A tale of two shavers

Foxhound5366

Foxhound5366

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Sensitivity during shaving is one of those things that a lot of men apparently suffer from, but you'll ever hardly find discussed ... so we all just end up living horribly sub-optimal lives. This is NOT an advert, just my honest experience with a bit of hardware you don't normally find discussed on here.

Without going into the painful details, the Philips shaver on the right made the routine act of shaving a horrible thing for me to look forward to.

Two shavers.JPG

When I finally got tired of subjecting myself to torture on a regular basis, I finally read up online and discovered (who knew?) that foil shavers are far better for sensitive skin than rotary shavers.

And then I read about the Braun Cooltec (the one on the left) ... which luckily happened to be a Takealot daily deal at the time I bought it a month ago.

Its big party trick is that it has a cooling plate on the front that basically refrigerates itself during use, and cools the heat left by shaving (a major source of skin irritation - another triva fact). Reading online it supposedly really worked, and ... lo and behold, I can confirm it does. Maybe using an ice cube on your skin would be a low-tech solution? lol

So that's why I'm sharing this: if you're like I was and still struggling with painful electric shaving experiences with a rotary razor, you might want to consider getting a foil razor instead ... or even going the whole hog and getting a Braun Cooltec as well (your mileage may vary of course etc etc).

I wish somebody had told me this years ago :/
 
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That's nice for you backstreetboy, but then do you have a problem with sensitive skin? :P
 
backstreetboy said:
Lol no just defending rotary shavers :p got red rashes last year when the original blade finally got blunt. Ordered two from Amazon US and happy again since.
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I hereby rule that the aforementioned contribution can be struck from the court record and ask the honourable members of the jury to overlook it.

Until you know what it's like shaving with a rotary shaver and sensitive skin, please don't try defend anything about em mkay? The sad thing is that I'd been using foil shavers quite happily when I was younger before I decided to switch to rotary shavers which seemed so fancy ... and have paid badly over the years for that misconception.
 
Foxhound5366 said:
I hereby rule that the aforementioned contribution can be struck from the court record and ask the honourable members of the jury to overlook it.

Until you know what it's like shaving with a rotary shaver and sensitive skin, please don't try defend anything about em mkay? The sad thing is that I'd been using foil shavers quite happily when I was younger before I decided to switch to rotary shavers which seemed so fancy ... and have paid badly over the years for that misconception.
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What happens to your skin? I've used both without a problem. Now on a Braun series 5. The series 3 cartridge only lasted a year+ and without warning started hurting your skin.
 
biometrics said:
What happens to your skin? I've used both without a problem. Now on a Braun series 5. The series 3 cartridge only lasted a year+ and without warning started hurting your skin.
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The biggest issue I had with the Philips was that the rotary heads would heat up after prolonged use, which is a problem the Braun Cooltec addresses rather uniquely :) I can't say for sure, but based on what I've read online it's probably one of the sources of the skin redness I'd suffer on my neck after shaving with it. With the Braun I don't get that at all. Also I find the Braun shaving experience is a bit easier than the Philips, particularly on my upper lip - the Braun just does the business, and the Philips wasn't nearly as comfortable to use. It's very subjective: I'm just happy to have finally found a shaver that works for me, after a lot of misses.
 
Another big Braun fan over here. I've tried the Philllips as well and definitely prefer the foil of the Braun. Currently have a serious 7, but I still get a bit of a rash and ingrown hairs. I think the blade might be getting dull. Now I'm tempted to get the Cool Series and see how it goes.
 
If you do, let us know how it goes Niner :) It'll be way cheaper than your Series 7 anyway.
 
Niner said:
Another big Braun fan over here. I've tried the Philllips as well and definitely prefer the foil of the Braun. Currently have a serious 7, but I still get a bit of a rash and ingrown hairs. I think the blade might be getting dull. Now I'm tempted to get the Cool Series and see how it goes.
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Have you replaced the cartridge?
 
Foxhound5366 said:
If you do, let us know how it goes Niner :) It'll be way cheaper than your Series 7 anyway.
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I recently bought the series 5. It was about the same price as the cool. But I figured since I don't get skin irritation that feature would be a waste.
 
There are quite a few blogs about rotary vs foil.

I've settled on Braun series 7, and 5 for backup. The clean and renew station's are fantastic, makes every shave feel like a new shaver, helps with glide too.

There are some parts of the neck and jaw that are easier with a rotary, but overall the foil types are better.
 
Merkur-Long-Handled-180.jpg



For the win.

But I tend to just use a Philips most mornings its not great but it does the job.
 
Or, you know, grow a beard.

Jokes aside, I'm thinking of investing in something like that foil for when I do manscaping.
 
*koff* So I noticed that the Braun Cooltec referred to above is now on the Takealot Blue Dot deal at 40% off ... that's slightly better than the price I even got it at, so I'd still recommend it to anybody with sensitive skin (after weeks of use). Use it, don't use it :)
 
Foxhound5366 said:
So that's why I'm sharing this: if you're like I was and still struggling with painful electric shaving experiences with a rotary razor, you might want to consider getting a foil razor instead ... or even going the whole hog and getting a Braun Cooltec as well (your mileage may vary of course etc etc).
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Erm... my solution is to just use a blade... At least I can control the damage I cause
 
Do these "shavers" have the same close shave as a normal razor against the grain?
 
Rickster said:
Do these "shavers" have the same close shave as a normal razor against the grain?
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Probably not, no. But then using a normal razor is like torture to me, so I'm more than happy with the Braun's "good enough" finish. Does it look like a razor finish? Nope. Does it feel a million times better while shaving? Yup. That's the important bit. If you don't suffer from sensitive skin you just won't understand, and be happy about that!
 
Rickster said:
Do these "shavers" have the same close shave as a normal razor against the grain?
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Nope, you have the grid between the blade on a shaver. Believe me, people won't notice.
As for Phillips, seems the R500 ones these days are crap. You probably have to pay R800 minimum. Inflation caught up with them. Thos motors in the r500 shavers just don't turn fast enough. I took over my late fathers shaver. Its not performing as well, my mom bought it Jan.
 
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