ATX Head to Head and Face to Face reviews

[skram]

I have used the ATX for several days now and since I may not shave for the next couple of days, I thought I’d post my review now.

I have been using the Sport with HB3 for almost a year now. I had not previously used any other razor as I moved from clippers with no guard directly to the HeadBlade. I do have MPB so there is not a lot on the very top of the head to shave. I do shave every day.
I should note that I am a huge fan of the HB Sport, HeadSlick and HeadLube

For my comparisons, I kept the rest of my routine the same:
-   Face shave: in the shower, 4 drops of Shave Secret massaged in followed by Bigelow shave cream. 2 drops of Shave Secret after drying off
-   Head shave: at the sink after the shower. HeadSlick and HeadLube Matte (every few days, I will use HeadShed in the shower).

I have written up two review s and am planning a third:
1.   Head to Head Matchup: Sport vs ATX
2.   Face to Face Battle: ATX vs Schick Hydro 5
3.   Blade Wars: swap blades to use the HB4 on the Sport and the HB3 on the ATX – I’m planning on trying this out, but not sure when yet.

I am going to post these as replies to this thread. I think that will be more readable as the first one is kinda long.

[skram]

First up, a quick summary of my regular routine using the Sport with HB3:
-   1st pass - Long strokes from forehead all the way back to the neck
-   2nd pass - Long strokes from the back of the neck all the way to the forehead
-   3rd – up from ear to crown
-   4th – a little clean up for sideways grain near the back of the neck and the occasional missed spot on the back of the head
-   Missed spots are usually due to me leaving a gap between one stroke and the next

Resulting shave: I get a close smooth shave with no irritation.The position of the blade pivot and the wheels allow the Sport to follow the contours of the head.

For the ATX with HB4, I followed my regular routine and just swapped out the razor
-   I tried the same process as above, but found that it missed a lot of spots. It seems that since you need to find the pressure “sweet spot”, the long strokes don’t work well that way. I think this is due to a need to have a different pressure in different spots depending on the contours.
-   I then tried using shorter strokes:
o   1st pass - Forehead to back of crown
o   2nd pass - Back of neck to just past crown
o   3rd pass - Around ears
o   4th pass – look for missed spots (and there are always multiple spots)

This worked a little better, but still had a lot missed spots on the back and around the ears. I also found that the “cutting path” seems to be narrower than the Sport, thus I need to make my strokes closer together. I also needed to do a “feel ahead” with my free hand ahead of the razor. This was needed for a couple of reasons:
o   To check the contours in order to determine when/where to change the pressure on the blade to conform with the contours
o   To check for missed spots that need multiple passes

It seemed to me that you could do quick strokes on the missed spots, which helped as there were many and I often had to hit them from multiple angles. However, this morning on the fourth day of use, I likely got a too comfortable with that and while cleaning up some missed spots around my left ear, I gave myself a really good slice just above the ear. This is the reason I might not shave in the next couple of days.
(For the record, I’ve cut myself twice with the Sport – once about 2 weeks in and it was a very minor nick in the back, the second time was about 6 months in and I wasn’t paying attention. It would not have been as bad, but I thought I had just nicked off the top of a pimple and on my next stroke I overlapped it and cut it further)

Resulting shave: After multiple passes in multiple directions, I do get a close smooth shave with little irritation

What I liked about the ATX:
-   I like the handle design and being able to hold it different ways and still have a steady grip on it.
-   I like the flow through design of the HB4
-   the HB4 blade itself seems to be giving a close shave in the spots that don’t get missed, but hard to tell as some spots always seem to be missed or are not as close

What I don’t like about the ATX:
-   I don’t like the fact that I need to change the pressure depending on where I am on my head and what the contours are
-   I don’t like having to do shorter, multiple strokes and have to do multiple passes in some areas.
-   The multiple passes in multiple directions in order to get all spots results in a bit of irritation and increasing the risk of cutting myself

Some thoughts:
-   The Sport design uses the wheels and pivot point to follow the contours of the head and allow the long strokes all the way across the head.

-   It seems to me like the new design and change of the pivot was to make the shaving process more like using a traditional razor.  Using short strokes and varying the pressure on the blade as the method to get into hollows and follow contours.

-   I’m not really sure what the benefit is of the wheels on the ATX as they don’t seem to help follow the contours of the head like the Sport does. It almost seems as if it should be wielded like a short handled traditional razor with a unique handle shape.

The winner of the Head to Head Matchup is the HB Sport with HB3.

[skram]

First up, a quick summary of my regular routine using Hydro 5:

-   In the shower: 4 drops of Shave Secret massaged in, followed by Bigelow shave cream
-   On the right side, I shave down from next to the top of the ear down, down the cheek and then down the neck. Continuing across until I get to the mouth area.
-   Then I switch to the left side and do almost the same, but about 1 blade width form the mouth I can only shave down to the chin area as it starts to pull too much on the neck
-   I then do the mustache area, then the front of the chin
-   I then go up on the neck from the adam’s apple to the chin
-   I then go across on the chin itself

These are the directions that seem to work best for me. My issue spot is the neck, where it gets irritated (although worse if I don’t follow the directions above) and I find there are “missed” spots where the grain goes in different directions. I have found if I try to get them with a second pass, that causes a lot of irritation.

