A Razor That Reaches Every Weird Spot on Your Face

 

 

Photo: Courtesy of Gillette

Gillette’s new FlexBall razor may be the first razor designed to eliminate craning your neck and making dumb faces while shaving.

Rather than add yet another blade to its shaving cartridges, the FlexBall features a new handle design. The key addition is a more nimble pivoting head, one that swings side to side with a 24-degree range of motion and works with the company’s existing ProGlide blade cartridges.

The FlexBall isn’t literally a ball joint, but it behaves like one. The dual-hinge system–a side-to-side pivot beneath the traditional tilting blade mechanism–allows the blade to stay in contact with skin more regularly, sort of like a car with an independent suspension system.

“We shave in straight lines, but our faces aren’t flat,” says Stew Taub, director of Shave Care research and development at Gillette. “That causes the blade to miss contact, and men try to alter their faces to improve contact with the blade.”

The FlexBall’s more pliable design also means you don’t have to lift and reposition the razor as often. According to Taub, the average number of individual lifts and strokes per shave is around 150. Some 750-stroke shaves have even been documented. The new pivothead makes it more like shaving in cursive. Gillette says you can trim your entire face with a single meandering sweep of the new razor. That’s a unlikely shaving strategy, but it’s possible with this razor.

Gillette says FlexBall has been in development for five years, time needed to nail down the right range of motion and resistance for the razor. Because no one shaves the same way–and no two faces are the same–it took several years to get it right. The company leaned heavily on computer simulations and high-speed cameras that helped capture data on peoples’ shaving habits in Gillette’s labs.

“For me, the problem area is under the chin,” says Taub. “Every guy’s face is different, and we all use different pressure on the razor. Our hair density is different. Whether you shave in the shower or at the sink, how well you hydrate hair–all these things make a huge difference in the shave. What the FlexBall does, you don’t have to go over tricky areas as much. Overall it will lead to a lower probability of cutting yourself or missing hairs.”

Video: Courtesy of Gillette. GIF: WIRED

In my experience, the new razor’s fluidity and flexibility does seem to come in handy when you’re transitioning from your jowls to under your jawbone or shaving along the cheekbone–prime areas to end up dotted with little squares of toilet paper. But old habits die hard, and it’s tough to get used to just shaving a large patch in one fell swoop; you’ll probably find yourself lifting the razor as often as ever to start. Is it the most revolutionary thing to ever happen in the world of shaving? No, but the experience did feel smoother than shaving with my normal razor. It is an improvement.

Still, there’s a bit of controversy surrounding the new system. New York Magazine’s Kevin Roose calls FlexBall an example of “everything that’s wrong with American innovation,” mostly because Gillette added predictable stuff like another pivot point instead of adding cooler stuff like lasers. And Quartz’s Gideon Lichfield compares the new razor to a duck’s penis.

The main points of contention are that the razor industry is always up to something, and that something has everything to do with selling more blades. In recent years, new companies such as Dollar Shave Club have established themselves as cheaper, hassle-free alternatives to the traditional routine of selling cheap handles and pricey cartridges. Coming from the old guard, a system like FlexBall seems like another forced-upgrade gimmick.

But beyond the smoother-feeling shave, there’s evidence that Gillette’s new tricks go beyond that.  It has responded to Dollar Shave Club’s model by launching its own lower-priced blade-subscription service. And the fact that the FlexBall razor uses existing blades is a welcome oddity in the world of razors, where new systems are often introduced simply to sell newer, pricier cartridges. According to Taub, the new handles will do a better job with the same blades.

“We knew from the beginning that we wanted it to be compatible with (ProGlide blades), because it took us nearly a decade to develop ProGlide,” says Taub. “We knew we already have the best cartridge technology. But we needed to help the cartridge work better. That’s a handle problem, not a cartridge problem.”