Improving on perfect

BMW, Audi, Jaguar, Mercedes… they all make superb saloon cars. They are well made, refined, smooth and drive well.

So when these top marques then bring out a sport model (be it an AMG, S, M etc), then they improve on the already great basic saloon car model.

They improve the handling, they tighten up the feedback, driver involvement, road holding. They tweak the chassis, engine and suspension. They end up with the same saloon car… but different – better – each part honed to a higher level.

What they don’t do is stick on some gaudy graphics, a big exhaust pipe and a huge spoiler and then try to palm it off as a sports car…

Where is this leading then?

For the past 2 weeks I have had the pleasure of test driving an aluminium bodied (hand finished in the UK no less), tweaked and more responsive version of an engineering marvel that I have blogged about before.

Will King (King of Shaves) hasn’t sat on his backside and let the already great award winning Azor (and Azor S – Sensitive) blow away the competition, oh no, he’s been working on improving perfection.

Well, that’s a bit strong. Azor had it’s bad points for some users, and a few quirks that first time users weren’t ready for… so maybe not improving on perfection, but most definitely improving on the Azor, the best multiblade shaving hardware since the Gillette Mach 3.

The trouble some people had with the Azor is they expected it to be the same as any previous razor – but it isn’t. For one it is sharper and more responsive.

Like all things different you need to get used to it – so a couple of shaves really won’t give you the real benefit of the Azors great shave. Try it, stick with it for a month and then see how you feel. You wouldn’t expect to get into a new car and have everything be in just the right place straight away, as each driver adjusts and gets used to their new car – so you should adjust and get used to the Azor.

So anyway today, the official launch of the Azor M…. I wasn’t expecting a great improvement leap, as the first Azor was already a benchmark product.

The NEW King of Shaves AZOR M

For the two weeks prior to today’s launch I have been a tester using the Azor M and the new slimline blade cartridge. The M stands for metal – an aluminium body hand finished in the UK. The slimline cartridge is an improved version of the original, already incredible Azor blade.

The heft is good – this is down to the extra weight of the metal over the previous Azor models. It feels more controlled & has a certain quality feel about it  (Azor 1 & S have great quality & design, but to some people a light razor is seen as cheap & tatty). Azor M nicely addresses that & more.

The 3 colour look… it sounds a bit dicey, but when I saw it I was immediately impressed. No tarty chrome look like Gillette use. A subtle, almost Audi-ish brushed Aluminium that wasn’t pretending to be anything else, because it is what it is. Very stylish.

The shave… Okay, I was surprised at how different it was. Doing my head really showed the improvements. That weight made for more control & a smoother glide.

Better still – and this shocked me….the blade life is longer! I thought the first Azor blade was good, but this is still as blisteringly sharp now after two weeks of full head and beard shaves as when I first used it. This surely is the KoS standard now – Cheaper, longer lasting and far, far sharper blades.

Azor M - Perfection squared

The new cartridge design seems to be more than meets the eye. The trimmed & squared off lube section made for a more accurate trim around my goatee. Now there is a definitive squared end across the head of the cartridge that is parallel to the blades, which actually gave more confidence around the beard and that just worked better – I didn’t need to think about it so much as I knew exactly where I was shaving.

I managed to shave several areas around my ears that the previous cartridge wouldn’t touch due to the old larger cartridge – so a marked improvement there.

The reduced top end section also appeared to pull/tighten my skin slightly more than the Azor S (not in a bad way). It felt taut & controlled – referring back to my car analogy I’d say the Azor M is the sports saloon of the range – tweaked to give a firmer, more accurate & closer ride. It’s all a bit more “together”, which is amazing, seeing as the previous Azor danced over the competition without bothering to even take it’s shoes off!

The distinct but minimal packaging of the Azor

Even though Azor has one of the narrower side walls on the cartridge than other brands, I personally would like to see even thinner side walls with the blades as close to the edge as possible – but that’s a wish list thing & no complaint against any Azor.

I don’t know how many of the above improvements were intentional or just a by product of the new M design, but I can say that King of Shaves have improved on something that was near perfect anyway, and improved it more than I could imagine!

As for Gillette and the Fusion range…. remember the comment about sticking on a big spoiler (more blades) a big exhaust (shove a battery in it) and gaudy graphics (oranges, blues, greens, and chrome)……Well… there’s an old saying…

You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig

Gillette were great in the Mach 3 days, in the same way the old 1980’s BMW M3 series was great… but times have moved on and things have improved.

Look at the modern designs we are seeing in cars, mobile phones, computers etc…. it’s all smooth, simple, no fuss, functional and thought out (much like the early days or race cars, aircraft etc… smooth and flowing).

Gone are the days of angular brash and loud designs that were definitely more show than go… It’s easy to see which of the two camps the Azor and the Mach 3 belong to.

Gillette Fusion yesterday

The King of Shaves press release for Azor M is HERE.

The Head Shave

It’s about a year now that I’ve had my shaven head. If it hadn’t been for Will King’s Azor razor I wouldn’t have kept it up…yup, I would have grown it back to a short buzz cut.

The thing is, I really like my baldy head! True, it was all for charity to start with (Help a London Child – HALC), but it felt good and I finally had a “hair style” that worked for me…None!

