Review (4/5): Excellent, even for a blade-user
I bought this shaver a while ago, but I wanted to wait at least a month before writing my review, since it's supposed to take about that long before your face is used to an electric razor.
This is my first electric, and I was concerned going into it. I looked at the price of good standard blades, though, and saw how quickly an electric razor would pay for itself. I'll never go back. For the first week, the shave was not as close as I had become accustomed with using a blade. After that, though, I've gotten closer and closer shaves by the week. After a little more than a month of using the Spectra, my skin is now smooth even against the grain. I've gotten back to where I was with a blade.
The Pros:
- Shaving takes easily only half the time as it did with a straight razor.
- I can shave any time, any where. With a blade, if I tried to shave more than once per day, I'd cut myself all up into a bloody mess. With this electric, I do notice some discomfort after having shaved a second time in a day, but it gets a nice close shave. A little after shave takes care of the sting, and I'm good to go again.
- No mess. I really don't miss having to use shaving cream, even my nifty hot-lather shaving cream.
The Cons:
- Motor power seems to wind down a bit towards the end of the battery charge. It's not too bad, but it seems to take longer to shave at the end of the charge, and I don't want to charge it early for fear of damaging the battery.
- This is really a minor quibble, but I thought I'd mention it: Since this razor rinses clean under tap water, what few bits of hair are still left over are sitting in water over night. Every time I use the razor, for the first minute of shaving, it smells very strongly of old, wet hair.
Tips:
- Blade users: Apply less pressure than you're used to. I find I get a better shave when the razor is touching the skin firmly, noticibly, but not pressing in at all.
- Rinse it out every day, and turn the faucet up high. If you let it go a couple days without rinsing, it's much harder to clean out. It only takes a couple seconds, so why not?
- Shave daily. I find that if I let my beard get a little longer the shaver still does a pretty good job. However, there will always be a few hairs that grew too long, curling down, that are not lifted by the razor head. Just shave daily, when you only have stubble, to avoid this.
- Get a makeup mirror! These little mirrors are concave, magnifying your face so you can see where you've missed more easily. I mounted mine to the wall, slightly below my chin. Now I can more easily see if I've shaved my neck well.