Ever since I came of age to shave, I used cartridge razors such as Gilette Mach 3, Fusion, Shick Quattro, and Harry's. For the last eight years, I've been shaving my head and a few months ago grew my beard out for the first time. I let it grow at the sideburns and jaw, with my mustache connecting to my beard.
Last year, I got the opportunity to review The Twig, another razor by Leaf. It was a gamechanger: I could shave my entire face and head and never experience razor performance degradation from clogs! Thus began a journey to try other razors that weren't cartridge type. It took time; The Twig and the other razors I tried don't have pivoting heads like cartridge razors do, so I had to practice getting good blade angle alignment.
As I tried different butterfly razors, I got one that had an aggressive blade. I was again mind boggled that the aggressive razor let me get that smooth shave so much faster and easier! I tried The Twig one day and appreciated it's weight balance over the butterfly razors, but it took more effort to get a close shave.
So, I looked up Leaf's shavers and discovered this razor, as well as The Thorn. Prime Day came around last month, and The Thorn was on sale! I put it in my cart immediately, and saw this was on sale. I thought "Eh, why the heck not." and bought it as well.
To end my story here and summarize my use of razors now, The Thorn is everything I like about The Twig, and I thought I'd use this Leaf razor once or twice then just use The Thorn. Not the case! The Thorn is used on my face and throat, with this Leaf being used on my neck and head.
This Leaf has the best of both worlds for head shaving! Since it holds three individual blades, I can't clog it at all. AND, it has a pivoting head! That is such a convenient boon for head shaving, one that I didn't realize I missed so much! I can shave against the grain on my head once with this razor, and only need to touch up one or two areas at the base of my skull that are hard to get with any razor. But I don't need to make multiple passes or worry about this razor skimming over stubble instead of cutting it due to blade angle alignment.
And again, it's such a relief to be able to shave a section of my scalp, then lightly rinse this razor under water and see all of the cut hair tumble right out! No more tapping cartridges on the sink or trying to pinch off the water flow from the faucet to get a forced stream of water to flush a cartridge out and making a mess! Since this razor's head is so broad, it's not as easy to cut yourself compared to a single bladed razor. Heck, I've yet to cut myself at all with this razor!
So, you might be wondering why I bother using my Twig or Thorn at all, when this Leaf is working so well for me. This is why I mentioned my beard: Don't let this razor near longer hair, or it WILL grab onto it!
I had a few shortened patches of hair on my beard from learning this the hard way! It wasn't a big deal, my beard (I normally keep it short) was getting a bit long, so I just trimmed it with my electric clippers. But if my beard was already to length.... I would've been annoyed.
So, that's why I reserve this razor only for my head. It did do a fantastic job on my cheeks and throat, mind, but between this razor's head size and it's willingness to grab hair, I don't think it's worth trying to hedge my beard. So keep that in mind if you're considering this razor for facial use only and also grow a beard and/or don't shave your head and have sideburns that need to be hedged. Either have another smaller razor on hand or use an electric T blade clipper.
But, I think this Leaf and The Thorn have ended my journey of different razors. It's so easy to get a close shave in a decent timeframe by shaving my face and throat with hedging my beard with The Thorn and shaving my scalp with this Leaf that I no longer have a desire to use anything else with regards to manual, bladed shaving.
FInally, I've used Leaf's blades, some no-name brand blades, and blades from Derby in all of my Leaf brand razors, to include this one and have never had a fitment issue. Depending on how often you shave and how quickly your hair wears blades down, using a Leaf razor over cartridges could save you money! I know I spend a LOT less on shaving equipment now, having ditched my Harry's plan!
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