Okay, this is the first time I’ve ever asked about this subject anywhere, and I have no idea what the prevailing conventional wisdom is supposed to be (not that that’s ever been much help…I’m still baffled as to how incredibly quickly Blockbuster Video simply ceased to exist), so I’ll just put my cards on the table, and you can make of it what you will.
I’ve used electric shavers pretty much since I first needed to shave. I’ve tried manual razors a few times, and the results have been anywhere from unsatisfying to catastrophic (as in, make one tiny mistake and have an open, bleeding would for several hours). I don’t have the time to spend fifteen minutes with a tub of water and a can of goddam cream to get it “right”. Speed and convenience matter to me, so as far as I’m concerned, electric is the way to go.
The only problem is…none of the stores seem to agree anymore. I can hardly find any, and the ones I can find almost never have replacement blades. That, I understand, is the big #1 cost regarding electrics. The rest of the stuff is pretty basic: a battery, a motor, a charger, and some plastic parts, none of which are complex or expensive. But the blades have to be made with precision, and once they get dull they need to be replaced. The point is, I’m reluctant to buy the whole tool if I don’t have a ready supply of the part that I know is going to wear out at some point. There was a time when the blades were easy to find…Bed Bath And Beyond used to have a whole rack of them, for crying out loud…now, not so.
So if I don’t want to buy a whole new electric every year or two, what my best option? Is this one of those things where all the good stuff is online now?
If it helps any, I don’t have any particular presence. 'Slong as it gets the damn hair off so I can work that day, fine by me. I currently have a pretty cheap Remington, which seems to do the job okay.
I can only speak from experience, I’ve never had an electric shaver that actually worked. Lots of times they just ripped the hairs out of my face, and the shaving itself was garbage. Tons of splotches and areas the razor didn’t cut. I looked like I barely shaved at all after using one. I’d use one and it would rip hairs out creating a painful shave, and it wouldn’t cut most of my other hairs at all, or it would barely cut them leaving tons of stubble.
I don’t know if I was using it wrong or what. But I’ve tried a half dozen over the years and gave them up.
I’m with Wesley. Every electric shaver I’ve had was for shit in terms of providing a close shave. It may simply be that I should have bought a super expensive one.
I use an electric for trimming my beard (a newish feature) and for that it works great.
My husband has had a heck of a time with shaving his whole life (59 yo). He has sensitive skin - his skin breaks out when he uses an electric razor and when he uses a regular razor (disposable blade type) his skin turns red like it’s wind-burned. We saw a commercial for Philips Norelco OneBlade right before Christmas. I did a little research online (it has pretty good reviews) and then bought him one. He loves it. He said it’s the only thing that’s ever really worked for him.
I will second the Norelco OneBlade, provided it fits your needs.
It does NOT provide a close shave. Less so than most decent electric shavers (but maybe on par with other cheap ones). I keep a bladed razor around if I REALLY need baby-smooth skin.
It does require somewhat pricey blade replacements (but still much cheaper than most conventional razors) periodically, but that varies a lot, too. I’ve had mine 18 months and never replaced the blade, but I also only shave twice a week.
But it’s fast, easy to control, and very comfortable. Because it isn’t a super close shave, there’s also no razor burn. It doesn’t pull or tug the way cheap electrics are prone to. And it’s also light and compact so it doesn’t take up too much room.
When I shaved regularly (12 years ago), I used either a twinblade manual with commercial shaving foam stuff (and a styptic pencil to keep those “massive bleeding wounds” from bleeding more than 10 seconds ), or an ancient Norelco rotary that never needed replacement bladesets.
I’ve used electrics for a long time and was looking to replace mine. It had been 20+yrs since I bought one and I was surprised that almost all of them now were battery powered at much lower (cheap!) prices than the few 110v ones. Aside from the better build quality of the plug-ins, how could they cost so much more than the battery operated models?
The price difference was astounding. $20-$40 for battery ones vs $100-$250 for 110v. This was at a Target store.
They are basically the same razor but the cheap one not only has a motor, it has to have a battery and charger setup as well. There is simply no way a 110v universal motor costs that much more than a dc of equivalent power.
Anyone know what gives?
I’ve almost never had irritation, so that’s not a problem, and there’s no reason it has to be super close (my workplace once had someone who showed up in shorts and slippers every day, to put it in perspective). My concern is where I can stock up on blades (and yes, I would have done it sooner if I knew!). Bed Bath and Beyond has a few, but no more than 3-4 per model. If it’s supposed to be all online now, I don’t mind doing price comparisons on my own, but I need to know where to go.