For  the ATX with HB4 on my face: overall I liked it.  I found the first couple of strokes down my cheek, I had to feel it afterwards to be sure it cut as it felt so smooth it was like it just passed down my cheek without doing anything. When I got to my trouble spots on my neck, I still encountered the same issues (pulling, irritation, can’t get a close shave in some spots) but they were less severe than normal.

I did find that for some spots, like shaving upwards from the adam’s apple to the chin, that the handle is a little bulky and can get in the way. I’m wondering if I would do better with the HB4 blade and the Faceblade handle (I don’t have one to try it out and I don’t know if it would be compatible).

I may keep using the ATX for my face, but have yet to decide as I’ve only tried it once. I am going to try it for a week before making my decision. I will update this post at that time.

The winner of the Face to Face Battle is still to be determined

[skram]

After 2 more days of using the ATX on my face, we have a determination

I've figured out how best to hold it and how to use the wheels to help on the stroke transition between the cheek and neck.

I get a slightly better shave and slightly less irratation.

The winner of the Face to Face Battle is the HeadBlade ATX (by a hair - sorry couldn't help myself  )

I don't know if I'll move to it for my daily shave or not. If the ATX had won for both, then I would for sure in order to only use one razor. But if I'm stuck using 2 different ones, not sure if the advantage is enough to mail order my blades.

[skram]

I decided my cut had healed enough that I could shave around it, so this morning I shaved with the Sport.

I have to say that I got an easier and smoother shave than I did with th ATX.  I even found that since I was being careful to shave as close as I could around the cut without going over it, I completely forget to check for missed spots.  I realized then while applying my headlube and so I checked while applying it. There were no missed spots and the problem areas at the base of my neck even seemed to be shaved closer than usual with only the straight passes.

Thus I will definitely be going back to using the Sport. 

[mahaw90]

Great reviews, really interesting. In a way I'm regretting buying the ATX. There seems to be a few bad reviews, but many good reviews, but its always the bad reviews that stick in my head. It should arrive soon, but at $30 shipping I think I'll be knocking the HB on the head. Sad I know, but I actually got a decent enough shave from my gillette blue 3 which set me back about £2 for 5. It's going to save me a lot of money in the long run.

[skram]

Thanks Mark.

Don't regret it until you try it.

I do like the ATX for shaving my face, best thing I've used lately. And, I can see how someone who likes the shave of a stick razor on their head would like the ATX.

For me, the Sport does a great job. I think my head shape and contours are better served by the Sport than the ATX. If I had never used the Sport, or didn't like it as lots seem to, then maybe I'd feel differently.

[Gary~]

Thanks skram for all the in-depth work. I'm going to go with your recommendation and go for the sport with 3 blades [together with the distressed baseball cap]. It would be interesting to know how the sport goes with 6 blades though. Anyway, it seems like a lot of people are really happy with the sport.

It's really great to be able to so easily tap into the combined shaving wisdom probably equivalent to hundreds of years of shaving. Saves us all lots of time and money also.

[OzSly]

G'Day skram,

Excellent reviews mate, thanks for putting in the time and sharing it with us. 

I have only used the ATX, never tried the Sport. In saying that, I am more than happy the way the ATX works on my scone, gives me the best head shave I have ever had over the past 17 years. I have used the 4 Blade & 6 Blade cartridges and both give me fantastic shaves with a very slight leaning towards the 4 Blade cartridge.

Once again well done skram.

[Drainman66]

Skram, great reviews on the razors.now how about shaving creams or jells,do they make a difference or not.? Maybe you can do a review on them being that you did such a great job on your past reviews. Thanks

[skram]

Glad to hear that the reviews are useful to you.

Gary - I don't know if I'll ever bother trying the 6 blades with the Sport, but I do think I'll eventually try the 3 blades with the ATX and see how well it works with the centre pivot of the HB3. Not sure when though as things are hectic at the moment and I'm travelling a bit and want to keep my routine constant on my dome - particularly since I've been having irritation on my face lately and I'm playing around with my face routine.

OzSly - good to hear the ATX works well for you. I think that the main issue for me is the change in the method (aka pressure, length of strokes) between the two.

Drainman66 - I've only ever used the Headblade products (HeadShed once a week or so, HeadSlick and HeadLube Matte or SPF) on the dome, so don't really have any comparisons to give you, except to say that I love the HB products.  On my face, I've been using Shave Secret and Bigelow cream and have found them to be better than the canned foams and gels. No real difference for closeness, just find that they have helped to tone down the irritation.

[baldjoeg]

Excellent reviews skram. Thanks for sharing your experience with the Headblade ATX and sport razors. I purchased a headblade ATX but have not had a chance to try it out yet. I do have one of the original headblade razors and also othe first one with wheels. I am looking forward to giving the Headblade ATX a try soon.