Shaving rashes are probably the worst part of any shave, and we’ve all struggled with them. More than half of men claim to have sensitive skin, and more often than not, this is caused by shaving bumps.
Shaving bumps happen when the hairs are cut too short, causing them to regrow through your skin. This causes itching and pain that only becomes worse if the hairs become ingrown or infected.
So how can you prevent irritation on your sensitive skin? The best way is to choose a good electric shaver, and here are the best electric shavers for sensitive skin.
Quick Summary
- Philips Norelco 7500 – This electric shaver has an impressive low friction contouring blade head that make it gentle on sensitive skin
- Braun Series 3 ProSkin 3040s – has an impressive set of features from Braun’s higher cost models to prevent shaving burn
- Braun Series 9 9370cc – using sonic vibrations to assist, this shaver can handle the thickest beards gently.
- Sovob Electric Shaver (Women) – This electric shaver features a thin ergonomic handle for gently shaving hard to reach places.
Best Electric Shavers for Sensitive Skin
1. Philips Norelco 7500 – Best Wet and Dry Electric Shaver for Sensitive Skin
Much of the irritation caused by shaving originates from pulling on your hair and skin. The Norelco 7500 has thousands of miniature powder-like beads that reduce friction while moving against your skin. This is important for preventing the shaver from pulling on skin or hair.
Replaceable Blade
The Norelco 7500 electric shaver has three easily replaceable cutting blades. These are designed to lift the hairs before cutting them to cut closer without risking damage to sensitive skin.
Wet and Dry
A good electric shaver is important, but fancy features won’t help unless you take proper steps to reduce irritation. Experts agree that rinsing with warm water before and after shaving and using creams and gels before shaving is critical to reducing irritation.
This requires a waterproof shaver, which is one of the primary reasons we selected this electric shaver as well as the others on our list.
This electric shaver is waterproof up to 5 meters, so you can use it in the shower. This is shown to help by cleaning your skin before shaving, rinsing cut hairs and dead skin off during your shave, and making it easy to clean your shaver between each stroke.
Adaptable Head
Unlike most foil shavers, a rotary has one advantage: contouring to your face. With this shaver, the head and blades can contour to your face to ensure hair is always entering from the right angle and at the right distance from your skin. This also will reduce pressure on your skin and the risk of cuts.
This electric shaver has rounded cage edges, which are gentle on the skin and keep the blades at the optimal distance from the skin. It allows the hairs to enter at different angles and therefore cuts at the optimal angle for short hairs. This rounded cage solves perhaps the biggest problem electric shavers have had when shaving: sensitive skin.
Cleaning
Using an exfoliating tool and scrubbing as soon as you shave can reduce bacteria and help hairs break through the skin. Another way to prevent irritation is to keep your shaver clean, thus preventing bacteria on the shaver.
The Norelco 7500 helps you do this by providing a cleaning stand that both cleans and lubricates the system between each use. This will help to make the blades run smoother and reduce bacteria that can get below your skin. The cleaning solution is skin-friendly and alcohol-free, so you don’t need to worry about irritation from the cleaner itself.
A significant part of skin irritation comes from bacteria. Bacteria can get under your skin during shaving or pop up from infections of ingrown hairs. Eliminating bacteria means it’s essential to clean your skin after shaving.
We already discussed how the cage can reduce irritation by allowing the hair to enter the shaver at a good angle.
2.Braun Series 3 ProSkin 3040s – Best Affordable Electric Shaver for Sensitive Skin
A few things make this shaver stand out for those with sensitive skin and a tight budget. First, it has a great low price. Other helpful features include being waterproof, pressure-sensitive, moderately powerful, and possessing easily replaceable heads.
Replaceable Blade
The blades on the Braun 3040s are easily replaceable at an affordable price. However, with such an affordable electric shaver, it will also be possible to replace the whole unit as well.
Wet and Dry
This electric shaver is waterproof, allowing a wet shave more fit for sensitive skin. This is an especially good deal for an inexpensive electric shaver.
Adaptable Head
The Braun 3040 uses a special foil called SensoFoil that uses unique perforations to pick up hair at odd angles to optimize cutting.
This shaver has two finishing foils with hexagonal perforations, a trimmer, and a plastic comb to scoop up low lying hairs to get a short, clean-cut without many passes. These features make this shaver particularly helpful for reducing the occurrence of shaving bumps and ingrown hairs.
