HeadBlade
At about 2.25 inches long, the tiny yellow
HeadBlade can fit in the palm of your hand. The design for the razor
didn’t come easy; Greene
tested various prototypes before choosing a unique shape that could glide
around the head with ease.
“I found if you put a blade under your finger, it’s convenient
but you still have to worry about the angle of the pressure. So I created
this suspension piece…the idea is [to] create a suspension [that]
if you would rest the headblade on your head and you would drive it like
a little car, so as long as that back piece was touching your head, the
blade could automatically pivot. So it’s like driving a little
car along your head,” he explains.
Since the website, www.headblade.com,
went up in 1999, the shaver has smoothed the heads of many men including
various celebrities and athletes. It’s also been featured in “Time
Magazine” as one of the ten best designs of 2000. HeadBlade even
made an appearance at the World Series one year when a guy held up a
homemade banner for the entire nation to see. And it hasn’t just
stopped at the blade. Greene has expanded the “Head” concept
into apparel, posters, and bumper stickers that say phrases like, “Love
the Head.” There’s also products including a shaving cream
(HeadSlick) that doubles as a sports bottle, and a moisturizing lotion
(HeadLube) that comes in both glossy and matte because, as he states, “some
guys like a shiny, shiny head and some guys don’t.” Whether
guys like a shiny, shiny head or not, moisturizing is key for a very
important reason.
“Bald guys are always rubbing their head. It’s just like
people play with their hair [or] finger-comb their hair, bald guys rub
their head,” he says.
The one thing HeadBlade doesn’t have? It’s own blade. It
may sound unusual, but the shaver only takes a Gillette or Schick blade.
Greene believes people are more likely to trust well-known companies
that manufacture blades rather than if he were to produce them. Plus,
the cost is just too great. While thousands of users aren’t questioning
why there isn’t a specially formulated blade for the gadget, they
are sending Greene emails inquiring whether the HeadBlade can be used
on other parts of the body (uh-hum, like the back and underarms). The
answer is usually no, but the shaving cream is a different story.
“Our tag line is, ‘From the head on down, use it anywhere
you shave,’” Greene says of HeadSlick.
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