I was excited about having a razor that does it all. I just wish I knew what was in store for me. Keep in mind, this could entirely be my fault, so I'm not judging and convicting here, just laying out what happened to me so I might save someone else from the same type of thing.
I received my new razor on Aug 31, 2018.
Using this razor for the first time was great. I loved how easy it was to use. The reason I got it was because a friend of mine purchased one.
The way I found out about it was during a business meeting one day, I noticed him running this thing along his cheek and I asked him what he was doing and what that thing was that looked like a razor. He said it was the Philips Norelco OneBlade hybrid electric trimmer and shaver and he was shaving with it because he didn't have time to shave before the meeting.
So I checked it out and it looked pretty innovative and I liked the concept of it. The next day I ordered one from Amazon and when I got it, I went picked it up to try it out and accidentally dropped it in the bathroom sink. I saw that the blade section had come off and I wasn't too concerned. I've been shaving for 30+ years and that's happened to me a lot of times before.
However, when I went to pick it up and snap it back together, I saw that the plastic blade stem itself had broken. It was so tiny and so fragile there was no gluing it back together even with PRO Super Glue (and trust me, I tried). So I sent the seller a message saying exactly what happened and they sent me a return label and a brand new razor and I had it in 2 days.
Still on my mind about how many times I've dropped my old fashioned razor in the sink, the tub, the ground on a camping trip or any number of other places and all I had to do was snap it back together. So I resolved that this new progressive time we live in came with some drawbacks and I would just not be able to drop my new razor anymore if I wanted to keep using it. Especially when the replacement blade is $25 bucks a pop just for one blade refill.
Now here's the clincher. The fragility of this really cool and convenient device is NOT the reason I'm writing this review...
I had that image of my friend/business associate shaving just prior to the meeting a couple of weeks earlier and I thought that was pretty cool. So I couldn't wait until I was able to benefit from this new magical razor in the same way.
Sure enough, I was running late for a meeting and had not shaved yet, so I figured, no problem, I'll just run into the bathroom at work and shave before the meeting and that is what I did.
The important thing to know about this razor is that the flat side of the blade itself is meant for shaving your face, but it doesn't shave all that close. it keeps a 3 o'clock shadow which is fine for a weekend party with friends, but not for a work meeting.
So if you want a close shave, you have to sit there and keep running the razor over your face several times and shave your beard down a little more each time. OR, you can do what I did...
The edge of this razor is for trimming side burns, mustaches, etc. I assumed, but I found pretty quickly that if I used the edge to shave the cheek and chin and neck area, it cuts the beard down much quicker than the flat edge of the blade does.
I hadn't seen any warnings or "BE CAREFUL" messages in the literature and unless I completely missed it due to my failing eyesight, there wasn't anything like that having to do with using the edge trimmer part of the blade for shaving your face.
It's also possible that this type of incident is something new that they had not counted on during their product development. If it was, I'm sure they would have had LARGE UNMISTAKABLE words that said, "CAUTION ~ READ THIS MESSAGE FROM NORELCO BEFORE USING THE DEVICE".
So I used it the edge of the razor on my face and I got my beard shaved down quickly and I had a clean shave for the meeting. About a day later after I had time to look in a mirror, I noticed a red circle on my cheek and 3 large blotches on my chin and one blotch on my neck. I assumed it was just a rash from the new razor and my face getting used to it.
What it actually was however, literally did not even occur to me. Not even the possibility of what happened to me entered my thoughts. As I mentioned, I've been shaving for many years and nothing like this had ever happened
I figured it was from the razor and just a little rash and it would be gone in a day or two just like every other facial rash I've ever had from sunburn or shaving with a new razor for the first time.
A week later when these red marks were still there, I decided to take a really close look at them with a magnifying glass and what I saw was frightening. Where I had used the edge trimmer to get a quicker shave with my new wireless super razor, every one of those red marks appeared to be gashes where the skin on my face was actually removed. Since it was a week after I had used that razor because sometimes I go for a week without shaving, these red marks were beginning to form what appeared to be permanent scars.
It's well over 4 months. Yes, I waited that long because I thought for some reason it would go away and I guess I denied that it was what it was (permanent?) I still don't know and I'm writing this in January 2019 and it's still there. It's faded a little, but not much.
I kept telling myself that this time would pass and these red marks would go away but they never did. I now have faint scaring on my face everywhere I had used that razor and perhaps pressed a little too hard or ran the blade over my face too many times causing a red mark where not only the beard was removed, but so was the skin on my face.
I'm now at the point where I don't know what to do. I thought about suing, but who do I sue? What are my grounds? That I was too stupid to not use the edge of the razor sand sacrifice my face for a quicker shave?
But how could I have known it would do this. I've used blades made out steel, 5 of them lined up next to each other and
I've never received permanent scars from it.
I didn't see any warnings in the literature saying not to use that part of the blade to shave with and it was easy just to flip the blade up and use that edge part to get a quicker shave.
Nothing jumped out at me warning me to use caution and not to run the trimmer blade over my face too many times. I didn't want a 3 o'clock shadow for a business meeting and I didn't have time to run the flat part of the razor over my face 6 times to get a closer shave.
So who's fault? Who knows. All I know is that I haven't used my new razor since I saw these red marks on my face and I've been purchasing scar ointment here on Amazon to try and get my face back to the way it was before I bout this amazing new technology contraption.
I uploaded some pictures so you should get a pretty good idea about what happened to me by looking at my before Norelco and after Norelco pictures.
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