. brought out the twin-blade razor -- followed five years ago by the three-blade razor, the Mach3.
In the latest act of escalation, taking millions of dollars in development and years of research, Gillette archrival Schick last week introduced a four-blade -- four! -- razor aptly named the Quattro.
And in a retaliatory strike, Gillette is rolling out a new version of the Mach3 -- the Mach3 Turbo Champion in brilliant red, a color that will be familiar to any balding middle-aged man who has shopped for a convertible. (Can't afford the sports car? At least she'll glimpse that racy razor in the medicine cabinet.)
At stake in all this is market share in the global $7.8 billion "wet-shave" business, nearly three-quarters of which is owned by Gillette.
The target customer
With the Quattro, Schick is making a bold strike to capture the most desirable type of shaver -- the "grooming-involved" man.
You know who you are.
The "grooming-involved" man doesn't balk at shelling out $8.99 for a razor, plus another $8.99 for a four-count refill as often as necessary.
He's the type who has nothing to learn from those exasperated lectures on proper shaving technique delivered by Kyan, the grooming guru on "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy."
(For the rest of you, a summary: Always shave after a shower, because warm water softens the beard, and shave in the direction the hair grows.)
The hype
Schick's Quattro, predictably billed as "the most technologically advanced razor for men," joins a panoply of high-tech "shaving systems" with names befitting fighter jets and Formula 1 race cars, names of machines fit to pilot across a rugged face: The ST, the Xtreme, the Mach3 Turbo G-Force.
They have "knurled elastomeric" handles and lubricating strips with vitamin E and aloe. They promise Revolutionary New Shaving Technology! and The World's Closest Shave!
But four blades? Is this a gimmick? Aren't three enough?
Unfortunately, they are not, said Dave VerNooy, Schick vice president of research, development and engineering. He said the company studied magnified videotapes of men shaving with other razors and discovered that -- horror! -- "even with three blades going over the face, hairs were being missed."
To solve that, VerNooy said, the Quattro added a shaving edge that is part of a "synchronized dynamic blade pack" wrapped with wires to aid "shaving force distribution." Who knew?
Gillette, which spent a reported $750 million to develop the Mach3 and $300 million to market it, is in a bit of a lather over the Quattro. Its Mach3 line alone accounts for $2 billion in annual sales, and is the most-stolen retail item in the United States, if not the world. (Gillette's three-blader for women, the Venus, is also a top seller.)
Lawsuit over design
Clearly hoping to hold up the launch, Gillette filed a patent-infringement lawsuit last month, contending the Quattro steals the Mach3's "progressive blade geometry." A federal court hearing is scheduled for November.
"It takes more than four blades to make a great shave," said Michele Szynal, Gillette's communications director. "It's a combination of the blades, the cushioning, the ergonomics of the handle. Men are going to spend an average of 800 hours in their lives removing facial hair. You want it to be comfortable, and you want it to be pleasant."
Of course, Gillette and Schick aren't the only ones upping the blade ante. Quik Shave, a company launched by a Houston entrepreneur inspired by King Camp Gillette's rags-to-riches saga, is promoting a razor with two side-by-side shaving heads. "It's like hooking two lawn mowers together," said owner-inventor Herbie McNinch. "You cover twice as much space."
Not everyone thinks more is better. Ray Dupont is one shaver who scoffs at blade inflation.
"There's a constant battle for market share going on between Schick and Gillette, and each is trying to out-technicalize the other," said Dupont, who sells shaving supplies.
"It's not rocket science. You don't shave with a system, you shave with a blade, and men have been doing it for centuries."
Straight-blade option
The owner of ClassicShaving.com, an online retailer based in Palm Springs, Calif., Dupont has been shaving with a straight razor for 30 years. Often handed down from father to son, straight razors were what everyone used before Gillette wooed consumers with the convenience of his disposable blades.
Dupont, who imports his shaving wares from France and Germany, said he's part of a growing movement to resuscitate the straight razor. On the Yahoo chat group Straightrazorplace, 680 members have posted more than 8,000 messages on shaving technique and the correct honing and stropping methods to keep the razors sharp.
But can the straight razor deliver what all men, apparently, yearn for more than anything else -- namely, a really, really close shave?
"You will never see a barber giving a shave with a safety razor," Dupont said. "They use a straight razor because they want you walking out of that shop with the best possible shave."