Foo - OT: Electric shaver vs. disposable razor

So the other day I accidentally shaved off my goatee.

Now that I have more real estate to shave, I'm considering investing in an electric razor. I've never used one. I'm reading that you don't get as close a shave, but you do get less nicks and cuts. They're not cheap, at least the good ones, so I don't want to purchase one if I'm not going to like it.

I'd like to hear pros and cons from those of you who have (and use) electric razors. To keep this bike related, one advantage of a cordless electric razor might be that you can shave while cycling, right?

Braun

Used one years ago, not only are they not cheap but they require a lot of maintenance. I prefer cheap disposable razors - my analysis told me that when purchased at the discount warehouse in bulk they are cheaper than electric. This includes the price of foam - now how cheap is that...

Whats a Razor?---Electric or Conventional.

So the other day I accidentally shaved off my goatee.

What, were you sleep-shaving?

[

What, were you sleep-shaving?

Well, it's a long story I blame on cold medication and caffeine. I wanted to "trim" my goatee, and I "thought" the guard was installed on my trimmer, but it wasn't. One swipe up one side of the goatee removed almost all the hair down to about 1/16th of an inch. That left me with little choice but to remove the goatee. Funny thing is, most people haven't even noticed the difference.

All said and done a double edge saftey razor with soap and brush is the best and cheapest way to shave. It makes shaving way more interesting. check out http://badgerandblade.com/

DG

Electrics are cheaper as you don't replace the heads but once a year. Regular provide a cleaner job. Interestingly I have not heard of anying using electric to shave leg hairs.

{Having tried Braun, I like the triple head norelco's better because they get closer. Either will require a touch up once a week or so to catch the rebel long hair**

[

What, were you sleep-shaving?
:roflmao::roflmao::roflmao::roflmao::beer:


I have a Norelco (sp?) triple header electric rechargeable which I use for quick, out the door, situations. It's handy for that but if I want to get a close shave I use a blade.

Ah yes, the old "trimmer guard was off" trick. As long as it takes me to grow a decent beard, I live in fear of that myself.
I use a Wahl trimmer, BTW... but, my shaver of choice for the past 25 years has been Norelco. They do give a nice close shave but they also lack the fine-point accuracy that a blade offers. I still use a blade for cleaning up hard to reach areas and foe "edge" work.

Whats a Razor?---Electric or Conventional.

It's what the whipper-snappers use to remove the hair from their legs.:p

I used a braun electric razor but it made my face very dry. I now use a double edged razor http://www.timothyedwards.co.uk/Brand/Merkur/Merkur-HD-Double-Edge-Safety-Razor/p-70-88-152/ and personna red blades. For £17 I have enough blades for 2 years of shaving and I get a really nice shave - no nicks, no irritation, no dry skin.

Problem with electric is you got to go over and over and over to get everything. Very irritating. Hate razor burn. Disposable safety razors for me. Not recommended for using while riding though.

Electric. Norelco or Phillips or whoever they are lately. No hot water, wash cloth, foam, cuts etc. I used a blade razor for years but no more. Electric is faster and easier, and I'm not required to bring a sharp object near my throat or strategic large blood vessels before I've my first cup of coffee:eek:.

I've had a Braun in the past, used blades for many years, and now mostly use a Norelco. I like Norelco's more than Braun, and like that the replacement cutting blades are fairly cheap. My Norelco has a battery charge indicator, more or less calibrated in minutes. A full charge is on the order of 50 or so minutes, which means it lasts for a good month between charges.

Shaving with an electric is better done dry (pre-shower), whereas blade shaving is better done post-shower (in my experience, anyway).

If you let your stubble get too long, then an electric tends to not work too well, but for daily or even every other day shaving they work well enough. Still, a blade shave is going to be closer.

