Med Prep vs Blue Labs vs Barbers

[Chadao]

I am opening an old wound...in the past I could not tell the difference between Personna Blue Labs and Med Preps. I just received some more Med Preps (I have a box . of Blue Labs at home), and some Barbers in white wrappers from Razor Blades & More. I just started a week-long business trip and decided to shave with a Med Prep this morning. I had a fantastic shave, better than any shave I have ever had with Blue Labs, and the Blue Labs are in my three blade rotation (Feather, Blue Lab, Gillette Black).
I will shave twice a day on this trip and I'll stick with the Med Preps unless something goes wrong, like a bad blade. When I return, I'll revisit the Blue Labs and the Barbers (I haven't used the Barbers in several years). But if my shaves continue like this I will definitely buy 100 Med Preps.
I sent some of each to a B&B Blade Brother. I heard from him this morning and he is going to test them, too.
I thought Oscroft's test was definitive, especially since he did it twice. But same wound new tests. Maybe Oscroft should try the Barbers vs. one of the others.

 

[Ashley Rosser]

I thought the Labs and Meds where the same blade.
Just that the Meds go through a sterilizing process.

 

[Chadao]

That's the general opinion. One of our members called Personna and was told they are made in two different factories. This was confusing as most of us thought Personna only has one US factory. And the blister packs sold as Blues are probably Barbers. All three blades are marked differently. But the difference in shave for me today may just be a fluke. But it was so different, I had to remark on it.

 

[Ashley Rosser]

Hmmn! maybe get some Med prep blades next time.
I did think the difference in price was a bit steap just for Sterilization.
I just put it down to the effect the Law suite lottery has on medical prices in the states, maybe there's more to this than meets the eye.

 

[KQY61]

Hi,

I am getting all confused as well. I ordered a pack of 100 Personna Lab blades from WCS a few weeks ago. I opened them the other day, and notice that they don't say 'Lab Use' on them any more. I also note that WCS has dispenser packs also labeled as Labs but I never knew that the Labs came in anything other than 100 packs.

Why would one need or want a dispenser in a laboratory setting? They are used in tools other than razors, so there would be a greater amount of unwanted blade handling with a dispenser.

The printing on the Lab 100 pack box is different than it once was, too. No mention of Lab Use, either. I saw that on the WCS photo, but that did not mean much to me. Companies are always changing the look of their packaging. Except the Med Preps in their fairly plain white box. But hospital supplies usually come in fairly plain white boxes!

Anyway, I had bought 100 Gillette Yellow 7 O'Clock blades in between the last box of Labs and this new one. So, I have run about 40 of those through my razors and don't have any of the older Labs to directly compare to the new ones. This change is a result of finding this site and reading all the love for other blades. Ha!

This other day I decided to PIF the remaining 7 O'Clock Yellows to the Great Blade Exchange (and I still have not packed them up and shipped them, either), so I opened the new Labs and now I am wondering if a change has occurred. Perhaps the Labs are gone and these are 100 pack Barbers that have replaced them? And everyone is confused?

Well, to find out for sure, I just ordered 100 Med Preps in their Med Prep plain white box, and if they show up still sporting their Hospital Use markings, I will know for sure that they are Med Preps. And, then I can side-by-each compare them to the new Labs and find out. So There!

Ironically, it was my barber that clued me in to the fact that the Lab Use blades he was using were really the same as the Hospital Use ones sans extra processing and so were about half the cost as a result. I had been using Med Preps since the middle 1980's when the Schick Platinum blades went away in the stores. I was running fire/rescue in those days, and spent lots of time in hospitals, and so knew where to get Med Preps from as a replacement.

Stan

 

[5savages]

The meds are NOT sterilized. The story was that they get an extra washing, not a sterilizing. Were they sterilized, it was say so on the box.

 

[KQY61]

The meds are NOT sterilized. The story was that they get an extra washing, not a sterilizing. Were they sterilized, it was say so on the box.

