The Best Men’s Razors (for Any Face) (2024)

To develop a broad understanding of the face-shaving landscape, I scouredonline shaving forums, read studies that look at what makes certainbladeand razor technologies work, and searched for specific info aboutshaving habits.

I’ve been testing razors for Wirecutter for more than nine years now. Over those years dozens of testers have glided honed steel across their faces to determine which razor provides the closest approximation to what enthusiasts call a BBS—baby’s butt smooth—shave.

I’ve written about shaving since the late 1980s, when, as a correspondent for a business magazine, I was assigned to cover Gillette and its rivals as they raced to introduce a new generation of higher-priced cartridge shaving systems. I’m fanatical about shaving and razors, and have tried everything from Japanese straight razors and old-school double-edges to disposables and electric razors. My latest shaving obsession is ultra-cheap cartridge systems from overseas.

There are lots of ways to get rid of facial hair, and if you’re happy with your current method, stick with it. In previous versions of this guide, we’ve focused nearly exclusively on cartridge-based razor systems containing two to six blades; these remain the primary focus of this review.

Cartridges are generally the best choice for most people who shave their face because they’re easy, efficient, and offer the lowest possibility of nicks and cuts. But cartridges are expensive—especially good ones (more on that below). There is an excellent alternative: the old-fashioned safety razor, the kind with a T-shaped handle that uses a single, thin metal blade with two edges.

Back to preloaded cartridges. How many blades do you need? One? Five?Seven? As the authors of a 2012 Gillette-funded paper published in the British Journal of Dermatology (PDF) note, blade spacing matters as much as the number of blades: “The pressure exerted on the skin by the blades causes the skin to bulge between the blades. By spacing the blades closer together, the skin bulge is reduced and a more uniform stress is placed on the skin, resulting in a safer, more comfortable shave.” In practice, though, closely spaced blades can clog more easily, especially if you have coarse or close-growing hair.

If you’re experiencing minor issues with your razor, such as occasional razor bumps or ingrown hairs, but don’t want to swap models, it may have to do with how you’re shaving—these tips from the American Academy of Dermatologymay be enough to fix your shave without requiring you to buy anything new.

Our primary focus is cartridge razors available online and in stores. That includes options from Bic, Gillette, Dollar Shave Club, Harry’s, and Schick. We only tested systems that allowed you to buy a handle just once (some cartridge systems require a handle purchase every time, fundamentally making them disposable razors with detachable heads).

We did not test fully disposable razors, as recycling programs for these products are difficult to access—you won’t find them listed on packaging for most disposables, if they exist at all, or they’re not available locally. (Gillette deserves credit for its recycling program, which offers free shipping labels via the Terracycle recycling platform. The joint venture accepts razors from all manufacturers. Schick also has a recycling program, though it is brand-exclusive.) People looking for the most sustainable option might want to opt for a safety razor, whose steel blades are the sole disposable component, though you shouldn’t just toss them in the trash.

Although our picks haven’t changed in the 10 years we’ve reviewed cartridge razors, bubbling below are significant shifts in razor choice. There are some good new razors available, from manufacturers big and small.

Though our testing pool has expanded, our criteria have remained the same. We prefer razors with refills that run around $2 or less per cartridge, but a bargain is only a bargain if you get a good shave for your money, and while two bucks can buy a terrific shave, it can also buy a horrendous one. The most important features of a good razor are:

• Comfort during and after use: This means that the blades feel good on the face; they glide well, cutting without pulling or tugging. If the cartridge has a lubricating strip, it shouldn’t turn into a slippery mess. Modern multiblade razors rarely nick or cut, so we eliminated any system that consistently did so. The shave should continue to feel comfortable after the fact, without redness, irritation, or ingrown hairs.
• A handle that works: A handle should have a good grip—any razor that slipped when wet during our testing was instantly disqualified. A razor handle should maneuver around the contours of your face without you having to twist and angle it too much, and we believe a heavier handle is better, since it offers more control. We also like good-looking handles, and handle aesthetics have improved a lot since we started testing razors.
• Multiple blades: One blade is certainly enough to get the job done, and seven is definitely overkill. But we’ve done enough testing to believe that you get a quicker, smoother shave from three-blade razors. Some people do better with five blades—but these more densely packed blades can clog more easily. No matter how many blades are in the razor, it has to rinse well.
• Closeness: A close shave is a smooth shave with a minimum number of passes. You shouldn’t have to run the razor across your face more than a few times, or press too hard, to get that silky finish.