I have a couple of old (from the 1920's or maybe 1930's) straight razors that belonged to my grandfather. They have pretty nice blades - made in Solingen, Germany. It is interesting to shave with them - they actually work reasonably well, although they obviously need to be kept sharp. And getting under the nose is tricky. Which is why they invented the styptic (sp?) pencil. I have never tried shaving with a Bowie knife, though, as in old Western movies......

My parents gave me a rechargeable Norelco when I turned 16. I tried razors from time to time (my dad was a die-hard double-edged razor man) but ultimately decided to grow a beard when I was 21 as that was easier than either blade or electric.

Used the Norelco for shaving my neck but it finally died a few years back (lasted 30 years so can't complain - still had the original blades in it). Bought a new Norelco (why mess with success) and it died in about a week. Wrote an email to Norelco and they Fed-Exed a new, upgraded shaver to me that day. It's been great since although I find I'm spending more time shaving ears than I used to. My boys seem to prefer blades though. Don't know where I went wrong.

Just grow another goatee/beard . . .
You can grow facial hair while sleeping, showering or bicycling.
The time you spend NOT shaving is precious!

I have a Remington foil shaver. Works better than the Norelco's I've had. No more razors when you're taking a blood thinner.

Make shaving a pleasure. buy a badger hair brush, a shaving mug, a disk of shaving soap, and the razor of your choice. Wash your face with hot water, soak a washcloth in hot water, wring it out and put in on your face. Sit down with your head back. Wait a few minutes. Remove cloth, run hot water on the brush, work up a lather in the mug and then on your face. Get up a thick lather. Take a minute or two to do this. shave. rinse face with hot water, then cold water. Dry face, apply witch hazel to tone the skin, then an aftershave. Once you get the hang of doing all of this, shaving will be one of the pleasures of your day. get good stuff on line, not at Walgreens and such stores. You'll love shaving.

I started with Braun. Switched to Norelco/Philips about 10 years ago and prefer them. The recent models are really good. With the Braun I had to change the blades once a year, never changed one on the Norelco. Just open the blade compartment and put it under the tap once a month.
It's true that you don't get as close a shave as with manual razor but it's getting very close with newer models and there's no nicks and cuts. The beauty is that you can shave in the car if you are in a hurry.

I used an electric from the time I started shaving until my mid-40s--Remingtons, Norelcos and Brauns--I used them all. The temporary loss of my electric shaver, coupled with the magical appearance of razors and foam, caused me to try it.

I've not gone back. Nor can I foresee ever going back.

After reading they were easier on your face, I switched to electrics at a young age, and haven't used anything else since. Since the Chinese made versions of Norelcos showed up, they're so cheap and work so great that I don't anticipate ever using anything else.

Norelco about four or five days and then a touch up with a razor. Mostly on the chicken skin of my neck.

I like a electric because you can do it while you do something else without screwing up your sideburns or mustache.

THe electric is much easier and faster than a manual head. It takes almost no focus at all, and I don't see how it's possible to cut yourself. I bought the Norelco 7110x, which at the time was only 40 dollars or so (I can't swear to that). For a cheaper unit it's good enough to have held up to routine use for 3 years -- I'm satisfied with that.

146278

Lately I have been* stealing my wife's. The legs and the beard give it a passing grade. No electric shaver here.

146278

Lately I have been* stealing my wife's. The legs and the beard give it a passing grade. No electric shaver here.

My wife using my razor was the main reason I took to an electric. She would use it (the manual) to shave her legs and I would unwittingly use it after she dulled it and just punish my face.

"But their only my legs, dear." "Yeah, well you have about 10x more surface area on your legs than I have on my face" "What's that supposed to mean?" "Nothing" "Doesn't sound like nothing to me. Are you saying my legs are fat?"

Personally, I've never had good results with electric razors, and I've owned several. The best shaving experience, (and I shave both my face and head,) is the more expensive triple- or quadruple-blade razors. I personally like the Gillette Fusion because it has an open back behind the blades, because I hate getting a bunch of hair clogged behind the blades.

