It started with a text message from a friend: “Free Wilkinson razor with men’s health. Gillette fusion suck … in comparison”. Well, after my glowing review of the Gillette Fusion ProGlide, I had to accept the challenge so off I popped to the shop to purchase my copy of Men’s Health. Sure enough, it came with a free Wilkinson Sword Hydro 5 razor which I believe is Wilkinson Sword’s answer to the superb Gillette Fusion ProGlide. They both have 5 blades, and they both cost a fortune to run! In the interest of fairness though, I used the Hydro 5 for a few days to come up with my conclusion: I won’t be switching from Gillette – sorry WS! The Hydro 5 is much cheaper to run that the ProGlide – rough costs are £16 for 8 blades, compared with a similar price for 6 with the ProGlide. The Hydro 5 gives almost as good results as the ProGlide, but I’d personally say they are closer to the results from the old reliable Gillette Mach 3. Where the Hydro 5 falls down though is in operation – there are several points I need to raise:

• The head itself is spring loaded which is useful and the same as the ProGlide, however it doesn’t exert enough pressure and when dragging it across my face, the blade frequently fold away. I think this is due to there being too much friction at the foot of the blade.
• The blade includes a special “Advanced Hydrating Gel Reservoir” which if you look at the photos is the line of small white dots at the head of the blade. This makes the blade quite bulky, and very difficult to get a close shave under my (large) nose. I liken this problem to the one touted by numerous vacuum cleaner manufacturers – gets right to the edge, and it doesn’t.
• Clogging! When Gillette introduced 5 blades per blade (??? you know what I mean) I was concerned about it clogging quickly. The ProGlide doesn’t clog easily, but the Hydro 5 does. Now I have no idea as to which scientifically magic effect is causing this difference but the spacing between the blades on each razor might be causing this. The blades on the Hydro 5 are larger and spaced apart a lot more than the more compact looking ProGlide.

I’ve moaned about the chunky blade head, and one reason for this is that you can flip open back of the ‘hydrating gel reservoirs’ in order to get a shave closer to the edge – neat touch! A side effect of this is that the head is also locked in place allowing you to exert more pressure which also addresses another one of my complaints. Anyway, if you’re quick you can get yourself a free Hydro 5 with Men’s Health magazine (January 2012 edition), or just buy one online to test it out. Personally, if you’re going for a new razor, go for the ProGlide and swallow the extra running costs in your pride.

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Tags: Gillette Fusion ProGlide, Hydro 5, Razors, Review, Reviews, Shaving, Wilkinson Sword