I discovered Harry's while reading an article by Kevin Rose Gillette’s New Razor Is Everything That’s Wrong With American Innovation. The article is a rant about Gillette's lack of innovation. He thinks the company prefers to rest on its laurels while smaller and nimbler "startups" serve real customer needs. He linked to a Daily Beast article about the Dollar Shave Club written by Daniel Gross. It was in that article that I first learned about Harry's.
So what's the deal with Harry's? What are they about?
Like most of you, we’ve long had to choose between over-priced, over-marketed razors that disrespect your intelligence, and low quality, cheap razors that disrespect your face. We knew there had to be a better way, so we created Harry’s as a return to the essential: a great shave at a fair price.Harry's Story
I've used Gillette razors for many years. I've seen them go from two blades, to three, to three with a battery operated vibrating handle, to four blades, and supposed now five blades with a gyroscopic ball head. Oh my!
I am happy with the shave I get from Gillette. It's close enough to last a whole day but gentle enough that my skin isn't irritated. But I do find the replacement blades quite expensive. It's almost $25 in my local area for a set of four. Add to that the cost of a tube of men's shaving cream and the cost of shaving adds up quickly.
So I decided to give Harry's a try.
While the customers can buy a handle and blades separately, I wanted a package to get me started. I ordered the The Winston Set. The Winston Set is named in honor of Sir. Winston Churchill.
When I opened the box containing my kit, right away I noticed the nicely designed box. It's the sort of box in I would expect an expensive women's beauty product. Inside the box were smaller boxes neatly arranged in cutouts. For $25 I received a Winston handle, 3 blades and a tube of shave cream.
I tend to shave only on the week days, preferring to give my face a break and grow some stubble. Harry's claims that the kit is enough for a month of shaving. I'm pretty sure that the supplies will go a bit longer for me.
I had my first shave with the Harry's kit on Monday morning. Nothing spectacular here. The shaving cream did it's job of softening up my stubble and the razor did it's job of removing it from my face. This is as much as I expected. That is as much as I wanted. I wanted the shave I get now but I wanted so spend less. Mission accomplished.
I am happy with the shave from the Winston Set. I had planned to wait until the end of the month, see how I like the product and perhaps put myself on one of the auto-refill shaving plans. But why wait?
The shave is as good as I get with my Gillette and replacements blades are cheaper. While the everyday shaver seemed like the right fit, I opted to tailor my schedule -- two tubes of shaving cream and 8 blades every three months for $31.
I estimate that my savings from using Harry's will be about 50%. That's a lot of cups of coffee.
