The best razors for ingrown hairs

The standard this page is ranked against

Most “best razor for ingrown hairs” pages are somebody's opinion about gentleness. There is a published standard available instead, so we used it.

The American Academy of Dermatology's guidance on razor bumps says four things that are directly about hardware and technique rather than about products:

• “A single-blade razor or an electric razor is often recommended. Regardless of the razor you use, it must be sharp.”
• “A single-blade razor will stay sharp for 5 to 7 shaves. After that number of shaves, it's time to replace the blade.”
• “Avoid shaving closely or putting much pressure on your skin.”
• “Use short strokes, and never go over an area more than twice.” And shave slowly, in the direction the hair grows.

Read those together and the shopping list writes itself. You want one blade, or a powered tool that is not trying to get under the surface. You want a blade cheap enough to throw away after five shaves. And you want a razor that does not reward pressing, because pressure is on the list of things to avoid.

What to look for

1. One blade, or no bare blade at all. The two options the AAD names. Everything else is a compromise you are choosing knowingly.
2. A cheap, standard consumable. “Replace every five to seven shaves” is only realistic if a blade costs cents. Universal double-edge blades do; proprietary cartridges do not.
3. Published geometry, not a comfort adjective. Blade angle, exposure and tolerance decide how shallow the cut is. Almost nobody publishes them, which makes the makers who do worth paying attention to.
4. Mild rather than aggressive. The AAD says avoid shaving closely. A razor sold in exposure levels lets you obey that at the point of purchase and then stop thinking about it.
5. Nothing that rewards pressure. A light razor that has to float teaches the right habit; a heavy one with a pivoting head teaches the wrong one.

Published figures

The pick: Henson AL13 in Mild

Henson's argument is that shaving irritation is an engineering problem, and it is the only maker in this ledger that publishes the engineering. The blade angle is fixed at 30 degrees. The razor is machined at an aerospace facility in Ontario to as tight as 12.7 micrometers. Blade exposure is not adjustable at all - it is fixed by which model you buy, in Mild, Medium or Aggressive.

That last point is why it leads this page. The AAD says to avoid shaving closely, and the Henson lets you make that decision once, at the checkout, by buying the Mild. You cannot then talk yourself into a closer setting on a morning when you are in a hurry, because there is no setting to talk yourself into.

It takes standard double-edge blades and ships with five, which makes the five-to-seven-shave replacement schedule effectively free. At 37 grams it is the lightest razor here by a wide margin, and that inverts the usual wet-shaving advice in a way that happens to suit this problem: you cannot let this razor do the work with its own weight, so you have to let it float - which is exactly the no-pressure technique the AAD asks for.

The honest cons. Thirty-seven grams removes the weight cue a cartridge user relies on, and the first week feels strange. The exposure is fixed at purchase, so if you buy the wrong one, changing your mind means buying another razor - and this page is telling you to buy the Mild, which is the one most likely to feel like it is not doing enough at first. It is anodized aluminum rather than stainless, so it will never feel like an heirloom. And Henson publishes no warranty.

The electric half of the recommendation: Philips OneBlade 360

The AAD names an electric razor alongside a single-blade one, and the OneBlade is the version of that with the most useful published property: it does not shave bare. Philips states this as a design decision rather than a shortcoming. The blade oscillates behind a guard, it takes stubble down close, and it does not take it below the surface of the skin.

For somebody whose face bumps rather than burns, that is the whole problem solved structurally rather than managed. Five comb lengths from 0.2 to 5 mm let you leave a deliberate amount. It is fully waterproof, so it can be used at the end of a shower on hair that has softened - which is the AAD's other practical recommendation. And it publishes a four-month blade life with a wear indicator, which answers “it must be sharp” without you having to keep count.

It is also the cheapest tool on this page, and the one that takes the least learning.

The honest cons. It will not give a properly clean-shaven face - that is the trade you are making, and for some jobs and some people it is not acceptable. The blades are proprietary and replaced on a schedule, so the running cost never stops. Forty-five minutes of runtime is short. And the power adapter is not included, which Philips publishes.

If a cartridge is non-negotiable: Gillette Mach3

Some people are not going to switch formats, and a page that only tells them to is not much use. If the razor has to be a cartridge, the published figure to shop on is the blade count, and the Mach3 has three rather than five.

Gillette publishes an open-blade architecture for it, which clogs less on longer growth, and a blade life of up to 15 shaves per refill. It is also the cheapest Gillette system in this ledger to feed - which matters more than usual here, because if you follow the AAD and replace at five to seven shaves you are discarding a cartridge with half its published life left, every time.

The honest cons. Three blades is still three, not one. Gillette publishes no pivot claim, no weight, no material and no warranty for it. The cartridges are proprietary, so the running cost is permanent and the replacement schedule above makes it worse. The cartridge roundup sets out the format honestly, and this comparison covers what switching actually involves.

The technique that comes with it

A razor change without a technique change fixes about half the problem. All of the following is the AAD's published guidance rather than ours:

1. Shave at the end of a shower, or hold a warm, damp cloth against the area first. Softened hair swells and is less likely to curve back into the skin.
2. Wash with a non-comedogenic cleanser first and use a moisturizing shaving cream - not a gel that dries on the skin. The cream roundup covers that.
3. Work out which way the hair grows on each part of your face and neck. It is rarely all one direction, and the neck is usually where it changes.
4. Shave slowly, with the growth, in short strokes. Never go over the same area more than twice.
5. Do not press, and do not chase closeness. This is the instruction people find hardest and it is the one doing the most work.
6. Replace the blade after five to seven shaves and store the razor somewhere dry.
7. Shave more often, not less - daily, or every two to three days - so hair has less time to grow long enough to curve. This is the one that surprises people.

And if bumps are already established, none of the above clears them. That is a salicylic acid and several weeks: the razor bump routine covers the actives, and if the area is on your body rather than your face, the body version is here. If the bumps are painful, spreading, or scarring, that is a dermatologist's job rather than a razor's.