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Day Three of shaving with a vintage Eversharp/Schick Injector, and I'm starting to get a little raw.

My first two shaves with the Injector were monstrously good -- super close, very comfortable, and with zero irritation. In fact, the razor seems to toss out all the niggling little differences between shaving creams and pre-shave prep. Usually I can tell a significant difference between how my shaves feel when I use Taylor's rose cream versus Trumper's violet (the rose buffers and protects my skin a bit more than the Trumper, which tends to cut a little closer), but the Injector shaved exactly the same with both of them. The only difference was the scent. Other than that, the shave felt the same and cut the same. Weird. I even did the Nioxin hair conditioner pre-shave ritual before I shaved with the Taylor, but that didn't seem to matter either. With or without it, the Injector shaved me equally, superbly close.

So today I figured I'd go way off the reservation and try something totally different. I packed the Injector in my gym bag, and along with it, a new QED anise/lavender shaving stick Charles recently sent me. I'd never tried the anise/lavender shaving stick before, but it smelled so good I had to give it at least one go, so why not try it with the Injector? At the Y? After a workout? With lots of guys watching and frowning?

By the way, here's YMCA logic for you: It's okay to hog the machines which have big "Don't Hog The Machines" signs above each one, and it's also okay to not wipe your ass sweat off the seat when you finally finish your ten sets, yawn, stretch, scratch yourself absent-mindedly, and then slowly get up and let someone else catch a few reps. But it's not okay to shave at the sink in the locker room. No, that's just CRAZY.

Anyway, I sweated up a storm, grabbed a shower, and dumped my dop kit onto the counter by a sink. Popped the cap off the QED shaving stick and rubbed it all over my wet face till I smelled just like a mouthful of Good'n'Plenty, and then I raised the Injector to my face and went to town.

I've shaved with QED's glycerin-based soaps before, and I always found that they made my skin's surface "squeaky", so that even with a thick lather, the blade jumped and skipped when I guided it across my face. But for some reason, I didn't experience this at all with the Injector. It just shaved the same way it shaved with the Taylor and Trumper creams -- smoothly and steadily. In fact, it was the easiest shave I've ever had with the QED soaps.

Except for the fact that the shave was too close. Shaving with the QED soap didn't feel any different than when I used the English creams, but clearly this vintage Injector, with its deceptively aggressive blade exposure, needs a more cushiony lather than the QED's if it's not going to cut too close and cause some irritation.

Which it did. Though the shave was close and smooth, my face and neck felt a bit raw afterward. Gordon warned me that these really old Injectors with the bakelite handles and the olde-timey shave heads had more bite to them than the latter-day Injectors he swears by -- not having tried one, all I can say is that the 1940s Injector I have really sneaks up on you with its cutting. It feels smooth as hell while you're shaving, but clearly this thing is doing a serious job of mowing whatever happens into its thick, unyielding blade's path. It's got a much wider disconnect between how it feels on your face and how aggressive it actually shaves than any other razor I've tried, including the almighty Feather straight razor.

The QED shaving stick wasn't at fault -- it's just not the best partner to this particular razor and this particular face. I need a heavier, more cushioning cream if I want to use this Injector on a daily basis. And I do want to. I love this thing.

The thing to do now is to score a more modern Injector and see if its blade exposure is less aggressive, which might make it a better choice for regular use. I've found that while I can certainly catch a good onesie-twosie shave from very aggressive razors like Merkur's slant bar DE or one of the disposable-blade straight razors I have, I can't use them every day or they begin to beat up my skin. So far, the Merkur HD is the best day-to-day razor I've found, and it never gives me the slightest hint of trouble even as it shaves me down to the capillaries.

Problem is, these latter-day Injectors aren't very cool looking, are they? No offense to Gordon and his trusty mini windshield scraper, but I want my razor to look, well, bitchin'. I know I go on and on about how all I care about is the shave, and I don't care about the foppish rituals and embroidery, but dammit, I like looking at cool things. This vintage Injector I got is way cool -- looks like a Victorian-era sex toy, something to tickle m'lady with while you struggle with the 118 hook'n'loops on her bodice. The 1980s Injector, on the other hand, looks like something your dentist gives you to scrape your tongue with.

I'm sure it shaves like a dream -- hell, if Gordon says it does, then I know it does -- but I have to admit that the thought of waking up to this skinny tongue-scraper every morning doesn't thrill me as much as opening the medicine cabinet and seeing the gleaming chrome-plated Merkur HD, or this butterscotch-handled, gold-plated WWII-era Injector, or even the old Gillette adjustable DE.

Gordon's made of sterner stuff than I. He's moved beyond childish desire for shiny objects and reached that summit of purely pragmatic wetshaving I'm still gawking at from behind some binoculars. No wonder his big enthusiasms seem to center around brushes and creams -- he's got the razor part of the equation down, for life.

I felt that way when I'd run the gamut of razors at my disposal and settled on the Merkur HD as my shaving life partner, but then this Injector thing came up, and, well, now I'm confused. I love it, but it's so aggressive. If I can just change it somehow, it would be perfect and we'd be so happy together, I just know we would..

Someday I want to be able to open my medicine cabinet and find a box of futuristic wet-naps which wipe your whiskers away so quickly and thoroughly that "shaving", or whatever they used to call it back in the old days when they still used blades, takes less time and thought than Q-tipping your ears. Believe me, I want to get there. I don't want to have more crap in the bathroom than my wife does. I want to boil this obsession down to a generic-looking but highly effective razor, scent-free shaving cream, and a pleasureless applicator of some sort with a plain, drab appearance.

Then I'll be happy.