Braun 9595 Pulsonic System

Braun Pulsonic Series 7 790 cc electric shaver with charge and renew

So what’s the story?
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I once heard a drill instructor once say to a recruit “Have you shaved this morning, laddie?”
The nervous recruit, with a gulp, squeaked “Yes, Sergeant”
“Well tomorrow morning” came the riposte “Stand a little closer to the razor!”
And there, in a nutshell, is my problem with electric razors or shavers: Immediately after I use one I look like I have maybe had a bad shave and within 4 hours – well before the end of the working day – I look like I have not shaved at all.

What does it matter?
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I never expected to find an electric shaver which gave me as good a shave as a wet shave with a blade – and to be completely honest, I still haven’t – but the Braun Series 7 790cc comes closer than I ever expected to find.
Given that it retails in Boots for £250, you might think that it was a triumph of hope over experience that I even bought one to find out (especially as I was sceptical) but I did buy one and I don’t regret it at all.
(I did wait until Boots was doing one of its occasional discounts, so it was £200 and not £250, and I did buy it with Boots Advantage Points, their loyalty point’s currency, rather than parting with any actual cash... )
You can get these shavers for less right now – maybe £130 - £150 on Amazon and elsewhere. Still not cheap, but it may be worth it anyway.

So what?
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A fair question. Since I started shaving as a teenager I have had four or five electric shavers, battery, mains and rechargeable. I have found Braun to be the best for me (I personally found the Philishave floating head system to be totally useless – that was a waste of £70) but none of them, even the Braun, was very good. The most I have been able to expect was that I could get away with electric shaving two or three days a week, with a wet shave no less than every second day. Any less than that and I started to look like I had not shaved or had shaved with my eyes shut – random hairs left behind, longer hairs not trimmed etc.

(Another aside, but by the way – Victor Kiam might have found the shaver so good he bought the company but I found it to be useless).

OK, but what is it?
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This is the Braun Series 7 790cc Clean & Renew System Electric Rechargeable Foil Shaver.

Let’s take those in more detail:

Well, it is another electric shaver, so far so ordinary. It has a nice heft to it, a comfortable weight, well designed hand grip (equally comfortable in left or right hand, too – no disadvantaging the sinister, here).

It is mains/rechargeable - you can run it direct from the mains, but it charges quickly and a full charge means you can take it away and use it every day for a couple of weeks before it will need another charge – enough for more holidays or business trips.

It is a foil shaver system, which basically means the facial hairs slip through small holes in the foil and are cut off, but it is MUCH smarter than most foil shavers. It features a Sensoflex dynamic shaving head (which tracks the shape of your face and neck like terrain following radar) and the Smart Foil means that far more hairs are cut whichever direction they come from and far fewer – for me, anyway – are left behind.

It has a three-stage cutting system too, so the hairs it cuts are cuts closer/shorter – usually the preserve of a blade and the main problem with electrics – but importantly without trapping or cutting the skin.

So, easy to use, nice to handle, charges quickly and runs for a good period with a charge, cuts well, getting most hairs and cutting them short, terrain following, are you starting to see why I like this shaver?

It also had a neat little pop-out sideburn or moustache trimmer which is actually at an angle designed to allow you to see what you are doing when using it – seems obvious, I know, but believe me this is radical. I think all the ergonomics people in person care have spent the last 10 years designing mascara brushes, so it is great that someone has been spared to spend a bit of time on men’s shavers!!
This shaver uses what they describe as ‘pulsonic’ technology to lift hairs up from the recumbent to allow them to be tackled. No, I don’t know what that means, either, but it works – they are doing something right.

Anything else?
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Thank you for asking, oh yes, much more.

This smart silver shaver has a LCD panel at the bottom which shows its percentage charge (in power blocks, a bit like a mobile phone display) and also another display which shows its hygiene status. With most electric shavers, you are supposed to open them or pop the top off and scoop out the accumulated hair trimmings with a little brush and dispose of them. Truth is most people don’t do it as often as they should; the device works less well etc. With this beauty, you place it shaving-head down into a Clean & Renew charging stand and press the button and away it goes. Whilst being recharged for you, the shaver head is also cleaned, the shavings removed and the blade cleaned, dried and lemon scented. There are two settings – ‘fast clean’ gives one cleaning/washing cycle (recharging at the same time) and ‘start cleaning’ which runs through several wash and dry cycles (and resets the hygiene status to 100% when it has finished and also fully recharges). It is easy and pleasant to you, and let’s be honest it also appeals to the gadget-obsessed little boy lurking inside to many adult men!

I also like that Braun have me one power lead that I can use to plug direct into the shaver, if I wish, or which will plug into the Clean & Renew charging stand, and also given me a tough plastic moulded case I can put the shaver in so it survives travel. When you are travelling (you won’t want to take the whole clean/charge base with you) you can wash the shaver head directly under the running tap.

Expensive to run, then?
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Well really not bad. There are three components here, basically. The foils and cutter blocks will need replacing and that package seems to be £20 - £32 depending on where you get it – but the clean and renew system will actually extend the life of these and the charging/cleaning bay also means the shave head is protected.
You will also need pack of the cleaning fluid (it comes as a cartridge that slips into the bottom Clean & Renew station, very easy to use) and a pack of two of these is currently about £5. One lasts me about 6 weeks or so.

So – yes or no, is it worth it?
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Wet shaving is not free. Gillette (who dominates the market for men’s blade shaving systems) make a good return and whatever you use by way of blades needs regular replacement. So, there is a cost however you go about this. Some men never tolerate wet shaving very well (although most men can do better with a really good shave gel product like King of Shaves). For me, using the electric shaver is faster than wet shaving and I resent the time I have to spend – waste? – shaving every day, so anything that saves me even a little time is to be welcomed. So, in my opinion, yes - it’s worth the money: And without going all L’Oreal on you – I’m worth it.