A few days ago I wrote about giving my son an old Panasonic travel razor on his request, even though he’s only 12 and really doesn’t need to shave. In fact, as a blonde, he probably won’t need to shave for years. Still, I trim my goatee daily and it’s no surprise he wants to join the “dude club” with a razor of his own.
While the little Panasonic razor I gave him has the advantage of being small, it has a big disadvantage too: it looks nothing like the fancy high-end Panasonic ES8249 razor I actually use every day. After chatting with the Panasonic team about this they sent me the current “hot” razor that’s in their product line, the Arc 3, and I decided I’d give it a try. After all, the Arc 3 looks almost exactly like my ES8249, just without the fancy display screen…
The Panasonic Arc 3 Razor
For my beard, the Arc 3 really didn’t cut it, truth be told. I’ll shave back and forth, up and down, in front of my ears and then when I feel it with my finger, there’s still stubble. I don’t know whether it’s the different mesh, a slower blade, a thicker screen or what, but the ES8249 definitely gives me a better shave.
And it’s about 5x the cost of the Arc 3. How much is that extra 1mm of facial hair worth? :-)
More importantly, I was primed to make the razor a quick upgrade for G-, after he had used the little travel razor exactly once. Ah, were my own childhood so full of gadget upgrades! For him, I think it’ll be ideal: it’s the same form factor as my own razor, but it’s lighter and because it’s so much less expensive, it’s not going to be a family crisis if it ends up lost on a trip or forgotten at a friend’s house for a weekend.
Further, I think it’ll work well on his nascent beard too — and if I may say so about shaving — it’ll be more fun for him to use and to learn how to maneuver the razor to get all of his facial hair as it starts to show up. After all, like its more expensive sibling razors in the Panasonic product line, the Arc 3 features three blades, can be used with your face wet or dry (I always get better results with my face dry, personally) and has a trimmer blade to help with those late night hair trims or, down the road, keep a soul patch or sideburns clean and neat.
Now to see how this evolves with G- and whether he puts it in the drawer as the looming reality of maturity and adulthood becomes overwhelming, or whether he embraces this first trace of manhood and gets into the swing of shaving weekly, or even more often.