Hi,

Looks like a little extra explanation is in order. Maybe we ought to call it 'super clean' then.

They are not packaged such that they are sealed. So, they cannot state that sterility is guaranteed if package is intact. It is similar to 4x4 gauze pads. Some are packaged such that sterility is guaranteed and say so on their wrappers. Some are not so packaged, and can't say so. Yet they are sterilized anyway during production.

The statement 'For Hospital Use' indicates a sterilization step at the end of manufacturing. Their extra wash must be hot enough for long enough to get them clean enough to use in a hospital environment, and they are so marked.

Stan

 

[mce00771]

I am getting ready to test the labs vs. med preps as well. I am now unsure if I actually have labs. I ordered a pack from WCS, but it came in the blister packed dispenser. Does anyone know for certain whether these are labs or barbers?

 

[ackvil]

I have written to Personna, ASRCO, and the parent company Energizer Holdings asking for an explanation or clarification of the blades. I wrote to ASRCO (using their web site) in July and never got an answer. I did a follow up e-mail in early August. Still no reply. Yesterday was the fourth attempt to get some clarification and I wrote to all of the above companies. Hopefully, some day they will reply.

 

[5savages]

Hi,

Looks like a little extra explanation is in order. Maybe we ought to call it 'super clean' then.

They are not packaged such that they are sealed. So, they cannot state that sterility is guaranteed if package is intact. It is similar to 4x4 gauze pads. Some are packaged such that sterility is guaranteed and say so on their wrappers. Some are not so packaged, and can't say so. Yet they are sterilized anyway during production.

The statement 'For Hospital Use' indicates a sterilization step at the end of manufacturing. Their extra wash must be hot enough for long enough to get them clean enough to use in a hospital environment, and they are so marked.

Stan

Perhaps we're arguing semantics but here's the post by Jim (ackvil) a few years ago where he describes his conversation with representatives of the Personna medical division. I have not seen any other posts from people who have any more definitive information than this. Now to me, "cleaning up" does not equal sterlization. You could sterilze the blade and still not clean off any coatings, oils or residues. Conversely, you can clean those off and still not sterilize it.

 

[Chadao]

I started with the blister pack, but the blades are marked differently than the Blues. They have arrows showing which way to push. In shaving with them they are different blades. Most folks say the are Personna Barber blades. Kroger also sells the barbers in their own blister pack.

 

[KQY61]

Hi,

I received my 100 pack of Personna Med Preps from WCS yesterday. I had recently bought a 100 pack of what WCS sells as Personna Lab Blues three weeks ago.

I inspected one of each blade under a 25x optical comparator microscope today. I can see no difference between either blade edge even using polarized light which will show different contrast if the coatings should be different.

The Med Preps say For Hospital Use on them as they always did. The Lab Blues only say Personna Super. Both use the same blue wrapper, with Verona VA and Made in USA printed on them. The Med Prep box is plain, while the Lab Blue box is all fancy printed in three languages (English, French and Spanish) with a pic of a blade on it to boot. Also, Now 25% Sharper!

I shaved with both this morning. One type blade on each side. No difference. As it always was. So, this is the bottom line from me.

Stan

 

[Chadao]

Thanks Stan. Great information.

 

[taco8slo]

This experiment is interesting but I think that perhaps water or other conditions play a role in the difference of shave quality (business trip with different water than you have at home, I for one have super hard water at home and would probably experience a noticeable difference if I were to ever try out shaving with soft water), though these things are hard to be super scientific about due to there being so many variables and such...

 

[Jeff_H]

Why doesn't someone just get a job at the Personna factory where these blades are produced and solve the mystery? Surely one of our members is looking for something in Virginia.

 

[Chadao]

+1

Why doesn't someone just get a job at the Personna factory where these blades are produced and solve the mystery? Surely one of our members is looking for something in Virginia.