The Braun Series 3 Story: Ray Gives Up Razor Burn

Ray has shaved every day for thirty-one years. He started before we were married and he has never once enjoyed it. For most of that time he used disposable razors, the kind that come in a bag, and for most of that time his neck was red by the time he reached the kitchen.

The routine never changed. He shaved at ten to six, before his shift, at the hall bathroom mirror with the tap running. Twenty minutes later he was pressing a cold washcloth to his jaw, then putting on a collared shirt and going. The washcloth was part of the routine, and so was the red patch that came back every time he tried a fresh blade.

We tried the obvious things. A different cartridge, then a shave oil that smelled like a barbershop, then a gel marketed for sensitive skin. Each helped a little, for about a week. What bothered me more was the restocking, because I was adding cartridges to the list on the fridge every few weeks. That is when I started reading about electric shavers instead, and the Braun Series 3 kept showing up in the comparisons.

I ordered it in the spring, mostly because the listing carried a 4.3 rating across more than twenty-seven thousand reviews and I could not find a run of complaints that matched his problem. I set it on the counter next to his shaving cream, said nothing, and let him find it. He used it dry the first morning and told me at dinner that it was strange. Then he used it again the next morning. He has used it every morning since.

Here is what I actually noticed in that first month, watching from the doorway while I brushed my teeth. The shave took longer than a razor at the start, maybe four minutes instead of two, while he learned the angles of his own jaw. The redness faded over about two weeks. The washcloth stopped being part of the morning. It was not a switch that flipped overnight, and any review that tells you otherwise is selling something.

The redness faded over about two weeks, and the cold washcloth stopped being part of the morning entirely.

The part he talks about most is the middle trimmer. His beard grows in a few stubborn patches along the jaw, and the blades used to catch and pull at exactly those spots. The Braun has a small trimmer sitting in the head that lifts those longer hairs before the foils finish the rest, and he says the pull is gone. He also uses the precision trimmer for his sideburns, which he had been doing with nail scissors and a very steady hand. It is tidier now, and faster.

He shaves wet on Sundays and dry on workdays. The shaver is waterproof, so on the weekend it goes into the shower with him and gets rinsed under the tap afterward. During the week it stays dry on the counter, because at ten to six he is not awake enough for anything with steps in it. The battery runs about forty-five minutes, which is roughly two weeks of his morning shaves, and he plugs it in on Sunday afternoon. The charger has a smart plug that adjusts automatically between 100 and 240 volts, which mattered to me because that hall outlet shares a circuit with the hair dryer.

On the counter it takes up one corner beside the soap dish. The listing gives the dimensions as 6.1 by 2.24 by 8.74 inches and the weight as 11.15 ounces, so it stands upright without swallowing the sink the way a big charging dock would. Cleaning is about thirty seconds: tap it out over the bin, run the little brush through the head, put the protective cap back on. I do that on Saturdays. Ray does not. That is the division of labor in this house and I have stopped arguing about it.

Marcus, who is sixteen and has been shaving for about a year, tried it once and handed it back. He said it tickled. That is a real thing with a foil head on a young face, and it is worth knowing before you buy this for a teenager. Ray is the one it suits: daily shaving, coarse hair, skin that reacts to everything. The listing claims up to seven years of life for the shaver. I cannot confirm that yet, but I also have no reason to doubt it.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

I would tell you the first three shaves are not better than a blade. The fourth week is. Give it that long before you decide anything, because the adjustment is real and it is mostly about learning which direction to move against your own grain. I would tell you to start dry and only add gel if your skin wants the slip, since the wet shave is good but it turns a two minute job into a five minute one at six in the morning.

I would tell you to keep the cap on it, because the foil is the part that fails and it dents if it rolls off the shelf into the sink. I would tell you to get the version with the precision trimmer, since Ray reaches for that more than the main head on weekends. And I would tell you that if your husband is anything like mine, he will not read the manual, so you should be the one who knows the head rinses under the tap and the charger handles the voltage on its own.