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Yet another view on rotary vs. foilDec 11 '04 (Updated Aug 15 '09) Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line Rotaries give an overall better shave than foils because they work with both short and long facial hair. [August '09 update at bottom] These things happen by accident: I left my Norelco 6826xl rotary razor at a friend's house, and thought I'd take the opportunity to try out my first foil razor: the Braun 5614. Eventually I got back the Norelco, hence a chance to directly compare rotary and foil shavers. I hope these few paragraphs shine a little light for those trying to figure which way to go. First a little about my face. I have tough whiskers -- my 5 o'clock shadow comes at 10 in the morning no matter what I shave with. Since I have an active night life, that means that I have to shave twice a day to look my best. Unfortunately, my skin can't tolerate that much abuse from traditional razors -- even the newer models such as Gillete's MACH 3 leave my skin red from irritation after the second shave. So while electric shavers aren't as close as traditional razors, overall I get a better experience from them because I can shave twice without any blotchiness. The Bruan's foil provides near razor performance on the cheeks and chin. But the foil shaver meets its match on the neck, where longer hairs don't fit into the openings in the razor's foil. The razor features an integrated cutter on the head meant to trim longer hairs for just that problem -- but it doesn't seem to do help. I have to go back and forth with the razor in various directions until everything is neat. Often by then my skin gets a bit irritated from the razor. The Norelco rotary shaver is a little less close of a shave than the foil on the cheeks and chin. I notice the difference only a direct side by side comparison. However, the rotary shaver clearly excels on the neck. It gets everything in about 3 passes. Comfort wise, I find the Norelco pulls less on the whiskers, never cuts the skin, and is much quieter than the Braun. I also find the Norelco is sculpted to fit better in the hand than the Braun. Both clean up the same way: run them under a faucet about once a week. On a side note, the top of the line for both these are cordless models, which is a shame. Corded models always run at top speed and will not have to be replaced when the internal batter packs fail and start to leak. And since any road warrior worth his/her salt packs the cord anyway, I see no advantage for the cordless models except during power failures. --------------- Update: Who knew that a few roughly worded comments on electric razors would generate so much buzz? This posting has become my most popular contribution to epinion, and has resulted on numerious appearanced on NPR and CNET plus a very angry rebuttal by Fox's own Lou Dobbs. In the future, all my posts will be prefaced with a disclaimer. But onto the razors... The Norelco died a nasty death against a tiled floor in some early morning incident. I can't be sure, but I suspect alcohol might have played a role. Which leaves me with the Braun. I have to say, the more I use the Braun, the less I like it. It has an amazing ability to leave longer hairs untouched not matter how many passes I make with the razor. It is unerconomic, meaning that no matter how you grip it, it never feels right in the hand as you shave. And finally, it is just too loud for an inept shave. Sorry Braun - the Norelco is a much better design.  |
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