Additionally, the finishing foils on either side are retractable to allow contouring and sensitivity to pressure, maintaining shaving distance. For its price, the power is acceptable. As long as you don’t push it too hard, it cuts hairs with no tugging.
Cleaning
Though it does not have a cleaning stand, this electric shaver is waterproof and has a detachable head. So, you can wash it clean, preventing bacteria buildup. Also, the blades can be replaced, meaning you can always have a clean, sharp blade. A clean, sharp blade is crucial for preventing skin irritation.
3. Braun Series 9 9370cc – Best Electric Shaver for Sensitive Black Skin
Although most men suffer some skin irritation from shaving, African American men are often at greater risk due to their hair’s texture.
Their hair is often thicker, fuller, curly, and tends to grow back into the skin, causing shaving bumps after shaving. The Braun Series 9 electric shaver is an excellent choice to help avoid this problem. Some of the shaver’s best features are listed below.
Replaceable Blade
The 92s replacement head for this electric shaver is fully replaceable without much trouble. However, it is a bit more costly than our other recommendations. This is probably worth it, though, given how good this model is at preventing skin irritation.
Wet and Dry
The five blade elements are responsive to hair density, providing an even shave across your whole face whether you use shaving gels and creams or not. The ability to produce a good dry shave like this is important for many black men who prefer dry shaving.
However, conveniently, this electric shaver can be used for wet or dry shaving. Moist shaving is better for anyone with sensitive skin since hydrated skin is less likely to become irritated.
Adaptable Head
Thicker, fuller hair requires an electric shaver that can capture more hair. This shaver uses sonic vibrations to move more hair into the perforations. This also means it is better at cutting hair in only one pass, which is important for curly hair.
It’ll reduce the chances of hair follicles growing in at an angle. This is the main reason we chose this shaver in this category since if the hair grows at an angle, it often results in ingrown hairs.
Each cutting element can individually contour to optimize the cutting angle and maintain distance rather than be pressed into your skin. This feature allows the shaver to contour each blade rather than simply the whole head.
Cleaning
This electric shaver has a cleaning stand that disinfects and lubricates the shaver between each use. This helps prevent any build-up of bacteria that may irritate your skin.
4.Sovob Electric Shaver – Best Women’s Electric Shaver for Sensitive Skin
This model’s handle is slim and easily controlled, making it work well for shaving underarms and legs without a lot of nicks and scrapes. The flexible head and floating foil increase your ability to control the shaver.
This shaver also contains an LED light. It helps you see difficult to reach areas other than your face. This feature makes it easier to see while shaving, decreasing the chance of nicks and cuts. This is especially helpful for seeing while shaving difficult to reach places.
Replaceable Blade
Unfortunately, this shaver fails to meet our criteria for a replaceable head. Though this fails to meet every criterion, due to the lack of replaceable blades, it is so affordable a replacement shaver would still save you money over replacing the head on some electric shavers.
So, this still makes the cut as the best electric shaver for women’s sensitive skin.
Wet and Dry
Most women prefer to shave in the shower or tub, and the Sovob works well for wet or dry shaving. This is especially nice if you have sensitive skin, and is rare at this price level.
Adaptable Head
The shaver also has a flexible head with a floating foil and stainless-steel blades. This allows you to comfortably shave hard to reach areas without irritation.
It is designed to adapt to your curves, thus allowing you to get a close shave on your legs, underarms, face, or other regions with ease while maintaining distance from your skin. This means the shaver moves more smoothly over your sensitive skin, reducing the risk of irritation.
Though it is not as advanced a system as our other electric shavers, the slightly curving blade allows hair to be cut at more optimal angles to achieve a closer cut.
Cleaning
This electric shaver has a detachable head, making it easy to clean. It also has a brush that removes hair that won’t come out with rinsing alone.
5.Panasonic Arc5 Electric Shaver for Men – Best Foil Electric Shaver for Sensitive Skin
Though it isn’t the best shaver for someone who suffers from ingrown hairs, it’s a good shaver for anyone unconcerned by that.
Replaceable Blade
This electric shaver has a replaceable head that will replace all 5 of its blades. Though five-blade systems can be irritating to some, who want to do a minimal shave, this system can typically achieve a good shave in a single pass to minimize irritation to the skin as long as the blades are replaced regularly.