While we considered blade durability, it ended up not being a deciding factor because it varies substantially from person to person. How long a blade lasts depends on your particular hair and shaving cadence: If you have very coarse whiskers, you’re going to wear out blades more quickly. Gillette claims its blades last up to a month, while Dollar Shave Club pushes subscribers to change blades weekly. (A tip if you want your blades to last longer: Store your razor upright or blades up, to air-dry. Don’t leave your razor in the shower if that’s where you shave.)

One thing we’ve learned about shaving is that every face is different. So we enlisted a diverse crew of testers with various levels of beard growth, coarseness, and typical shaving frequency.

Here’s something we love about the current generation of the Gillette Mach3: simplicity. Over the past decade, we’ve seen multiple iterations of the Mach3 come and go—sensitive, Turbo, vibrating. In many cases, other than aesthetics, it was hard to tell the difference between Mach3 types (previously, there were three Mach3 cartridge types).

Choosing the right Mach3 is easier these days. Though some of the earlier variants are still kicking around, most people will find just two choices: the original Mach3, with a solid, grippy, round handle, and the strange Mach3 3D, whose handle includes a pea-sized ball that allows the razor head to rotate side to side. Our primary test group tried the original Mach3, as most customer reviewers—and I—found the Mach3 3D to be gimmicky and not aesthetically appealing (the standard Mach3 has a silver-and-black color scheme; the Mach3 3D’s handle is silver, white, and blue and has a stretch limo kind of elongation).

We still love the way the Mach3 balances speed, smoothness, and safety. The Mach3’s triple-blade cartridge offers a close shave without irritating the skin or getting clogged with stubble. And the price of Mach3 blades—now a bit more than $2 per cartridge, with the best prices online or at a big-box store—come close to, or even beat, most rivals.

The Mach3’s simple, round handle feels great. Our testers preferred the Mach3 over Gillette’s Fusion5, as well as razors from Schick, Dollar Shave Club, and Harry’s. They particularly loved (as always) the Mach3’s handle. “It feels more premium in my hand,” one tester noted. “The grip seems less likely to slip.”

The Mach3’s compact head is easy to maneuver. With just three blades, the Mach3 has a smaller cartridge, which means increased mobility along your chin and mustache area, especially compared with the larger Fusion5. Another benefit to having three blades is that they’re spread more widely apart. This means spent shaving cream and cut whiskers are more easily washed away when the razor head is rinsed between strokes—unlike with the Fusion5, which packs five blades onto a crowded head, or the six-blade Dollar Shave Club cartridges.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It can take longer to shave with a Mach3. The biggest downside our testers reported was that it took longer to get a close shave with three blades than with the Gillette Fusion5’s five. “Extra strokes,” said one tester.

The cartridges have gotten more expensive. Over the past decade, Mach3 cartridges have generally cost about $2 each, about the same as inferior generic models and about half as much as Fusion5 refills. Prices have crept up a bit. To get the best value, you have to buy a bulk pack, and probably not at your local chain drug store.

How the Gillette Mach3 has held up

A razor handle should last almost forever. It should withstand dropping, something more common for shower shavers. I continue to use the same Mach3 handle from our 2014 testing, and I’ve dropped it dozens of times. It’s still working just fine.

The other long-term issue isn’t so much about the particular razor you possess, but the product line in general. Razor makers make metallurgical changes in their blades quite often. Those changes are announced if they are positive (“new and improved,” though what is improved and why is rarely revealed) and are generally not announced if they are negative (a change in durability, for example, by using different alloys).