Norelco appears to be the standard. How does Remington compare? The one I have now seems a bit inferior, but maybe I just got an old model.
Sorry for slow reply; hopefully not quite zombie status.
The biggest difference is build quality. I have a Norelco rotary (one in the $40 range) that I use as a backup. It’s rechargeable, but on the cheap end of their rechargeables. My brother-in-law has a ~$150 Norelco that is almost identical to look at, but the difference is immediately apparent if you pick them up. My cheapo feels it. Hollow and plastic-y. The motors also seem very different, I would wager his is spinning at a higher RPM.
The expensive ones also come with higher quality blades and blade heads, but these are replaceable and interchangeable on current Norelcos, so you can buy the nicer blades for a cheaper model if you choose.
I can’t remember the last time I used an electric shaver. I used to use a Norelco, a 110v one with the three discs. It worked pretty well, but the discs seemed to get dull fairly quickly. Eventually I bought a Braun foil shaver that did a good job. It was rechargeable, and eventually the cells wouldn’t keep a charge. So I bought another Braun. It doesn’t do nearly as good a job as the last one.
I’m an electric shaver guy - mainly because I have a beard (bearded most of my adult life), but I shave my neck and upper cheeks every day.
I despise the rotary type (Norelco) shavers. I’ve had good luck with and prefer the Braun shavers of late. The high end versions have this cleaning system where you have to buy these cleaner cartridges every so often which I’ve had in the past. The carts can be expensive depending on how often you run the clean cycle. Some folks DYI their own refills… too futzy. I would avoid. I just always make sure that the shaver runs both while plugged in and with a charge and can be run wet for easy cleaning.
My husband has used Braun shavers for many years and has been very happy with them. I got him one in 2001 and replaced that with a Series 7 in 2016. WalMart used to sell the cleaner cartridges and replacement parts, but as you have found - no more. I’ve been ordering the cartridges from Amazon, and we’re coming up on having to buy a new shaver head now too and that’ll come from Amazon as well.
I also recommend the Braun shavers, though I haven’t bought a new one in over 9 years. I replace the foil and blades about every 2 years by ordering from Amazon. I used to buy cleaning cartridges, but I now just dump the contents of one and refill it with 70% alcohol and a few drops of lemon oil. I clean the head and blades every so often using canned air, to get any material that didn’t rinse out during a cleaning cycle. The shaver’s batteries are still going strong.
I think that one reason my shavers last so long is that I “pre-shave” in the shower. I use a Fusion razor and just do the broad areas of my face, neck, and chin. (Believe it or not, I change the blades in this razor only about once every four months. Soap and running water makes the difference.) I then use the electric shaver about 20 minutes after I get out of the shower.
Correction. I did not buy the 9290CC. I’d been looking at it, and I copied the wrong URL and description for my post. I actually ordered the Braun Series 7 790cc in romansperson’s link.
It confused me when I clicked on that link and it said ‘You bought this…’
I tried Norelco for many years, the 3 rotor rechargeable design mostly, and I also had a compact 2 rotor design (battery, for travel), back in the 1980s and 1990s. They were expensive, IIRC around $100 back then for the big one. Norelco resulted in a fair job, at best, but I experienced some pulling and tugging. My skin was red after, but then your skin gets conditioned to it and it gets better. I tried pre-shave lotions too, like Williams Lectric Shave, but ended up dry shaving for years and it was fine.
I also tried foil shavers for a while but that was worse. Nowhere near as close as Norelco, and it missed a lot of hairs too. By design, each hair has to fit into a hole in the foil, the hair has to be inserted directly into the foil hole — like inserting a straw into the lid’s hole in a to-go soda cup. The design didn’t work well for me, and when the hairs did get cut it wasn’t all that close.
For electric I recommend Norelco. Their design is better than foil — it’s all about how the hairs enter the slots (or holes) to then be trimmed.
Interesting, but that wasn’t my experience. But it also said they work best in straight lines. It’s been a long time but coming from Norelco I probably didn’t try it in straight lines, but I can’t remember exactly.
My husband uses the Norelco rotary. I’ve used both the foil and the rotary (different body parts than he). The foil pulls, the rotary doesn’t IME. The rotary also gets into weird nooks and crannies a bit better.
), or an ancient Norelco rotary that never needed replacement bladesets.