One-bag, carry-on, light travel tips, techniques, and gear

(Thanks to Till for this take on shaving)

Ever the gadget freak and quite the saving aficionado and travel enthusiast the issue of SWT (Shaving While Traveling) is a welcome challenge. In this thread I’d like to introduce a couple of ideas and hear from others how they have dealt with the SWT issue.

There are a number of considerations at hand, that I can think of. Do you see any others?

The shave should be a very good, close shave.
It should be easy on the skin for when we travel for business we cannot afford to have a day in between two shaves to let the skin rest.
The equipment needed should be as lightweight and as few pieces as possible.
If we can do get our gels and liquids in 311 friendly sizes, just the better.
It would be nice if our efforts don’t cost and arm and a leg.
If the shave is quick, that is a significant bonus but not a requirement.

So, recently I bought two new wet shavers (the Schick Quattro Titanium with Trimmer and the Azor by King of Shaves) and also a new electric razor (the new Philips top model).

In addition, I ordered the Alpha Oil by King of Shaves, introduced elsewhere on this forum. The version I got is specified as being for sensitive skin (always better) and anti-bacterial. It contains Triclosan, the same stuff found in anti-bacterial hand soaps. This is particularly welcome since the plan is not to use an aftershave.

Previously, and up to now, my standard equipment has been a Gillette Sensor Excel for more than ten years combined with a Panasonic Wet-dry razor (one of their former top models).

Electric:

Very fast, can be done without water or in the train or plane or car. This is a great advantage for travel. Also rather easy on the skin. The included trimmer is great for beard, side burns and other areas. An aftershave is not absolutely needed.

The disadvantage is that it is not as good a shave. Some gents might need to shave twice a day to still look good in the evening. After several days of only wet shaving it is most likely necessary to either do a touch-up with a blade or to shave wet for a really close shave.

Besides that, the electric razor is heavy and doesn’t hold a charge forever and needs recharging. This means we need to take a charger along for longer trips (ok, a trip up to ten days without a charge might be doable).

I got the Philips 1090 because I was in the mood for something new and because I had a long trip ahead where I wanted to have an electric razor. This razor is much lighter than the Panny. The latter is around 264g and the Philly stays under 200g. Moreover, the Panny comes with a huge induction charger stand which is not a good solution for travel. The Philly has a very sleek charger stand for at home and an even sleeker carrying case with built-in charger plus a lightweight cable. A much better solution for travel. By the way, my Panny being more than seven years old it does not hold the charge so well and is good only for about ten to twelve shaves (NiMH battery). The 1090 on the other hand holds its charge for more than four months easily and is good for certainly more than 25 shaves (Li-ion battery). That is very important for traveling. Oh, it charges quicker, too. The Philly is also easier on the skin BUT (big but) the shave is not quite as good as with the Panny AND it takes twice as long to get at least to 90% of the level the Panny provides. I do recommend it for travel because it fulfills most of the points above. I would however go and buy the lower end 1060 model because the 1090’s only advantage is really the great looks and materials used, as well as its display that tell you how many minutes of shaving time you have left. On mine, I can go on shaving for a week even if it tells me I have 00 minutes left.

Wet:

First some weights all with the respective blade:

KoS Azor 17g

Fusion power w/o battery 29g (40g with)

Sensor Excel 31g

Quattro with trimmer 69 (including AAA cell)

Kos Oil 16g

Brush 34g (plastic handle, 21mm knot, badger)

Shave soap, cream, gel 50-100g depending on what you use.

I’ll make this easy for all and cut right to the results – details below.

There are two winners here: The KoS Azor plus oil and the QT plus oil. The first will give you the least possible weight if you do not need the trimmer. The second will be the heaviest razor but the advantage of having a really usable trimmer integrated is not to be underestimated. I often took along my electric razor on longer trips just so I could trim the side burns alright.

The OIL:

I used three drops on each side of the face because I hadn’t shaved in more than 50 hours and had quite a stubble going. It is important that your face is wet to give you a smooth shave. Just the oil on dry skin will not make the blade glide easily if you only use the small amount I used. Actually they say one should only use 2-3 drops on the entire face, I doubled that.

The quality of the shave is SUPER close. You can also feel very well where you might have missed a spot because the oil makes any stubborn hairs really easy to feel. I don’t think an aftershave or balm is needed, because the oil is very nourishing. Personally, I don’t care for the Menthol smell but it is not overpowering, and, if you use cologne, it won’t screw the smell of the cologne up. There was almost no irritation. Today, I used it with the Quattro which is supposed to be very easy on the skin.

Highly recommended! I will also order their Kinexium Oil formula which has silicon, just to compare. Price is very reasonable and transport is great because it is tiny.

Quattro Titanium Trimmer:

It looks like the razor equivalent of a Panasonic Toughbook computer. The blade has four blades plus one trimming blade on the back just like the Fusion, which has a ridiculous five blades. The trimmer has four settings and I find those sufficient. It is quite powerful. I had to take care not to take off my sideburn completely.

The QT is just as easy on the skin as the Fusion and it is a little bit easier to reach the difficult areas with it. Still, under the nose and around the corners of my mouth I did need the rear blade.

The Fusion is impossible to use in these areas and the rear blade is not as good as the Quattro’s. However, from memory, I have the impression, that the Fusion gave an ever so slightly closer shave. This is literally at hairsplitting level, though. I attribute that more to the fact that in the Fusion EACH blade is spring loaded but in the QT they are all fix.

The blades are quite a bit cheaper on the QT. You can get them for around $1.60 per piece, whereas the Fusion blades are around $2.50 per piece even when you go to great lengths to find them cheaply. I cannot say anything about longevity yet because I only have two shaves on my blade. Another pro for the Quattro is that blades have individual covers that stay put nicely. The Fusion doesn’t have that.

The power feature on the Fusion is ridiculous in my eyes. It contributes nothing to a better shave; it rather makes it worth because you have less control and less feedback. If you know that Gillette bought Duracell, you know why they came out with a razor that needed batteries. The battery feature on the Quattro is not gratuitous because the trimmer is actually extremely useful and appears to be well built.

The Elusive Azor razor:

I admit I bought that just out of curiosity. The design is wonderful and the blades are cheaper than Fusion but more than Quattro. I haven’t yet shaved with it but will do so on Sunday. I’ll let you know. It is a four-blade design but has no rear blade. It also has no rubber strip for hair tensioning. Instead it has two different lube strips. The mechanism for blade change is not very elegant and a bit fumbly. The Azor’s blades are spring-loaded as a block but not individually like the Fusion’s. We will see how good it shaves under the nose and around the mouth and Adam’s apple.

Will I switch from Sensor Excel to QT for home use? Not sure yet. The shave is about the same in closeness. But I need more time to compare. I don’t like that I have to use the rear blade on the QT. The Sensor goes everywhere just fine. However, I only get around 10 shaves from each blade. After five shaves the shave is not as easy on the skin anymore. I am currently experimenting with drying the blade. The next step will be putting it in olive or mineral oil. It actually seems that the Fusion blade has better durability than the Sensor. But the Fusion blade is a PITA to maneuver and the rear blade is not very effective. I’d say, though, that the Fusion is probably great for personal grooming, legs and underarms in case you want that.

However, for trips longer than three days, I will switch to the QT. The trimmer allows me to keep the hair around the side burns nicely trimmed and to trim the arm pits without risk (using scissors there is a bit scary). [editor’s note - this is for odor control]