A few years ago, in response to a customer question about a suspected change in the quality of Mach3 blades, a Gillette representative wrote, “Gillette Mach3 razors have better blades with sharper edges for a more comfortable shave … these blades are strengthened with an atomic carbon coating to help keep them sharper for longer.”

We watched Oppenheimer three times and still have no clue what an atomic carbon coating is when it comes to razor blades, nor have we noticed, in our long-term testing, that the Mach3 feels or wears any differently.

The Gillette Fusion5 is fast, smooth, and has great ergonomics. It shaves closer than the Gillette Mach3but requires more frequent rinsing, so if you prioritize smoothness and convenience above all else, the Fusion5 may work for you. Our testers who liked it really loved it, with many saying that it gave them the closest shave of any of the razors in our test pool. But Fusion5 cartridges are expensive—often twice the price of the Mach3 cartridges. And more people preferred the Mach3 overall.

In terms of pure quality shaving, the Fusion5’s five blades are generally superior. In our testing, the Fusion5 got more top-three votes than any other razor we tested: Six of our nine original testers placed it in that ranking. The Fusion5 cartridge has a sixth blade atop the lubricating strip—a trimmer—which the Mach3 lacks.

But it also garnered more negative comments than the Mach3 and some other razors we tested. Some of our testers said the higher blade count scraped against their skin, or that the large head was harder to maneuver. But the majority of complaints were about how the five densely packed blades had to be rinsed more frequently. “The Fusion5 gives me a close shave,” said one tester, “but I would say that I did have to do a few more passes compared with the Mach3, [because] it needed repeated rinsing.”

The simplest, least expensive Fusion cartridge is the best Fusion cartridge. The lineup of Fusion cartridges and handles has changed over the years. We’ll make it simple: Buy the least expensive Fusion option—the Fusion5. All Fusion cartridges fit all Fusion handles. All Fusion cartridges have a sixth cutting edge, used for trimming and precision grooming, at the top of the cartridge. All have a lubricating strip. How much lubricant is on that strip, and where the strip is placed, is the key difference between cartridges. The standard ProGlide cartridge has more lubricant than the Fusion5 cartridge. The ProGlide Shield (formerly known as the Fusion5 ProShield) adds a second, lower lubricating strip and a finer guide (also known as a comb) for maneuvering your whiskers into the blades. We believe that with lubricant strips, less (as on the Fusion5) is more.

Ditto for handles—buy the cheapest Fusion model. The Fusion5 handle is just fine, though you can’t buy it on the Gillette website, which only offers the Fusion ProGlide and ProGlide Shield. Though those two are sold as different razors, they use functionally the same handle—both come with a ball-shaped side-to-side pivot that the standard Fusion5 doesn’t have and that our testers felt made no difference in shave performance (the ProGlide handle has orange accents; the ProGlide Shield handle is trimmed in yellow).

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Five blades mean more-frequent rinsing. Since the blades are spaced closer together, you need to clean them more often. You can’t defy physics.

Fusion cartridges are expensive. The best we can say is that the Fusion5 is no longer the most expensive razor cartridge available (read on to see how Gillette has topped itself). At $4 to $5 per refill, the razor, as good as it can be for many, can’t compete with our top pick on price. But if the Fusion5 works for you—especially if you need or like the trimmer blade—you’ll get the smoothest shave possible.

Safety razors were pretty much the only way people shaved from about 1920 through the early 1970s, when Gillette introduced its first cartridge systems, leading to razors that both added convenience and increased prices by locking people into proprietary handles. The strategy worked and continues to work, but over the past decade, a number of shavers have returned to safety razors.

Dozens of safety razors are available—some cheap, some expensive, many gorgeous. Even Gillette has begun, for the first time in decades, offering a safety razor and blades to US shoppers.

One of the main advantages of using a safety razor is the price of blades—usually between a nickel and a dime each—and the variety. There are dozens of brands, available in various levels of sharpness and composition. As for the handles, safety razors from Merkur and Edwin Jagger, among others, have been documented to last decades, requiring little maintenance.