For the ultimate shave:

http://www.venusworldwide.com/images/blue-straight-razor.jpg

I use both.

Throwaway plastic guys for the daily ritual face scraping, and then I have a light duty clipper for monthly leveling of the goatee, trimming the mustache and removal of various nasal and aural hairs.

Beyond that, I get a buzz job at the barber shop 3-4 times annually.

Electric shavers didn't shave close enough for me but close enough to cause bad ingrown whiskers. When I commuted to work, I always carried 2 disposibles in my backpack. I preferred to shave at work 'cause if I shaved and THEN rode to work, the salty helmet strap irritated my freshly shaved chin and neck real bad. Shave at work then use any good aftershave balm in a plastic container.
Ernest

This:
http://www.americarx.com/Admin/ARXPRODUCTIMAGES/Gimages/GilletteShavingCare/18408.jpg
for years, but the last year or so they seem to feel harsh and last less long than they once did. Getting cheaper, I guess.

But lately, I had a few free samples of this:
http://di1.shopping.com/images1/pi/3a/ee/19/30824211-260x260-0-0_Schick_Schick_Xtreme_3_Triple_Blade_Closeness_Razo.jpg
And while more expensive, they seem to be smoother and last longer.

BTW: how can anything be off topic in Foo?

BTW: how can anything be off topic in Foo?

Nice catch. Perhaps this thread was started in another part of the forum and moved in?

I've tried electric on and off over the years. I've always ended up going back to disposables. And since I bodyshave everything from the face down, quite frankly, there are certain things an electric um, can't do. The box of Schick disposables you get for $20 at Costco lasts me a couple of months; I face shave daily and body shave 3x a week.

My skin prefers good shaving gel and a Gillette triple blade. I've tried electric too, didn't like it. Gillettes are not exactly disposables, but they're flimsy plasticky stuff nevertheless. I've decided to try a "real" double edge razor.

And whoever used the "your legs have 10x the area my face has" argument with their wife, :roflmao: man, you walked right into that one.

--J

Well, it's a long story I blame on cold medication and caffeine. I wanted to "trim" my goatee, and I "thought" the guard was installed on my trimmer, but it wasn't. One swipe up one side of the goatee removed almost all the hair down to about 1/16th of an inch. That left me with little choice but to remove the goatee. Funny thing is, most people haven't even noticed the difference.

One underappreciated advantage to electric razors is their lower rate of use in suicide attempts...............:innocent:

Nice catch. Perhaps this thread was started in another part of the forum and moved in?

Correct. It was started in the 50+ forum, a forum where cyclists of advanced years share related and unrelated issues and stories. In the past, pretty much anything went, but the recent desire to move and merge has once again over ridden logic.

There are a lot of forum members that don't participate in other forums so moving the thread kills the intended audience.

Mods, 50 + should be left to any discussions they like. :notamused:

I've had a few Brauns, and stopped using Remington's after they got stupid with their engineering, they were ok. However my latest, a Panasonic, really works well. Twin foil with a stray hair cutter in the middle, and it's the first cordless I've owned that was actually strong enough unplugged that I didn't mind that I couldn't use it when plugged in. Old Braun's power plugged into the wall was dwarfed by the Panasonic on battery. Cuts close enough were I only have to shave every other day, and my hair grows like a weed.

Gave up the straight razor and leather strap 100+ years ago. +1 for Norelco. When in a rush out the door to work, no nicks and cuts. Works in the car too and on the bike. But invest in the $100+ Norelco and not the 35 one. You get what you pay for.

For the ultimate shave:

http://www.venusworldwide.com/images/blue-straight-razor.jpg

Tom, from the pictures I've seen of your hairy face I have to take your endorsement with a huge grain of salt.

Now if you're talking bar fight here it's better than a Quattro for sure.

Tom, from the pictures I've seen of your hairy face I have to take your endorsement with a huge grain of salt.

Now if you're talking bar fight here it's better than a Quattro for sure.

