In case you haven't heard, Truefitt & Hill N.A.'s CEO, Todd Fisher, will be in San Francisco for our Grand Opening Party this Friday, and we're going to use the opportunity to ask him some tough questions: 

• In a fight to the death, is your money on Truefitt or Hill? 
• Truefitt & Hill sells thousands of badger hair brushes every year. Do you ever fear that the badgers will come for vengeance?
  
• You're bald, but rumor has it you could have a full head of hair, but you choose to shave it to the scalp with a straight razor every morning because you live the brand. Do you think you may be taking your passion too far? 
• We know you love wine, and that a boondoggle to the Napa Valley is probably the real reason you agreed to come to northern California. Do you feel any guilt about that?
  
• Let's break some news: is there some new product you're working on that you haven't told anyone about?
  

Any questions you think we should ask him? 

First, let me apologize for the multiple errors involved with Gillette's free razor widget that we included on our site. They provided us with the code to put on our site, and we have been told the issues have been resolved. More importantly, let's talk about the razor and the shave:

Aesthetically, the Fusion ProGlide is to the Fusion® what Evil Spiderman is to Spiderman. It is darker, and rubberier (more rubberry? of a more rubeberish nature?) The number of grips on the razor makes me think everyone else must have kept dropping the old Fusion® and demanded more grip. Either that, or Gillette felt they needed to do more to make the razor new and different.

They say the blades are thinner than on the Fusion®, and they certainly look thinner. One would almost say "razor thin". After two shaves with it, it feels very similar to the original Fusion®. I had a tough time feeling any difference in the closeness of the shave, trying it with and without the pulsating Power feature. It's possible that, under a microscope, it was a closer shave, but it was hard to feel any noticeable difference. The shave is very nice and very quick, but I fear that a trial razor would have been best sent to someone that doesn't use a Fusion every other morning already. Having tried the Fusion®, and then going back to the Mach 3, I quickly went back to the Fusion® and haven't looked back save an occasional tinge of nostalgia that will bring out the Safety Razor.

There is also a new lubricating strip. It is defintiely thicker than the original -- I'm not sure if that makes it better. I've shaved with the razor twice and the strip is halfway gone. I'm guessing I'm going to get 4 shaves out of 1 cartridge before it's telling me it's done. That is about what I get with the current Fusion®.

And the sideburns/under-the-nose/cleft-of-the-chin/sometimes-the-nose-hair blade on the backside of the razor? It got a little redesign that I definitely prefer. It's hard to explain what they did to it, but I had a much easier time cleaning up the hard-to-reach places with it, and I liked the original design fine.

It's probably worth mentioning that the new Fusion® cartridges will work on your existing Fusion® razor, so if you've already bought your Truefitt & Hill Fusion® Razor, no need to scrap it.

Verdict: I think it's pretty straightforward -- if the ProGlide™ cartridges sell for the same price as the Fusion blades, it's worth switching. If Gillette sells both the regular Fusion® and the ProGlide™, and the ProGlide™ is more than 15-20% more expensive than the original, I don't see people switching. It's incrementally better, but not enough to justify a major price premium. Having used the Mach 3 for years, the Fusion was a revolution; this is an evolution. If priced right, it'll become my primary blade.

If you'd like to try the Gillette® Fusion® ProGlide™, they have offered the first 100 readers to sign-up a FREE razor. Just click on the widget at the bottom of my first post here.

In light of the Goldman Sachs fraud charges on Friday, I'm going to lead with full disclosure: 

• Gillette® reached out to me, among other bloggers, a few weeks ago asking if I would mind test-driving their new razor;
  
• They sent me a nice box with their new PowerGlide™ razor, a USB drive with product info, and some shaving products to try;
• They are offering to send a free trial razor to the first 100 blog readers to respond through the widget below; 
  
• Their packet included a postcard that started, "As one of the most influential bloggers in the country...", which I perceive to be a Get Out of Jail Free card. 

