Gillette unveils its new razor featuring FIVE blades and a swiveling ball hinge - and it's also the most expensive yet

New razor will be a dollar more than the current top-line ProGlide blade



Razors and blade sales have dipped recently

Other companies such as Dollar Shave Club offer new blades more cheaply taking a substantial bite out of Gillette's profits



When it comes to re-inventing the razor, Gillette has managed to pull off the feat hundreds of times.

First it was two blades, then four, now five... and the mens' grooming company has come out with a head that swivels and adjusts according to the contours of your face.

The new Fusion ProGlide is a razor that as the handle that moves, the head also angles and pivots.

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Money to be made: Americans spent $3.7 billion on razors and blades over the last year

The company claims it will 'change the face of shaving'... but what's less clear is how much this shaver will change your face.



But such allegedly smooth perfection doesn't come cheap. The razor will be on the market for $11.49 and will be one the most expensive out there. The battery-powered version costs even more with a suggested retail price of $12.59.

'For more than a century, since King C. Gillette introduced the very first safety razor in 1901, Gillette has revolutionized the way the world shaves, fusing state-of-the-art engineering with precision manufacturing,' said Patrice Louvet, group president of Global Grooming and Shave Care.

'Gillette invented the original pivot, and we’ve once again changed the shaving experience. The Fusion ProGlide with FlexBall Technology is truly shaving rebuilt to deliver the best a man can get.'

A closer shave: Gillette has announced a newfangled, swiveling ball-hinge razor, which starting at $11.49 will be one of the most expensive razors on the market

Compatible: The handle will work with Gillettes existing Fusion ProGlide cartridges

Not everyone is convinced by Gillette's own hype however. Daniel Foxhill, a marketing consultant based in New York says he is getting sick of having to upgrade to a new razor almost every years.

'Men have been shaving since the stone age. I don't see how this blade is going to make the slightest difference. Whether you use a plastic razor, one with two blades, one with seventeen or whatever - point is, it's just a money grabbing exercise and I'm not going to fall for it.'

Frank Taylor from Connecticut says he has recently joined the Dollar Shave Club and is saving a fortune on monthly blades. 'Only Gillette could take as simple an activity as an everyday shave, spin it into a science full of marketing gimmicks, and charge a fortune for it.'



Gillette introduced the new technology at a launch event in New York that featured live music, a shave of actor Omar Epps and the usual company proclamations that its latest razor would change shaving as we know it.

The new handle will work with Gillette’s existing Fusion ProGlide cartridges.

The pairing of the new handle and the blades is a marketing tactic to boost sales of the brand’s most expensive razor cartridges, which cost about $20 for a pack of four at stores.



Many Gillette consumers continue to use the older and less expensive Mach3 system rather than adopting the Fusion ProGlide, which was introduced four years ago.

Kevin Roose from New York Magazine is similarly wary of Gilette's new product.

'ProGlide FlexBall is a bad idea. A really bad idea. In fact, the razor represents everything terrible about America's innovation economy. By now, everyone knows how razor companies make their money. They sell you cheap razor handles, then burn you later with expensive cartridge refills.



On top of that business model, Gillette and other market leaders introduced an arms-race component to the industry – going from two blades to three, then to four and five and six. Each new blade adds only a smidgen of extra utility, but it convinced gullible customers that they needed to upgrade their models every few years to stay current.



A few years ago, though, something happened that threatened Gillette's dominance. Upstarts like the Dollar Shave Club began exploiting the obvious – namely, that it shouldn't cost $20 for a pack of razor cartridge refills – and began to shave away (sorry) some of Gillette's competitive edge by selling razors for cheaper over the internet. The shaving industry, as they say in Silicon Valley, had been disrupted.'



Americans spent $3.7 billion on razors, blades, and shaving products in the 52-week period ending March 15, according to Nielsen data. That represents a decline of 2.7 percent from the previous year.

Procter & Gamble, which owns Gillette controls about 80 percent of the US razor blade market and holds a 40 percent share of the disposable razor category.