braun clean & renew wet and dry something something. I think it's a Braun Series 7 7880CC
So. I got this shaving machine thing for my birthday. And I have used it for some months now. I have about 100 hairs of facial hair growth, not a lot, it's far from enough for a full mustache or anything. All it is is just annoying me.
It's an electric shaving machine. It looks good, it feels good in my hand. Using it is simple: You just rub it over your face and the hairs disappear. No need for shaving foam, nor decent motor skills. Unlike with knives, it's hard to injure yourself by accident, although I managed to get a minor cut once, I don't know how. This is a huge benefit for me, it makes it much easier, and it takes less time. Before I injured myself often. It also makes my skin hurt much less; my skin barely irritates using this thing. However, it also doesn't make it as smooth as with a razor. However, for me the benefits vastly outweigh this disadvantage. Also, since it is a machine, you don't need to replace the expensive razor blades(though after a long time the razor block will wear down, so you'll need to replace that or get a new machine entirely, not sure how long this will take), something I dreaded.
However, this machine has one flaw. When you're done, you put thing back into the charging/cleaning station and you press the big button. Then it will clean. That is actually a good thing, it does maintenance for you. But, it requires a cartridge. The cartridge contains the cleaning fluid, probably made of an alcohol like isopropanol/ethanol, lubricant, maybe a bit of water. Now you're supposed to leave this cartridge in. However, the alcohol has a low boiling point and will evaporate. Not only disappears your precious cleaning fluid, it also has an undesirable, strong, lingering, smell.
So what do I do? First I only clean like once every 2-3 shaving sessions. I hope this doesn't damage the knife block. When I do clean, first I take the cartridge, rip the lid off, put the thing into the station, press the big button, let it do its thing(which makes funny noises). When its done, I pull it out, put the lid back on. This makes the smell only temporary, and the cartridge last much longer, something that I desire because I do not like buying replacements("it's the razor blades all over again!"). So far I haven't needed a replacement, but one day I do. If you search the internet, you can get 6 cartridges for like 30 EUR. Expensive for a bit of alcohol and a lubricant. I'd love to refill it, it's probably cheaper that way(but I am not sure), but I have no clue how to do that. One cartridge is supposed to last 8 weeks. Now if that were the case, this would really add up over time, like razor blades. Thankfully, using my strategy, I can last at least 2 years with this. But this is a big downside for me. Also, I wouldn't know how it is with like, proper facial hair growth. I wouldn't know how long it would last. So yeah.
I haven't tried using it under the shower(requires more cleaning) or use the trimmer or use gel or whatever. It doesn't interest me at the moment.
Price? Around 170 EUR. You can get a cheaper variant if you don't care about using it under a shower. While the up-front cost is relatively high, maintenance cost should be lower(using my technique, compared to razors you see on TV and in grocery stores)
Something cheaper would be a classic shaving knife. You know, how they would do it 100 years ago. I think that thing would last really long, you don't need any replacement knives or other bullshit, it makes a clean cut. However, I think the drawback would be you'd need to learn to shave that way, which is hard when you've got poor motor skills. Not only that, you can seriously injure yourself with that thing, not idiot proof. You'll have to take more time to shave. Not necessarily a bad thing, you can make a nice relaxing ritual out of it. Or something like a Mühle R(some number), no experience at all with that stuff. It seems safer. The replacement knives are MUCH cheaper than like, what you see in grocery stores and on TV. We're talking powers of 10.
Conclusion: it's cool engineering thing, good for idiots like me, easy stuff, comfortable for your skin, only the damned cartridges are a pain that you'll have to accept.