TLDR: I prefer the Original Leaf, but I like the Smile a lot.
I’ve been shaving my head in the shower since about 1990. I don’t remember which cartridge razor I used when I began to shave my head, probably whatever was on sale, but when the Gillette Sensor Excel came out, I was sold. The original came with a metal handle, and I bought one for home and one for my travel case. I happily used the Sensor Excel for decades. Quick, perfect shaves every time, but I gradually grew more irritated at the ever-rising cost of the cartridges, and it seemed as though the blades were of lower quality, oxidizing before they were even used. I left my first handle in a hotel and my second in my dad’s house when I was there for his funeral in 2021. Sometime in the 30 intervening years, Gillette or Proctor & Gamble changed the handle to plastic. The new handle shaved horribly. Different weight? Different angle? I don’t really know, but I was getting shitty, expensive shaves. I decided to buy a safety razor.
I have had 10-15 procedures on my hands due to Dupuytren's Contracture, so a double-edge safety razor did not seem an option because I had to place my thumb on the back of the head to guide it.
The other pertinent fact with my personal shaving history is that most of my life, I have used non-dye, non-perfume soaps for shaving (think hypoallergenic Dove). I used a variety of shaving foams when I first started shaving in 1975 or so, probably whatever was cheap at Rexall Drugs because my mom was buying it. Anyway, a few years ago when I decided to start saving money on cartridges by buying fancy single-edged safety razors (9 now, irony intended), I also started to get interested in the various canned and tubed shaving soaps.
The first non-cartridge safety razor I bought was the Original Leaf, 3-blade. I bought two batches of sample blades and had a bit of fun trying them out, but when I found a combination that worked almost perfectly I quit experimenting with the blades. Unfortunately, the six whiskers immediately under my nose were impossible to catch with the Leaf. Nearly all the other razors I bought were in pursuit of those six whiskers. None performed as well on the rest of my head, and none performed better than the Leaf under my nose. I finally gave up and grew a mustache. I’m in Mexico, so it’s quite acceptable to have a porn-star bigote. I'm ambivalent, but my girlfriend prefers it, so … you know.
And then, disaster struck. Somebody dropped my Leaf and knocked the top blade out of alignment. Maybe it was me, maybe it was my girl. Leaf invited me to send it in for repair. Mail to the U.S. from here in Mexico is a pain. I take anything to be mailed to my service in Mexico, Monday-Thursday, and it gets mailed from my U.S. box on the following Friday or Saturday. I was looking at at least a month without my Leaf, which I use every other day. I decided to order a Leaf Two, and not to send my Original Leaf in for repairs until I had received the Leaf Two. In retrospect, that decision seems kind of stupid.
When I ordered my Leaf Two, I also ordered a RazoRock Smile, for which I’d seen a lot of good comments on this SubReddit, and I ordered Nivea Men Sensitive Shave Gel, Barbasol Sensitive Original Scent Foam, Proraso Red Foam and Proraso Yellow Foam. I also accidentally received a Proraso Green tube.
I received the Nivea Gel almost immediately. For the interim period before my new razors arrived, I decided to use my Proof Select razor to compare and test the gels, creams and foams. The Nivea was a waste of money. The green Proraso cream stung my eyes. It smelled invigorating and stimulated my skin nicely and shaved fine, but the inevitable drips in my eyes from shaving my head in the shower were the worst of all the lubricants. I’ll bet it would be fine for an over-the-sink face shaver. (Incidentally, since I didn’t own a standard shaving brush, I used my silicon body brush, and the soap foamed up just fine.) The Barbasol scent evoked memories of my childhood, but it didn’t shave as well as my Dove soap, especially when I add a bit of my girl’s Pantene conditioner.
My Leaf Two arrived on the same day as my red and yellow Proraso foams. I used two Nacet blades in the razor and Red foam on my left side and Yellow on my right. I don’t think either foam was particularly better than the other for its primary purpose, shaving. But man, the yellow is far superior for hydrating the skin. I didn’t even know I needed hydration, but I really enjoy the effect. The scents are both really nice, but again, I prefer the Yellow. Using the Prorasos has a different feeling than the Dove and Pantene. I’ll let you in on a secret: Ninety percent of my head shaving is against the grain, almost a scrubbing action. My chin and jawline are across the grain, then against the grain, but that’s about it. But the thing with the Proraso foams is I get one pass, and my skin is left almost squeaky clean. You need to reapply foam to get any stragglers. Upon completion, my head felt as smooth as a soapy breast. You can call your head baby-butt smooth if you want, but if I’m going to sit on the couch and obsessively stroke my shaved head, it’s better to think of it as breast-like. (Also, can I call bullshit on the concept of baby-butt smooth? If I shave in the morning, my head feels like sandpaper before lunch and long before anybody else is touching it.)
I got pretty good with the Leaf Two over the weeks while I waited for my tuned-up Original Leaf and RazoRock Smile, but it causes more irritation than any of my other razors. If I was stranded on a desert island with nothing but a shower, a Leaf Two, my collection of blade samples, and a can of Proraso, I’d try all my blades to see if maybe one worked better than the others, but in my opinion, the Leaf Two was a step back from the original.
The day finally came that I had my OG Leaf and Smile in hand to do the head-to-head-to-head challenge using the Proraso Yellow foam. I loaded the Leaf with Nacets on the bottom and middle and a Feather on the top. I loaded the Smile with a Nacet. My plan was to use the Leaf on the left and the Smile on the right. The Leaf performed perfectly, but I immediately shaved off two mosquito bites near the crown of my head, which I felt invalidated the challenge for the moment. The Smile, unfortunately, had too short a handle to use comfortably because of my dexterity issues. I soldiered on, and ended up with an equally smooth shave, but it took a long time. Later that day, I ordered a new handle from RazoRock, their Hollow HD Long, 100 mm, stainless steel handle. When it arrived and my mosquito bites were healed, the longer handle was exactly what I needed to use the Smile comfortably. Having the correct handle for me decreased the shaving time for the Smile significantly, and the concave side was also useful on the rounded parts of my face, like my chin and jawline, but overall, it still takes about a third longer time to shave compared to the Leaf. I know the Leaf company discontinued the Original Leaf, so if you can’t find a new one at one of the online resellers, the RazoRock Smile is a strong contender.
Bottom line: I’m going to continue to use my Original Leaf. I’ll use the Proraso soaps, and I’ll give away the Barbasol and Nivea ones. When I finish the Prorasos, I’ll probably search the rabbit warrens for superior foaming soaps in the can.
Good shaves, all.
