Some people think baldness is a weakness. But when you know how to shave your head with the best razor for shaving your head, you turn into the sexy hunk that was hidden beneath your past locks.
Best Razor For Shaving Head Top Picks
What Makes The Best Razor For Shaving Your Head?
Safety Razor
You may wonder why we don’t feature any cartridge razors as the best razor shaving head. The reason is partly bias, but there are several good reasons we don’t recommend cartridge razors at Artisan Shaving.
Firstly, the shave quality from a single blade safety razor is clearly better than with a cartridge razor and with less chance of irritation.
Next is the cost of cartridge razors that often seems unavoidable. In reality, while razor heads cost a fortune a pack of ten safety razor blades will last months and cost just a few dollars. You can even bulk buy safety razor blades in packs of 100 for about ten dollars. See our list of the best safety razor blades here.
Finally, cartridge razors don’t just cost money – they really cost the earth. They are non-recyclable plastic and we use millions of them each year. Safety razor blades are recyclable.
Aggression
Your head hair will almost certainly be a different thickness to your beard. For most people the head hair will be thicker. But if your hair is thinning it may be easier to shave.
On the other hand you may have more sensitive skin on your scalp that can’t take too much of a close shave.
Either way, you need to find the right level on aggression for you. That is one reason why we list adjustable safety razors as some of the best razors for shaving your head. See more of the best adjustable safety razors here.
Meanwhile the Merkur 23C offers a good shave but is not particularly aggressive like some safety razors. It is a closed comb safety razor meaning it has safety bars to stop the blades from reaching your skin too much. The Merkur Futur tends to be more aggressive but can be adjusted to a milder setting.
Ideally you want a head shaver that you can also use on your face so an adjustable razor may well win this.
Length
Reaching round the back of your head means a longer handle is preferable, otherwise a Merkur 34C would also be on this list as a great all-rounder. The Merkur 23C is ideal without being too heavy. The Merkur Futur also has a generous handle.
Safety Razor Handle Grip
This is where the Futur falls and the 23C triumphs. A good grip is normally a good feature when handling a blade next to your skin with soapy hands. This is even more the case when shaving your head as you’ll be reaching round to parts of your head you can’t even see. And you don’t want to drop a razor down your back.
How To Shave Your Head
We’ve got a full guide on how to shave with a safety razor here, but how do you shave your head? The basic essentials are the same, but here’s a breakdown. Shave your head at the same time you shave your face with the following steps.
Shaving Soap
Choose your favourite shaving soap. If you need help here’s our guide to the best shaving soap, unless your would prefer shave butter. Depending on the skin of your scalp you may want to consider options more suited to sensitive skin.
Lather
Use a shaving brush and hot water, whirl up a lather of shaving soap. This involves brushing the shaving soap with hot water and then brushing it in circles on your face to work up a foamy lather. We’ve got more tricks to lathering in our shaving guide. Work this lather across your head same as you would your face by spiralling the brush across the scalp.
Shave
This is where shaving your head gets complicated. Ideally you should always begin shaving with the grain. This may be more complicated when shaving your head as you have a cowlick where the hair grows in a spiralling direction. If you are already bald or have thinning hair this shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
Hold the safety razor at a 30 degree angle to the skin and carefully shave in short strokes using no more force than the weight of the razor.
After one pass you may want to re-lather and shave across the grain for a closer shave.
Post-Shave
Use your choice of post-shave treatment to restore the skin and reduce any irritation. This could be an alum block – more about them here – post-shave balm or aftershave splash.
Afterwards treat yourself to your favourite moisturizer for bald heads to nourish the skin and protect from sun damage.