That all said, I am also extremely serious about shaving, and would never hold back about a product I don't like (for proof, read my four year old Schick Quattro review). The Middle Eastern heritage on my father's side means my 5 o'clock shadow shows up around 2:30, and my sensitivity -- it's my skin I'm referring to there -- makes it hard for me to shave every day without nicks & cuts. I've used dozens of different razors, shave creams, pre-shave oils, and balms so I have a frame of reference indicative of my status as "one of the most influential bloggers" in my family over the age of 30 that writes about men's grooming.

Normally I would be wary of a razor that has this many registration & trademarks in its name -- seriously, three? -- but I've used the razor once already sans battery-powered pulsating feature and I won't spoil the review except to say it's a quality shave and I have a lot to say about it already. I'm going to use it at least 2-3 more times before passing a final judgment, which I expect to do at the end of this week. In the meantime, to be one of the lucky 100 to receive a free Gillette® Fusion® ProGlide™trial razor, click on the widget below...

BREAKING NEWS: The Art of Shaving has been acquired by Proctor & Gamble. Read more in AdAge if you're interested. 

File under "Things that make you go hmmm..."

Last week, we announced a new feature called Gotta See It -- our attempt to highlight products that are virtually impossible to do justice...virtually. In my eagerness to post something about the amazing Australian Saltwater Hornback Crocodile Belt, I didn't consider the possibility that I might want to write about how something smelled rather than just how it looked. 

So in just our second edition of "Gotta See It", we're instead promoting a "Gotta Smell It" product. Specifically, The Art of Shaving's Lemon scented Eau de Toilette.

Perhaps it escaped my attention because it was released months after their Sandalwood fragrance. Perhaps I didn't think I would like it despite the fact that I have used - and enjoyed - the lemon-scented Pre-Shave Oil and Shaving Cream. Regardless, a customer in the store sprayed a little of the Lemon in the air, and mentioned how much he liked it. I came over and hit myself with a little sample, and I must say, it had a really nice fragrance; definitely not as lemon-y as I would have thought.

Obviously, $70 is a decent chunk of change to spend on a cologne you've never smelled. But if you pop into an Art of Shaving store, I would highly recommend you try it out...and then buy it from us to save the sales tax ;-)

How much do you want to bet that "the guy who has everything" does not have a Sterling Silver Razor Set? Does he really need a $2K+ razor set? That's beside the point -- the premise is that even the guy who has everything doesn't really have everything. More broadly, one rule of thumb

Within the umbrella of our Men's Grooming department, you can pretty much divide the products up into 3 categories: grooming tools (razors, badger brushes, etc.), grooming products (shave creams, aftershave balms, etc.), and kits/gift sets (travel kits, starter kits, etc.). Today, we'll focus on grooming tools which includes razors, brushes, and razor & brush sets.

Buying grooming products for a gentleman should be pretty well restricted to mothers or wives/partners buying for him. His executive assistant or fraternity brother from college buying it for him will only telegraph the fact that he is dirty and he stinks. Then again, perhaps that's a message needs to hear. Instead, focus on grooming tools or kits.

Grooming tools are definitely the most popular men's grooming gift for a couple reasons:

1. Considering the number of times a man will shave in his life (let's assume 4x a week from 18-68 for nice round numbers and you get 10,400 shaves). Anything that makes a daily ritual more enjoyable is a welcome gift. 
2. He will be reminded daily of you and your gift, and with a razor or brush, it will last for years, if not decades.
   
3. Grooming tools are very masculine. Just the word "badger" in "badger brush" evokes imagery of Neanderthal man hunting down the little creatures for their precious hairs and then affixing them to a piece of wood with tree sap to improve his daily shave.
   
4. Chances are he's using the razor that came with the blades at the drug store where he bought it. He probably doesn't own a badger brush, and if he has had one, he can probably use a new one (a life in the bathroom will take its toll eventually).
   

Grooming kits are a great way to introduce him to a new brand, or to new products, but we'll make that case another day. Our assortment of some of the best grooming products & tools in the world can be found here...