Wet and Dry
This electric shaver is waterproof, and this is an especially good point for this model which is particularly powerful. By lubricating your skin, you can keep the 70,000 crosscuts per minute from causing heat buildup that may irritate sensitive skin.
Adaptable Head
Similar to our choice for the top shaver, the head moves to contour to your face, a major factor in our decision to pick this shaver. This shaver can move in sixteen different directions, making it easy to reach even very difficult to shave areas. It also keeps the shaver close to the skin, helping to ensure a close shave.
As we discussed, capturing hair at the best angle is important. The Panasonic Arc5 Electric Shaver has five different blade foils to capture different lengths, thicknesses, and angles of hair easily at the same time. This gets a better shave with fewer passes, which is important for sensitive skin, since repeat passes often irritate sensitive skin.
Cleaning
Many foil shavers give you difficulty cleaning hair out of the head, but you’ll find it’s easy to clean this shaver. The charging station both cleans and charges the shaver. The station contains a compartment where you mix detergent and water to clean the shaver.
How We Choose the Best Electric Shavers for Sensitive Skin
We judge the best electric shavers for sensitive skin on several grounds. These are for both what reduces the pain of shaving as well as factors that cause irritation afterward. The factors we consider include:
Replaceable Blade
One of the biggest factors in any shaver is the sharpness of the blade. Though some electric shavers market self-sharpening systems, these will not last forever, and it’s generally best to replace your blade frequently regardless.
The blade systems need to be replaced more frequently if your skin is sensitive. Therefore, we consider easily replaceable heads as an essential factor in judging an electric shaver.
Wet and Dry: The ability to perform a wet shave is vital to allowing the best shave for sensitive skin. So, waterproofing is another critical consideration.
Adaptable Head: The head of an electric shaver should be able to tilt and shift angles and contour to the user’s skin. Without this, it may apply to much pressure, irritating.
Cleaning: If you want to reduce the irritation caused by bacteria, easy cleaning is important. With many of these electric shavers, cleaning is kept especially easy by using their automated cleaning stands.
Are Electric Shavers Better for Sensitive Skin?
Yes, electric shavers are usually better for sensitive skin than traditional blade razors. This is because of the distance an electric shaver maintains from your skin.
When you shave with a classic blade razor, you are lightly dragging the blade directly against your skin. This inevitably results in some nicks, scratches, and outer layers of the epidermis removed. However, it also provides a closer shave.
However, with an electric shaver, the blade is on the other side of a perforated metal barrier, protecting your skin from ever making contact with the blades. Generally, they require fewer passes over the same area than a blade, too.
This, as well as the lack of cuts, nicks, and skin removal, results in less irritation than classic blade shaving.
What Makes an Electric Shaver Good for Sensitive Skin?
The primary reason an electric shaver is so good for sensitive skin is the distance it maintains from your skin. There is always a perforated metal barrier keeping the blades from contacting your skin. This means that you do not have to worry about irritating cuts and nicks in your shaving ritual.
Additionally, for those with skin irritations such as acne, it is a massive improvement. It reduces inflammation and the risk of harming skin bumps. This can stop further breakouts and irritation.
Another way electric shavers excel is the greater pressure of pressing the metal barrier and dragging it across your face. This bunches up the skin to press the hairs through the perforated holes. This typically gets the job done in fewer passes.
Some electric shavers even can adjust the distance from your skin to increase it even more. Alternatively, many electric shavers have trim attachments for especially sensitive areas that can allow you to maintain distance from your skin.
Foil or Rotary Shaver: Which Is Best for Sensitive Skin?
Generally, foil shavers are better for sensitive skin. They are usually capable of achieving higher blades speeds and therefore cutting more cleanly and with less tugging.
Rotary shavers are not always worse; they can contour to the face better, requiring fewer passes to get an even cut. When purchasing higher-end models, consider the features. Some features you should look for are the blade speed, how easily they can be cleaned, and whether the blades are easily switched out.
Our Final Take
Shaving can be very hard on your skin, and many electric shavers are not up to the task of preventing irritation. So, choosing a good electric shaver for your sensitive skin is essential.
Whether it’s the pricier Norelco 7500 or the affordable Braun 3040, any of these shavers will give you a comfortable shave. Just follow our tips above when you purchase your next electric shaver and kiss shaving bumps goodbye.