January 9, 2009

Review of the Schick Quattro Titanium Trimmer

Back in the day a razor had one blade. Simple. Understandable. Then someone got the brilliant idea to put two blades on every razor cartridge. Genius. We can charge more money. And thus the razor arms race was born. Now we've got four and five bladed behemoths, with micro-vibrating powered handles, and edging blades for sideburns and those hard to reach places. What else could you possibly jam on to a razor? (Wait, I just remembered The Art of Shaving special edition Gillette Fusion Power razor with built in flashlight!)

OK, so back to the question at hand - what else could you possibly jam on to a razor?

Schick's answer - a trimmer. If you haven't already seen the Schick Quattro Titanium Trimmer, which came out last year, say hello to the latest in shaving improvements. This razor has a four-bladed cartridge for a super-close shave, an edging blade for keeping your hairlines straight, a powered handle for a smooth comfortable shaving, and now trimmer for taming your bushy sideburns. (The trimmer is at the bottom of the handle; see picture on right.)

And as ridiculous as it sounds, I really like it. I haven't been a huge fan of Schick razors before, but this one won me over. The Quattro has a big, beefy, rubberized handle which allows you to get a nice grip. It's certainly heavier than razors of 10 years ago, but for me that's a plus. It feels sturdy.

The trimmer is great. I typically get my hair cut every five weeks, and by the end of that fourth week my sideburns are looking a little unkempt. I'd gotten pretty adept at using a comb and an electric razor to thin things out, by it was always a precarious operation. The Quattro's trimmer makes this task easy. There are three settings depending on how close you want to trim. (Schick's site claims there are four. What's the fourth? No trimmer attachment on? Oh marketing department...) My advice - don't take the plastic trimmer head off. You'll lose it.

One thing to note - the Schick Quattro Titanium Trimmer is loud. Of the three powered razors out there - Quattro, Fusion, and Mach3 - it is by far the loudest. Not a huge deal in my book, but worth mentioning.

So there you have it. A Schick razor that was finally good enough for me. I think you'll like it too, and I think you'll really appreciate the trimmer. How much you want to bet Gillette adds a trimmer to their Fusion this year?