parker 60r taught me what less aggressive safety razor means

I felt that I didn't give the TTO a fair shake, so I bought the Parker 60R safety razor and gave it a go.

When I said that at some point I may buy a proper TTO, I thought I might as well do it now. TTO means twist-to-open. This is when you twist part of the handle and the razor opens up like this to allow loading of the blade, like this:

Some call this a butterfly safety razor, some call the mechanical opening part doors, and others call them flaps. Whatever you choose call it, it is a TTO style safety razor.

I actually might switch to using this full time. While my Parker 78R works very nicely, the 60R is the one that finally showed me what a "less aggressive" safety razor actually feels like.

What is the aggressiveness of a safety razor? It is a combination of smoothness of shave, ease of shave, how much skin irritation you encounter, and how well the blade works to shave your beard.

Some men argue the aggressiveness of a razor has everything to do with the blade used. Then there are others that say no no, it's about your technique and the blade doesn't matter. And then there are yet others that say nope, it's about the razor used that determines the aggressiveness of a shave.

So which is correct? All of them.

Blade: A decent DE blade will shave mostly well on the first shave and then very well on the second shave. It's the third shave where you should notice a blade losing its sharpness.

Technique: This comes in two parts. Learning how to angle your safety razor and learning the razor itself. Presuming your angle is correct, some razors are easy to learn while others take more time to figure out how to get the best shave out of it.

Razor: A razor's head shape, comb type (open or closed), width, angle (straight or pre-angled), weight, handle length, handle grip and other factors all determine how well or not well a particular razor works in your hand.

And now I can talk about the 60R.

The 60R is a lightweight at 2.75oz - which I wanted. Some guys prefer heavyweight like the 65R (which is almost 4oz). I don't. For me, lighter is better as long as it's not a featherweight, which is the 60R isn't.

When I first used the 60R, it felt weird only because I was accustomed to the 78R, but then got used to it quickly and found it an easy razor to learn. Even after just one shave, I could tell that I could get along with this.

Even though every Parker razor comes with 5 DE blades, I decided to try a Shark Super Chrome since I have a bunch of those.

I was able to figure out a good angle, did my standard two-pass (lather face, shave, rinse, lather again, shave again), and everything went well. No nicks, no cuts, no missed spots. That's as good as I could ask for.

In the end, it wasn't one of those "I have to learn shaving all over again" things. The 60R was easy to get along with.

Where I really felt the difference is that the 60R pulls less than the 78R I was using. I had a smoother overall shave.

Is the 60R like a vintage Gillette Super Speed?

No.

The 60R is longer at 4" (101.6mm) while the Super Speed is a 3.3" (84mm). 60R is also heavier at 2.75oz while the Super Speed is 2oz or even slightly lighter depending on what year it was made. And, of course, the handle is different also where grip is concerned.

Some newly made safety razors are very true-to-spec to the old Super Speed, but not the 60R. This is fine because the Super Speed is almost a featherweight, and I'm not sure I could get along with that. The slightly heavier 60R is about as light as I'd want to use.

On the subject of grip, that's really the only knock I have against the 60R. With the 78R, it doesn't matter how slick your hand is from shaving soap/cream/gel, you're not dropping it. The grip pattern on the 78R handle is excellent. 60R does have decent grip on the upper portion of the handle but not-so much on the lower part. Yes, it has some fancy pattern there and looks nice, but what matters more is grip.

The less aggressive nature of the 60R head is good enough to where I can deal with the less-grippy handle.

How will this perform for the long term? No idea. I would imagine that all TTO safety razors wear out quicker than a 3-piece just because of the mechanical component. With the 3-piece, I can't see that wearing out unless the screw threads decided to give up the ghost (very unlikely). TTO however isn't nearly as robust of a system.

I understood all this before getting the 60R and will be keeping mine.

Would the 60R be good for most guys?

I'd actually say go for the 99R model instead for two reasons. Heavier, which most guys prefer, and I can tell the handle has better grip just by looking at it.

Strictly speaking aesthetically, the 99R has more of that old time barbershop look compared to the 60R. For some guys, the look of the razor matters and the 99R is definitely the better looking razor.

I'm also pretty sure the 99R is the most popular Parker model next to the 78R.

Alternatively, there is Parker's Super Speed-ish model, the 87R. No, it doesn't have a flared tip and it's heavier than the Super Speed at 3oz, but it's a shorty and as close to a Super Speed as you'll get with a Parker razor.

Published 2025 May 12