Short version: this is still the best razor out there. Buy it.
Medium length version: I have tried all the Gillette gear up to their newest fanciest thing, I've used electrics including the top-of-line Panasonic and Braun, and I've used double-edge safety razors. I recommend the Mach3 and Mitchell's Wool Fat Shaving Soap applied and face-lathered with a silvertip badger brush. Also, it turns out technique matters a ton, something I never knew until I started using the double-edge. Learn how to shave right and this tool will give you a killer shave every time.
Really unnecessarily long version:
Gillette sent me one of these for my 18th birthday, which is now half my life ago. It was their new thing at the time. I used it until they came out with the Fusion, then used that. I was never completely happy with either of those options; I have a tough beard and relatively sensitive skin, so I never got super close shaves and if I shaved two days in a row I got pretty fierce razor rash. So I pretty much only shaved every other day or less, which was OK until I got a job where I wanted to be clean shaven every day.
My first response to that problem was to try electrics out. I actually tested a few different models and landed on the top of line Panasonic. It did what I wanted in terms of letting me shave every day without discomfort, but the shave wasn't as close as the Gillette equipment. That was pretty much fine...if I had a date or an important meeting I'd shave with a blade that day, and otherwise it was good enough.
Then one day in idle conversation, I remarked that I wasn't completely satisfied with the quality of my shaving, and a coworker of mine told me I needed to switch things up. He suggested using a double-edge razor (the old-school safety razor with the actual blade instead of a cartridge) and shaving soap with a brush instead of foam or gel. He even loaned me a brush and a razor (a pretty baller Gillette from the 1960s, with adjustable pitch) to try it out.
At first I had difficultly. But he shared some tips and tricks, and I read some stuff online about face lathering, paying attention to the grain of your beard, technique, etc. And I got pretty good. I bought my own brush and razor (actually a couple, but eventually settled on a Merkur "Sledgehammer Slant" which is basically the most aggressive safety razor on the market), tried a ton of different blades (settled on Feather) and soaps (settled on Mitchell's Wool Fat at home, Harris & Co. shave stick while traveling), and basically geeked out on the whole thing. If this sounds like a lot of trouble to go to, well it was. But I was getting much better shaves than I ever had before, which made me pretty happy. It did take a bit longer to shave, and occasionally I'd nick myself worse than I would have with a cartridge, but overall I was quite pleased.
For the last few years, however, I've been traveling quite a bit for work. You can't take double-edge blades on an airplane in a carry-on. So I was checking a bag everywhere I went, even though typically I'd only be out for a few days. I didn't really consider how much of a pain this was...it was just kind of habitual. Meanwhile, at some point somebody gave me a Harry's cartridge razor for some reason. It just sat around for several months, but then I had a business trip coming up that was going to start with dinner the night I arrived, close enough to my landing time that I really didn't want to have to wait around for a checked bag. So I tossed the Harry's razor in my carryon and left my beloved slant-bar at home. I wasn't really looking forward to it.
And then I got a really great shave! I was a bit shocked, but there was no question, it was vastly better than I had ever gotten with a cartridge razor previously, and in fact about as good as I'd get with the double-edge on one of my best days. In retrospect, I think two things were happening: first, shaving soap and a brush really are way better than canned shaving cream, and second, I had learned all this technique when using the double-edge, which turned out to also be useful with the cartridge.
In any case, I kept using the Harry's razor for a little while, but it had a problem with clogging, so I jumped on Amazon and bought this Mach3 and also a Fusion5 ProShield. Both of them shave great. But I think the Mach3 does just a bit better, and also the blades are about half as expensive. Now that I know what I'm doing, I can knock a shave out in just a couple minutes, or I can take another few minutes and do a two-pass, really superlatively close shave. It's really pretty fantastic, and I wish I'd have learned all that back when I was a teenager.
So, the moral of this story is summed up in the medium length version: I've tried everything (except a true straight razor...maybe someday, but for now that's too much trouble even for me), and the Mach3 is the best shaving tool available. If you aren't getting good shaves with it, you're probably doing it wrong. Go with the grain (more complicated than it sounds...my grain is different on each side of my face for example) for the first pass, and if you're looking for that date-night smoothness lather up again and take another pass very gently against the grain. Some folks even take three passes, going 90 degrees across the grain in between the with and against passes. Depending on your beard, you might get shaves you find acceptable with regular shaving gel or whatnot; if you don't, pick up a good brush and some soap. Google face-lathering, and in particular I recommend the "load and hydrate" method as the soap/water ratio matters more than you would think. Anyway the main point is that even though shaving seems like a simple thing that most of us have been doing for a long time and not thinking much about, it turns out there's a lot of knowledge out there that can be quite helpful.