Another advantage is more aesthetic, even spiritual, for some: Safety razors demand a welcome learning curve, and sit at the center of a culture that turns the experience into a ritual, something beyond the hurried removal of facial hair. And practically, people prone torazor bumps—which occur when tightly curled facial hair grows inward, causing irritation or infection—do especially well with safety razors. Read on for our safety razor recommendation, along with some thoughts on blades.

If you value simplicity, reliability, sustainability, and low cost: You may want to try a safety razor. You can choose from thousands of models, but a good one to start with is the Parker Variant Adjustable Safety Razor, which comes with a small dial that allows you to modify the “aggressiveness” of the blade, meaning how much of the blade is exposed (less exposed blade equals a milder shave). Another favorite, for its bulletproof construction and minimalist design, is the nonadjustable Merkur Safety Razor 34C, one of dozens of models made by that company.

Once you’ve chosen your razor, go ahead and order a sampler pack of blades. Picking your preferred blade is more than half the fun of old-school shaving. Starter kits offer a dozen or more brands from all over the world for you to try, and the price is right—generally 10¢ or less per blade. You’ll soon develop a favorite, and before you know it, you’ll be checking other people’s bathrooms and lecturing them sternly if you find anything in their medicine chest marked with the “G” word.

If you don’t shave every day: Consider the Schick Hydro Stubble Eraser Razor. This triple-blade razor is fine for daily use, but it’s really designed for shavers who skip a day or two and end up with heavier growth. The “stubble eraser” part of the razor is a large guard, which might be considered the chin of the cartridge—a broad, grooved appendage designed to guide hairs into the blades. Guards (also known as combs) have been around since the early days of shaving, but this is one of the best applications of the concept I’ve seen. The Hydro Stubble Eraser cartridges come dearly, though: These are three-blade refills at five-blade prices.

Gillette offers several specialty razors, including one that has the most expensive cartridges we’ve ever seen: The company’s newest shaving system is the five-blade Exfoliating Bar Razor, which features a large, rough insert just below the blade to help “remove dirt and debris before the blades pass.” Gillette claims this action means you can get a close shave in one pass. We found that this isn’t really the case, though the razor is easy and efficient to use, shaving as well as a five-blade Gillette Fusion5. The cartridges, which work only with the exfoliating handle, start at about $6.25 each, making them the most costly razor blades we’ve considered.

The Exfoliating Bar razor is part of the GilletteLabs collection, which also includes the very expensive Heated Razor. (We review it here.)

More affordable is the Gillette SkinGuard Razor, which uses two widely spaced blades on a Fusion-compatible chassis, reducing pulling and tugging that can result in ingrown hairs and razor bumps. It’s an effective and comfortable solution; although it’s pricier than a safety razor, which requires more skill, it’s an equally good way to avoid those problems. SkinGuard cartridges, priced about the same as standard Fusion refills, fit all Fusion handles (and vice versa).

Barbasol—the classic shaving cream brand—continues to offer its Ultra 6 Plus system manufactured by Dorco, a Korean company that makes razors and blades sold under several brand names. The Ultra 6 Plus is a nice razor with a hefty handle, but the cartridges are nearly identical to Dollar Shave Club’s, less available, and more expensive.

The Bic EasyRinse Anti-Clogging Men’s Disposable Razor offers four very widely spaced blades on a lightweight handle. The blades clear debris easily, but the broad profile makes the cartridge larger than a Fusion5 and cumbersome to maneuver.

We’re testing the five-blade Bic Us 5-Blade Unisex Razor, which the company markets as a unisex face-and-body razor.