Tom uses that where they put the EKG patches on.........

I've had a phillips/norelco for about 5 years? It was $100ish, the cheapest model that uses their best blades (at that time, the XL). The fancy tilting mechanisms of the $$$ models probably aren't worth it unless your wrist is in a cast. It will take some time to get used to it, I had some ingrown hairs when I started but not after a few weeks. Its close enough for going to work and seems quick but I keep my old razor handy for the stray hairs.

One underappreciated advantage to electric razors is their lower rate of use in suicide attempts...............:innocent:

That's because the cord is too short to reach the bathtub.


I've tried electric razors over the years and never found one that worked well; even the very expensive ones that advertise they're for "the toughest beards" etc.
I went the last 5 years with a full beard, but I've been shaving my head for over a decade. On my scalp I prefer plain old blue 2-blade safety razors and Barbasol with Aloe shaving foam.
Just last weekend I decided to hack my beard, but I haven't got the stones to go back to using my straight razor yet. I had a beard for so long that my skin is very sensitive right now; I need a month or so to toughen up my face before I give the straight razor a go.

I'm told your face/hair adapts to an electric shaver and they start performing tolerably but I've never stuck with one that long.

I just use a mach 3. I buy the cartridges at costco and use them wayyyy past their intended lifetime so I can forget how expensive they are for about a year. I think they put less and less of that blue stuff into the cartridge to tell you when to replace it. A couple weeks ago the head was worn way out and I was out of shaving cream and I was just butchering myself using ivory soap to try and lubricate the damn thing. Anyway, back to normal shaving action now. Right now w/ good shaving cream and a newish cartridge it's smooooth sailing.

I'd be open to a safety razor.

I have used Panasonic, Braun and Norelco electric razors for the 33 or so years I have been shaving. I always seem to come back to using a disposable double or triple blade razor with shaving cream. I am currently using VDH shaving soap that I get at Wal-Mart and using a badger brush to apply. Since I shave my head, face, throat and neck daily, except for a VanDyke beard, the manual razor shaves far closer and has almost no razor burn. I have used electric razors for months on end and still would get razor burn on my throat.

I alternate between crappy disposables and my Braun 3000 series, and I shave (face/neck only) 2-3x/week. Neither is the best, but sometimes I like not cutting myself with the Braun and sometimes I like being able to catch the news (or not waking the wife/baby/company/etc.) while I shave with the disposables.

All said and done a double edge saftey razor with soap and brush is the best and cheapest way to shave. It makes shaving way more interesting. check out http://badgerandblade.com/
This. So cheap, and gets me just as good of a shave as a Mach 3, with like 1% of the price.

I used an electric from the time I started shaving until my mid-40s--Remingtons, Norelcos and Brauns--I used them all. The temporary loss of my electric shaver, coupled with the magical appearance of razors and foam, caused me to try it.

I've not gone back. Nor can I foresee ever going back.

I had a couple of Brauns, but have used a blade for about 10 years now and wont go back either. I use a blade with the vibrating handle because it was given to me, but the old school track II works almost as well. How's that for splitting the difference?

Damn, that's a hell of a time investment. I've settled into a once a week shaving routine, and sometimes that seems a burden.

There's an electric shaver out now that's supposedly designed for shaving of non-facial, non-cranial areas. I'm kind of curious if it works, but I'd guess that it doesn't all that well.

I'm not a really hairy person so it takes less time than you'd think.

I have an electric trimmer to knock down the long stuff -- neck hair, a week's beard, etc.; but to get smooth, I use a foaming gel and the Personna M5. 5 blades, replacement cartridges quite a bit less than the Gillette & others, and only ONE NICK in six months of using it!

I haven't shaved daily since leaving the Army in '89, simply because I went around every day for 4-1/2 years with razor burn; 2-3x/week is plenty now. Since my job doesn't require a "professional" appearance, it's all good.

The M5 is so good, though, I could go back to daily shaving; I just don't want to.