Great Shaver for Ladies!

Shaving has never been one of my favorite tasks, but with an infant at home it has turned into something I now dread. My disappearing behind a shower curtain for an extended period upsets the baby, which frustrates me. In addition, I am quite near-sighted, so I frequently come out of the shower only to find patches of hair I had missed. I began to think that it would be convenient to have a way to shave outside of the tub (while wearing non-steamed-up glasses!) and started looking for an electric shaver.

I read various epinions about women's shavers, but I had a hard time finding them easily available in stores. If I couldn't depend on finding the shavers in stores, how did I know that I would be able to find replacement parts a year later? Men's shavers were easy to find, replacement parts were stocked along with the shavers, and there were a variety to choose from, so I decided to buy a men's shaver.

I decided to look for a dual screen Remington because of Remington's good reputation and because I thought a triple screen was a little excessive (and large) for shaving my legs. I also did not want a particularly expensive shaver, so I looked at lower-end models. I decided on the Mircroscreen 2X (DA-307), which was on sale at Sears. It has a 30-day money back guarantee, so I figured that if I didn't like it I could just take it back to Sears.

I'm in love.

Unlike a ladies shaver, which sits on a base to recharge, the Microscreen can either be used cordless or can be used with a cord. So, should the battery run down in the middle of a shaving session, you can just plug it in and keep on going. In addition, you can use the shaver as soon as you bring it home instead of waiting a day for it to charge. (Good for the instant gratification junkies among us!) Also, the shaver has an "automatic worldwide voltage" feature, which is nice for those who travel. Of course, the down side of having a cord rather than a base is that the shaver can't sit cutely off to the side of your sink (it looks much more utilitarian), but I can live with that.

As far as the shave is concerned, I was thrilled with the outcome. I have fine hair on my legs, and with my first Microscreen shave I got pretty much the same results as with a razor. The only difference was in the bikini area -- here I got a much better shave, perhaps since I wasn't afraid of cutting myself and because I could go over the same area multiple times. In addition, because the shaver doesn't give you the little bumps in the bikini area, I can shave more frequently there as well.

But the best part was shaving my underarm area. I have very coarse hair there and I get the little shaving bumps there as well. After using the trimmer feature to shorten the hair, I was thrilled to see the closest underarm shave I've ever had. And like the bikini line, I can now shave my underarms as frequently as I'd like without the risk of cutting myself to ribbons.

A word about the trimmer feature, which other people have disliked: I think that the trimmer is excellent for women. I can see how it would be hard for a man to use. Since the trimmer pops out of the side, rather than the top, of the shaver, if I were using the trimmer on my face I would probably be unable to see what I was doing in the mirror, since the shaver itself would obscure the view. But when a woman shaves, she is always looking down at the shaver, so having the trimmer pop out the side is both convenient, since it doesn't take up space elsewhere, and easy to see. I like this feature quite a bit.

Oh, and a final bit of advice about women using men's electric shavers. Men's shavers are designed to remove stubble, not the month's worth of hair that you let go over the winter! The trimmer can be used to remove longer hair to stubble length, so that you can "finish it off" with the shaver. But while the trimmer feature is great for small areas (bikini, underarm) or for some hair that grows at a faster rate than the rest, it's not worth using on your entire leg, for example. If you really have a lot of hair to remove, save your time by using a razor first, then starting to use the electric shaver.

I wish I had started using a shaver years and years ago. I can't imagine the time I could have saved.