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Comment by mrob | Hacker News Reader

I started shaving a few years ago with a cheap Chinese electric razor. It needs cleaning occasionally but is otherwise trouble free. It shaves close enough to get a good respirator seal, which is close enough for me. It's impossible to injure myself with it, and it's so easy to use that I can literally shave while browsing the web.

Unless you are concerned with getting the closest shave possible, electric seems the obvious choice.

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And it's worth noting that a blade razor usually removes a bit of the top layer of skin, causing irritation, ingrown hairs (on top of avoiding injury from cuts).

There are some really fantastic electric razors that are cheap and get close enough that it makes no visual difference, except they don't cut the hairs under the skin so I haven't had an ingrown hair in years and years.

I haven't had ingrowing hairs since I switch to a Merker razor with Feather (Japanese) blades. You have to be very light handed, mind.

Blades cost $0.25 each and I use about 10 a year.

I too use a Merkur safety razor (for the past ~18 years) and Feather blades. I only shave once a week nowadays (with very few exceptions). It’s my weekly routine: it takes me some time, but I get the shave I want.

I use a Merker safety razor with feather blades too. Definitely recommend not just for the shave, but for the value.

Same, but usually with cheapo blades. Shark/Lord mostly (from Egypt). You can get cheap Gillette, but they're from Russia so you may wish to wait.

I get around a dozen shaves or more from a single feather blade. Bought a box of a 100 for $35 after trying a variety pack of blades and fixing on the Feather brand, and at around 3 shaves a week and just trimming up around my goatee and neck, I think I am somewhere around 1-2 cents per shave and probably golden until the robot overlords take over.

Much better than $15/mo I was spending for cartridge razors. I’ll never go back.

Agree. But the good thing is, you don't have to entirely give up your awesome turbo cartridge shave. I still will use one when I'm in a hurry or something. But my day-to-day shaving is done for far less money. I may buy a pack of cartridges every other year or so.

If you have thick hair then it's probably better to get cheap Derby/Shark/Lord blades and just use them for one shave. Gives a great shave every time & is still very cheap.

Exactly my strategy. I take some time pre-treating my face, so I get about 4 days/blade.

I switched to a Feather razor as well. It’s expensive, $100 or so, but very nice. I have thick hair and soft skin and it works well.

May I ask which one? Flat across or the floating heads? Amazon is mostly the more expensive name brands.

I’m using a higher-end Panasonic I bought over ten years ago, which is a foil type rather than the three head. Works great. Still have to replace blades every so often - far less often than a safety razor - and the foil periodically/rarely. Electrics are never as close as blades (despite marketing) but far easier, far quicker, and amortized out over many years, pretty cheap. Cheap electrics suck, so prioritize best shave quality within the electric razor type (foil vs three disc) that’s most compatible with your face and get the functionally best example you can afford, ignoring add-on gadgets like cleaning stations etc.

I don't want to link to vendors, but I've had the "Philips Norelco OneBlade Hybrid Electric Trimmer and Shaver" for years, replaced the blade once, shave with it at least every other day, and it's been closer than anything else I've tried.

But I've also had it several years and the technology I'm sure constantly improves.

I don't want to recommend a specific brand, but it's a floating head Philips clone.

With electric I find myself missing bits of hair occasionally. That doesn't really happen with a wet shave since the foam tracks where you've shaved.

Which model? I have a Philips one blade and it is pricey to replace and needs to be replaced often

I have a Braun series 5. It recommends replacing the cutting head after 18 months.

For the Philips with 3 circular blades, there are good replacement blades fabulously cheap on AliExpress. $3 for a set.

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