ELECTRIC SHAVERS
SIR—In your February 13 issue Mr. Leslie Adrian, in his feature 'Consuming Interest,' devoted some space to the recent report on electric shavers published in the Consumer Association's journal A/ hkh?
As his comments are noticeably biased in favour of electric shavers, I hope you will allow me space to redress the balance.
On the point that the safety razor gives a noticeably closer shave, his main complaint seems to be that the electric razors used in the test were not the models best suited to the skin and beard of the user, and infers from this that the test was not, therefore, a straight comparison.
Surely the whole purpose of the Consumer Asso- ciation's activities is to assess any problem from the consumer standpoint. They must report accurately on the merchandise under review, but in so doing cannot lay down conditions that are unlikely to arise when the consumer makes his purchase.
Mr. Adrian's case contains the germ of its own destruction. He states that there is a way round the problem of how to choose the right dry shaver for the right set of whiskers, namely by visiting a certain address in High Holborn. Here they claim to analyse your beard and to prescribe the right razor for it.
If this is a necessary prerequisite to the successful purchase of an electric razor, what an expensive business it must be for the poor males in John o'Groats or even Lower Wapping; and what of all those poor people (about one in two of those who have a dry shaver) who receive them as gifts? If Auntie is not a good picker, does this mean that they must endure one unsatisfactory shave after another until their particular model is assigned to the boot cupboard? If so, it is an expensive pastime.—Yours Director Gillette Industries Limited Great West Road, Isle worth, Middlesex
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