Review: 12 months with the Skull Shaver

In which G.M. Norton keeps his word.

As a man of my word, last year I promised to provide an update on my Skull Shaver after 12 months of ownership.

So, here it is!

For those not familiar with the Skull Shaver, please do read the blog post from 10 March 2018, but to sum up here, the Skull Shaver is an electronic shaving device that I use to keep my head silky smooth. Ok, silky smooth may be overdoing it, but as smooth as it can be.

The Skull Shaver really has become an essential item in my arsenal of gentlemanly paraphernalia. I rely on it practically every day to maintain the Dr. Müller from Tintin look that I so obviously crave.

After all, has a fellow ever looked this good being punched? I think not.

I probably should confirm at this point that Skull Shaver have not paid me to share my thoughts on them. I paid for the Skull Shaver with my own limited funds because to be quite honest, while I was enjoying shaving with a razor, it was all too easy to cut myself, so I was keen to find a way to keep my hair as short as possible without any nasty nicks. 

I must confess, over the course of the year, my Skull Shaver's performance did get steadily worse compared to the first few weeks and months. It would still shave my head, but it took longer and longer. This was finally fixed when I visited the Skull Shaver website, found that they recommended replacing the shaver heads every so often, and ordered myself a new one for around £20. 

It came, I removed the old one, put on the new one and it was like those early days of courtship. 

In terms of other issues, there was one occasion when the Skull Shaver turned off by itself, despite there being lots of life left in the battery. I simply turned it back on again and it was fine. 

You empty hair from the Skull Shaver by turning on the tap and running the Skull Shaver in a sink of warm water for a minute of two (not submerging the whole thing, you understand - just the blade head). As you're dealing with wet hair, the shaving head did get a little smelly on occasion, so I was always careful to blast it was extra hot water which did seem to stop this. 

But those have been the only couple of problems I've encountered. Battery life has always been very good, it's quick to charge up which is always welcome and the battery indicator has been very useful.

For me, the Skull Shaver is worth every penny. When you see so many men walking around with bald heads, you automatically think that it must be very easy to achieve this look. But if you still have hair that sprouts out of your skull, then it isn't easy at all. 

There are so few men's grooming products that actually cut hair as close as can be. Clippers only cut it so far. I bought what are known as 'balding clippers' when I carried out the original hair culling deed, thinking that a product with 'bald' in the name would suffice. It didn't. 

Razors are ok. But when you're trying to shave the back of your head, especially when you're still a little bleary eyed, avoiding cuts is a dashed difficult business. 

So for me, the £100 outlay for the Skull Shaver and the £20 or so for the replacement head was a necessary investment, which I would gladly do again. Their '90 seconds and done' advertising slogan is complete poppycock of course. It usually takes me around five minutes each day.  

G.M. Norton

Protagonist of 'Norton of Morton'