Shaving Science

How to Help Prevent Missed Hairs While Shaving: Gillette FlexBall Technology

How to Help Prevent Missed Hairs While Shaving: Gillette FlexBall Technology

The Challenge of the Clean Shave

We’ve all had this happen:

Missed hairs after shaving
You’re settling into your shaving ritual. You prepare your face with a great lather of quality shaving gel or foam. And you have a fresh, sharp razor with plenty of blades. You take your time going over every bit of your face – your cheeks, your chin, your jawline. Then, you rinse your face, dry it off and look in the mirror…

And you see random hairs remaining.

It’s not like you don’t know what you’re doing. This is a daily ritual. But why are they there? And how can you get them all the first time?!

The Razor Evolves to Match Your Face

The key is in the contours of the face. Were your features flat, the blades would easily glide over them.

Male face countours
But every face is full of angles: including the chin, the jaw line, and the jaw bone corner, features which are unique and different for every man.
gillette
You attempt to glide the razor over and around these obstacles, but a razor blade is straight, while your face is not. It’s like trying to mow a bumpy lawn.
Gillette razor
We’re not strangers to razor innovation. After the advent of our first safety razor in 1901, we kept working on new and innovative ways to improve your at-home shave.
Razor pivot
In 1977, Gillette introduced its first centre-pivoting razor, with the Gillette Countour and Gillette Atra razors.
Gillette Mach3 razor pivot
In 1998, with the debut of the Gillette MACH3, we moved the pivot from the centre to the front, shifting the load from the hand away from the blades for a more comfortable, close shave.

But the cartridge movement was still restricted to up and down.

Pivoting with the Flexball Technology

Finally, Gillette found the solution to this challenge: creating a new dimension in cartridge movement.

We call it Flexball, and this innovation is found on Gillette ProGlide and Gillette ProShield razors.

gillette flexball in action
Flexball technology is the revolutionary pivot between the handle of the razor and the blade cartridge.

Mobile, like the wrist, the Flexball pivot responds to the contours of the face, allowing the cartridge to stay in great contact with the skin throughout the shave.



Gillette

Gillette

Writer and expert