Dollar Shave Club aimed to revolutionize the shaving world more than a decade ago when it launched (video) with a simple proposition: “Our Blades Are F***ing Great.” The real appeal of Dollar Shave Club was that its blades were cheap (as low as $1 per cartridge). Today, it sells two basic options, both loaded with stainless steel blades made in the company’s own factory in Israel. (Before 2021, its offerings were outsourced to Dorco.) Dollar Shave Club’s lineup now includes three cartridge types—one with two blades, one with four, and another with six—that fit handles available in various colors and styles (a special version of the four-blade cartridges for acne-prone skin is also available). The company has dialed down the aggressive upselling that previously made visiting its website an annoying experience. Cartridge prices currently range from about $1.20 to $2.50. We tried the new six-blade starter set, and our results ranged from neutral to negative. More testers reported irritation and redness with this model than with any of the other razors we tried. If you own one of Dollar Shave Club’s old handles, a customer service representative told us, “We have permanently discontinued the Heritage Series.” Since the old handles were made by Dorco, Dorco Pace cartridges should be compatible. Customer reviewers on Amazon have reported success mixing and matching.

The other would-be industry disrupter was Harry’s. The Harry’s advantage was that the company didn’t use rebranded razors from another major manufacturer. Instead, it bought a German razor blade factory, pairing a five-blade cartridge with good-looking handles. Although the Harry’s shave has some passionate fans, we’ve always found it to be problematic, mostly because of the way the cartridge is designed. Rather than clipping to a spring-loaded pivot, the way most modern razors do, the Harry’s cartridge attaches with a bendy pseudo-hinge that yields when you press it into your skin. Harry’s claims that this design produces an effect that, like “a paintbrush on a wet canvas ... flexes to the contours of your face for precise control.” In fact, we found the opposite: The cartridge is overly labile, resulting in a sloppy shave. The trick to getting a top-level shave with Harry’s (and you can) is to use a very light touch, though this means more strokes. We’ve always loved the look of Harry’s Truman handle (especially in orange), but we found the original version slippery. The company has since added grippy grooves to the handle while maintaining the Art Deco/Bakelite aesthetic.

Patriot Shave advertises itself as being “for the hard-working Men and Women who believe in the Traditional Values that Make America Great.” The first impressively hefty Freedom Forged handle with a four-blade cartridge we ordered arrived broken, but the company quickly sent us a replacement—throwing in a personal apology and a bar of soap. The shave was quite good overall, but at $2.50 apiece in the most economical pack (of 16), the direct-by-mail only, four-blade refills have a hard time competing with widely available Gillette Mach3 cartridges.

Shavemob is a similar shave-club-type vendor. Its six-blade Caveman cartridge looks similar to Barbasol’s Dorco-like Ultra 6 Plus, though the Shavemob handle is less hefty, and the blades are not compatible.

Schick’s cartridge line is an odd and interesting mix, with about eight different handles and blade types to choose from, and not all of them compatible with each other. The Hydro Stubble Eraser Razor is a great choice for people who don’t shave daily. The company’s flagship, the five-blade Hydro (available in sensitive, ultra-sensitive, and dry skin versions) drew mixed reactions from our testers, ranging from neutral to awful. “The thing ripped up my neck worse than anything I’ve ever used,” one tester noted of the Hydro razor.

One of Schick’s more bizarre entries is the Xtreme Bamboo Razor, which features a three-blade cartridge mounted to what the company calls a sustainable wooden handle. The flexy, flat handle is about the same size and thickness as a popsicle stick and would work far better as a holder for a quiescently frozen confection than a cutting instrument.

XMicro is a budget subscription/mail-order razor company that also sells Bluetooth earbuds. Its five-blade cartridge mates to a lightweight plastic handle we found to be far too flimsy.

Store-brand cartridge razors

With cartridge prices so high, it makes sense that shavers would seek bargains. The most common way to do this is to go with a store-brand Mach3-like cartridge, many of which have appeared as some of Gillette’s key patents hit their 20-year validity mark in 2019. You’ll find similar options in most pharmacies and big-box stores.

In 2024, we tried the Walgreens Men’s 3 Blade EasyFit Cartridges. They have a rough feel, noticeable from the first shave, and are clearly not as good as genuine Mach3 blades. They’re also not cheap. A pack of four is about $9.40, which comes out to $2.32 per cartridge. That’s less than a genuine Mach3 four-pack at Walgreens ($15) but not significantly less than the identical refill pack at Walmart ($10).