I wouldn’t have kept the bald thing going though (and as such, would not have shaken of the ghosts of previous bad haircuts!), if it wasn’t for the King of Shaves Azor.

The Azor shape means I can adopt a technique that would be near on impossible with any other razor, whilst those incredible sharp, hard wearing yet safe blades mean I can cut with & against the hair growth at speed with no problem whatsoever ever! Gillette and the other makes wouldn’t allow me to use this method as they caused rashes & soreness – I could only ever go with the hair growth direction.

To shave my head now I simply gel up (using KoS Alpha gel), then holding the Azor (as pictured below), I quickly run the blade back and forth without lifting – a bit like you’d use an upright vacuum cleaner! The design also means the Azor doesn’t clog, so can shave for longer without a rinse out. I can go from hairy to polished in under a minute (57 seconds – I timed it… Yes, I need to get out more!)

An odd thing to blog about, true, but I feel it’s worth a mention as I was never happy with my hair (I will post photo’s some day!).

I started out with crappy cuts my ‘mother’ gave me in her role as a military barber (no wonder the Gurkhas were fearsome soldiers – they had to take their dodgy haircut anger out on someone, and the Argentinians were in the wrong place at the wrong time!). From there on I just didn’t care about hair styles! My hair always was awkward to style, so buzz cuts solved a lot of issues, then the full shave liberated me from the memories of all those bad haircuts forced upon my youthful head!

For a while I sported the worst flat top in history, just because in a fit of “trendiness” my ‘mother’ bought a flimsy plastic flat top comb & believed she could use it… Luckily for the Gurkhas though she experimented on me first… It wasn’t pretty… None of the attempts were.

What goes around comes around though, and I do cut my sons hair. The thing is though I have learnt what’s good and bad, and through my own experience correcting my own dodgy experimental hair “styles” I’m pretty damned good with the clippers. I do know though, that if Alex ever wants a proper haircut, then I’ll put up the cash for a trained barber to do it, rather than put him though the parental experiments I had carried put on me.

King of Shaves going strong

Still baldly going where no razor has gone before….

Looking and feeling good is important. I wouldn’t have said this a year ago – but I hadn’t met Will King back then. After meeting him I started to get into male grooming products. I can safely say that I feel better in myself now for the extra care I take shaving.

Some people just think shaving is something that gets in the way and is just done as quick as possible in whatever way is cheapest or available…. well I used to be that way too until I slowed down and now use my shower/shave time to slow down and clear my head (mentally and physically!!!!).

What has happened since I started using KoS and taking a bit more pride and time over myself? Well…. I got myself a new job… executive level and £7,000 more a year…. Will King’s positivity and drive may have rubbed off on me a bit, but feeling better in myself made me feel a lot more confident. I know it sounds crazy, but the proof is there.

Want to feel better? Just take time out to enjoy your shave rather than just enduring it. Make it a bit of “you time“.

King of Shaves (KMI) is still going strong in our house – infact it is going stronger now than before. KMI have baby products now, and alongside the Azor (the superb Gillette and Wilkinson Sword beating razor) there is now the Azure for ladies.

There is no way I’ll go back to the more expensive brands when the KoS Azor is more cost effective, lasts over 4 times longer and gives a far better shave!

After about 8 months using Azors I can safely say that my initial findings were not fluke. I can shave my face and head more times with the Azor than I could just shave my face with a Gillette! That shows not only does the Azor cost less up front, but once you factor in how long the blades last the Azor is cheaper than a dodgy chemist chuck-away razor! This is what you need in this credit crunch era.

The gels and creams are also amazing quality and cost. The smallest pea size portion of gel does my entire head! Sure, the initial cost may be close to the competition products, but once more it lasts far longer – more savings!

What is the downside though? Well… before the Azure came out the downside was that Chris nicked my Azor – but that’s all fixed now!

It gets better though… I have always had sensitive skin and had to be very careful how I shave. A year ago I would never have shaved my head for fear it would rash up – but the Azor is so darned good I can shave my scalp daily (ooooh and it feels good!). Even better still I have a technique that should really be frowned upon… a technique that would cause me great trouble with anything other than an Azor….

I place the Azor on my scalp and do not lift it up for the whole shave… I just glide it back and forth all over… with the hair growth, against the haor growth… no problem whatsoever! Heck, I can do my entire head in less than two minutes!

Using the Azor after anything else is like using a Mac after using a PC…. a real eye opener of how it should be done.

So… What are you waiting for? Grab an Azor for a shave that is better for you and your pocket.

King of Shaves is the Brawn F1 team of the shave world… McLaren and Ferrari are the Wilkinson Sword and Gillette. WS & G have tried to stay ahead with flashy things but with a poorly judged complacency, whilst all the time KoS gets stronger and bigger with the simple ideals of a good product, good infrastructure and an item that works without the whistles and bells.

Congratulations to Jenson Button and all at Brawn and Virgin for another wonderful race victory.

If you want you can follow Will King and KMI on Twitter at: KingOfShaves

Note: Although I admin on the ShaveForum I am independent to KMI and KoS. If Gillette or Wilkinson Sword made a product that bettered the Azor, then I would use it. So far though they don’t. Not even close.