I realize this story was ridiculously long. But I really hope somebody reads it and ends up getting killer shaves when they weren't before. If you can't already tell, I'm awfully happy about it.
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From the manufacturer
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| Mach3 | Fusion5 Manual | Fusion5 Power | ProGlide Manual | ProGlide Shield | |
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| Customer Reviews |
4,721
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35,793
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8,878
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19,287
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11,824
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| Price | — | $15.99 | $12.97 | $20.95 | $23.00 |
| Blades | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Low Cutting Force Blades | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Soft Microfins Before the Blades | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Blade Stabiliser | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Precision Trimmer Blade at the Back | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| ProBlades | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| FlexBall | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| Microcomb | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| 2X Lubrication | ✓ | ||||
| Power Handle | ✓ |
Compare with similar items
This Item  Gillette Mach3 Razor for Men, 1 Razor Handle + 2 Blade Refills |  |  |  |  |  | |
| Price | $9.62 | -31% $9.99 List: $14.49 | $20.95 | $9.99 | $23.00 | $14.99 |
| Price Per Unit | $9.62 / Count | $2.50 / Count | $20.95 / Count | $9.99 / Count | $23.00 / Count | $1.25 / Count |
| Delivery | Get it as soon as Sunday, May 12 | Get it as soon as Sunday, May 12 | Get it as soon as Sunday, May 12 | Get it as soon as Sunday, May 12 | Get it as soon as Sunday, May 12 | Get it as soon as Sunday, May 12 |
| Customer Ratings | ||||||
| Value for money | ||||||
| Longevity | ||||||
| Comfort | ||||||
| For sensitive skin | ||||||
| Easy to hold | ||||||
| Sold By | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com |
| number of blades | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 |
| target gender | male | male | male | male | male | male |
| skin type | Normal | Sensitive | All | — | Normal | Sensitive |
| handle material | Stainless Steel | — | — | — | Gillette razor handle with FlexBall technology, ProShield responds to contours and gets virtually every hair Fits all Gillette 5-blade razor handles (excluding GilletteLabs). | Rubber |
| weight | 1.44 ounces | 0.16 pounds | 0.03 pounds | 1.6 ounces | 0.01 ounces | — |
Videos
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Honest Review of Mach 3
Hairstylist Melissa Williams
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Gillette Mach 3 Review #HAIRCARE&STYLING
Christian Alatorre
Reviews with images
I always come back to the mach 3
I've been experimenting with other razors but keep coming back to this classic. 5 blade cartridges is just too many blades dragging across the face. I tried the even older Gillette sensor Excel but felt like a lot of pulling. I don't remember it being like that back in the 90's. I actually really liked the Gillette skin guard but the cost of the refill blades is ridiculous. Now that's out of the way, I noticed some folks complaining that they didn't get all the refill cartridges but in their pictures show 2 cartridges. I think they're confused because the first one is already preloaded, but they do have everything in the package that it says it comes with. For anyone who is confused, I have explained this in the pictures I took.
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on July 22, 2017
Size: 1 Count (Pack of 1)Style: Mach3 1 Handle + 2 RefillsVerified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2024
Size: 1 Count (Pack of 1)Style: Mach3 1 Handle + 2 RefillsVerified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2024
Size: 1 Count (Pack of 1)Style: Mach3 1 Handle + 2 RefillsVerified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2024
Size: 1 Count (Pack of 1)Style: Mach3 1 Handle + 2 RefillsVerified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2024
Size: 1 Count (Pack of 1)Style: Mach3 1 Handle + 2 RefillsVerified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2024
Size: 1 Count (Pack of 1)Style: Mach3 1 Handle + 2 RefillsVerified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2024
Size: 1 Count (Pack of 1)Style: Mach3 1 Handle + 2 RefillsVerified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2024
Size: 1 Count (Pack of 1)Style: Mach3 1 Handle + 2 RefillsVerified Purchase
Top reviews from other countries
Aline Côté
Prix très compétitif.
Reviewed in Canada on December 17, 2021Size: 8 Count (Pack of 1)Style: Pack of 8Verified Purchase
Paul Hof
Dat het een goed product is.
Reviewed in the Netherlands on April 10, 2024Size: 8 Count (Pack of 1)Style: Pack of 8Verified Purchase
lance j.
Good value.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 25, 2023Size: 8 Count (Pack of 1)Style: Pack of 8Verified Purchase
Cliente Amazon
Calidad precio
Reviewed in Spain on June 29, 2023Size: 8 Count (Pack of 1)Style: Pack of 8Verified Purchase
P Davis
Normal Price, Normal Razors
Reviewed in Sweden on October 17, 2021Size: 8 Count (Pack of 1)Style: Pack of 8Verified Purchase