We also tested Amazon Basics razors in three-and five-bladeversions. These are marketed under the MotionSphere brand and manufactured by Edgewell, which also owns Schick. MotionSphere refers to a pivoting ball that’s somewhat similar to Gillette’s Fusion ProShield system. The five-blade version is big and has tight blade spacing, making it hard to clear. The three-blade cartridge is odd, almost as big as the five-blade, but bunches its blades together at the center of the cartridge, with big gaps at the top and bottom, leaving the blades as closely spaced as five-blade versions. We also found the lubricating strips on both models to be excessively gooey. That said, the reviews on Amazon are pretty favorable for both models, and Amazon Basic’s refill cartridges can be a good deal, costing as little as $1.33 for the five-blade version and less than a dollar per cartridge for the triple-blade version.

Another Edgewell-built razor—similar to that of Amazon Basics but lacking the pivoting ball—is sold as Walmart’s five-blade Equate and looks identical to the Walgreens five-blade EasyFit. Both offered mediocre shaves at blade and handle prices that were not much cheaper than that of our picks.

We don’t recommend the sub-$1 Mach3-compatible replacement cartridges available on sites like AliExpress. (Some can be found for as little as a dollar for a four-pack, shipping included.) We ordered some at random, receiving a bulky parcel from abroad a few weeks later. Let’s just say that these blades would be perfect … for a wheel of pecorino. One brand that kept coming up on AliExpress was iGuetta, which offers a plastic Mach3-like handle with four-blade cartridges, usually priced at a dollar or two. On our test unit, a lubricating strip fell off during the first shave.

Specialty cartridge razors

The Feather F3 might be the best pure shave we’ve ever gotten from a cartridge razor. This triple-blade razor gives one of the smoothest, easiest shaves we’ve experienced. The blade is quite sharp, though, and takes a couple of days of break-in to reach optimal honing, something typical cartridge shavers may not be used to. The blades have tiny “waves” etched into them—miniature versions of the guard found on the Schick Hydro Stubble Eraser Razor we like—that are meant to position the blade at the optimal distance from the face. This works, but if you don’t know how to use it, you’ll press too hard and get a mediocre or uncomfortable shave.

But the bigger issue with this razor is the weird handle design. It resembles a hooded cobra. The “hood” is actually a gigantic hinge, which really looks like it is meant to be pressed and pivoted with your thumb, but isn’t (you’ll get a worse shave if you do—it’s the pressure from your face that operates the hinge). A break-in period and a learning curve, we admit, are antithetical to the whole idea of a cartridge system, but I’m strangely fascinated by this razor. Feather has a US storefront on Amazon and sells the handle and refills at prices similar to the Mach3 razor. Still, with our cartridge criteria centering around speed and safety, we can’t broadly recommend the F3.

Kai razor blades have a huge following. Its Axia five-blade cartridge system is available as an import, and though it is more traditional than the Feather F3, it also offers a more ordinary shave.

Most people who use safety razors are philosophically opposed to cartridge systems, or at least perturbed by them. The Penny Razor mates a single-blade, pivoting cartridge with a substantial guard (no lubricating strip) to a solid metal handle, and it’s primarily positioned as a travel razor for traditional shaving enthusiasts, since TSA won’t allow standard safety razors with blades in carry-on luggage. The Penny Razor is also fast, since it has a forgiving pivoting head, making it a good choice for people prone to razor bumps or with sensitive skin. And with cartridges costing less than 50¢, it’s a very affordable alternative to Gillette’s Skin Guard, though it is only available from a single source.

Gillette’s single-blade Guard Shaving Razor and triple-blade Guard 3 Shaving Razor are meant for the India market but can be found on Amazon, eBay, and at shaving enthusiast sites. Overseas, they’re designed to tempt shavers away from still-mainstream safety razors and into inexpensive cartridge systems (between 10¢ and 50¢ per cartridge). In the US, they’ve gained some favor among hobbyists who seek simplicity, and though not exorbitantly priced, they’re not the bargains they are in their country of origin.

This article was edited by Tracy Vence and Kalee Thompson.