As blokes, many of us have to deal with the daily or weekly ritual of cleaning our faces and removing the hairs that just continue to come back regardless of what you do. It takes time, costs money and if we don’t do it people may think we’re “letting go”.
We’ve been using three different shaving options, we’ve cut ourselves, we’ve been afraid and we’ve never had better shaves in our lives. Let’s look at how they stack up.
The Manual Shaver
We’ve been using the Dollar Shave Club for some time, for $10 or less you can receive new blades sent to your door each month, quad, tri or dual blade shavers. Add shaving cream and away you go. They’re safe, cheap and easy to use. This is the most common way of shaving with the likes of Gillette likely the top of this game, just not as cheap as others. What we dislike about razors that are quad, tri or giga blade is that while they do really well on fine hair, they catch and clump easily. We’ve all been there when you’re beating the thing on the side of the sink to clean it out.
Price: Low
Risk: Medium
Difficulty: Medium
Quality of Shave: 7/10
The Single Blade
The razor pictured above is a Muhle R41 double edged razor. It is weighted, strong and requires assembly. It takes the traditional razor blade and adds a handle. It’s the scariest thing we’ve put to our throats but with a little confidence it will prove that quad-blade shavers are not necessary. It was a little scary to assemble, you don’t want to slice your finger off while adding the blade. While shaving though you need to treat the blade with respect, let it do the work and watch it clean the hair off your face in a single stroke. It’s easy to clean and ten replacement blades will cost you $10. During our first shave we did see some blood gracefully slide down our face but two days later on a second attempt it was just fine. Don’t be nervous with a blade.
Price: The R41 is expensive at $62 (via GentSac) but the blades are cheaper than even the Dollar Shave Club.
Risk: High
Difficulty: High
Quality of Shave: 10/10
The Electric Shaver
When this writer first shaved as a teen the journey went from a single blade disposable razor and straight to an electric razor. It was disappointing, didn’t shave every hair and ran out of batteries quickly, plus it needed to be emptied often. Electric shavers have evolved and lately we’ve been testing the Panasonic ES-LV9N. This beast from Panasonic has five blades with a flex head designed to chew on any hairs it can grab. It self cleans, can be used in wet or dry conditions and essentially anywhere. At $599 it is a large investment, so does it do a great job? For this writer, no. If you have relatively light hair and NONE below the chin/jaw line then this is likely going to suit you just fine. On the neck area though and with course hair the electric shaver is still very poor at grabbing and slicing the hair and in every attempt left me with a razor in the hand to get to the hairs that the electric shaver refused to touch.
Price: High
Risk: Low
Difficulty: Easy
Quality of Shave: 4/10
In Summary
For us blokes shaving is part of life whether we like it or not. Some can only grow a few whiskers and others regrow a beard by 5pm. Choosing the right option isn’t easy and they all have their benefits and failures. The good thing is that most options don’t cost a lot to experience. Our only advice with electric shavers is to ask the store what their return policy is before you lay down the cash.
