I started going bald in my mid-twenties, thanks to a combination of stress and shitty genes. I put up with it, right up to the point where I started thinking about getting a hair cut that would mask the amount of hair that I had lost. Realizing that, for me at least, this was the way to vain insanity, I went to my barber and told him to shave it all off, right down to the wood. I've been shaving my head ever since. For close to two decades, that shaving was done with either a straight razor or an old school safety razor, depending on whether or not I was traveling. Unfortunately, my relationship with sharp things and hot lather came to an end this past September. As part of a physical with my new family doctor, it was discovered that I had an 80% blockage in my ticker—I'd been trying to kill myself, for years, with booze and bad food (and once again, shitty genes.) I had a stent put in me and was prescribed a ton of cardiac-related medications, blood thinners, included. My doctor made it clear that shaving with an exposed blade needed to be a thing that I didn't do anymore. Any injuries to my scalp, no matter how minor, would bleed like a sunovabitch. "You should invest in an electric razor," My cardiologist told me. "You'll get used to it, real quick," my friend Richard, who'd has a stent put in his heart the year before, told me. What I got used to was a shitty shave. The $300 Panasonic rotary shaver I invested in did a shit-poor job of shaving my well-dented head and neck. It also proved useless for maintaining a clean beard line, even with the aid of an electric trimmer. despite my nest efforts, my neck always looked like a thicket of half-trimmed shrubs. I assumed that this was just the way it would be, moving forward.
Last week, I hit up the barber shop to have my beard and eyebrows (no way I am doing the latter myself) cleaned up. I'd shaved my head the previous day, but, just to make a neat job of it, my barber pulled out her electric razor and had at it. the tool that she used gave me the cleanest shave to my neck and scalp that I'd had since all of my cardiac problems began. It wasn't as smooth a shave as I used to get with my old Merkur, but it was close. I asked her what it was that she'd used. She showed me and told me that her shop sold them. I forked over the cash for it, without hesitation and have been using it for the past few days. I have absolutely no complaints.
The BaBylissPRO FoilFX01 looks and feels like the professional tool that it is, but it's priced far less than you might expect. You can pick one up on Amazon for under $60. I paid significantly more for mine, becasue CANADA and the fact that I prefer to support local businesses whenever possible—but you do you. It feels heavy in the hand, due to the powerful motor inside of it and its nickel plated steel body. The lid that the razor comes with is designed to keep the FoilFX01 from switching on by accident, which makes it an awesome option for travel. That the razor can run off of a pair of AA rechargeable or disposable batteries for up to five hours at a time makes it an even better travel companion:I'll be happy to have it on the five day trek I'm taking into the Sahara desert early in the New Year. Pop the lid off and you'll find it has a single hypoallergenic foil. Provided you shave every one or two days, it shaves fast and it shaves incredibly clean.
I don't have much of a grooming regiment: I'm not a fancy fella. But man, am I ever happy I bought this heavy, shiny beast of a tool.
