I've said several times on this board (here, here, here, and here) that I thought that Personna's Med Prep and Lab blades are exactly the same, but I've now revised that opinion.
A friend of mine on the other side of the pond, who has used Med Preps for some time, e-mailed me to say that he had just tried a Lab and found that it was not quite as smooth as the Med Prep. This remark, and recent posts by B&B members ackvil and delisle, got me thinking. I decided to try a little experiment -- actually two.
On Day 1, I put a Med Prep in my Gibbs DE razor and a Lab in my Old Type (both are open-comb razors, about equally aggressive). For the first pass, I shaved one side of my face with the Gibbs and the other side with the Old Type; for the second pass, I swapped the blades. I was surprised to find that, in both razors, the Med Prep was slightly smoother than the Lab.
On Day 2, I closed my eyes, shuffled the blades, and, with my eyes still closed, put one in the Gibbs and the other in the Old Type. I honestly had no idea which razor had which blade. (Don't try this at home!) I then did a three-pass shave, alternating between the two razors as I went along. The idea, of course, was to see if I could tell which blade was which. Before the end of the first pass, I had no doubt that the Med Prep was in the Old Type -- and, in fact, when I opened the razors at the end of the shave, there it was. My conclusion: the Med Prep delivers a perceptibly smoother shave than the Lab.
Supposedly the only difference between Labs and Med Preps is that Med Preps go through a final washing process. I've always found it hard to imagine, though, that washing could change the way a blade shaves. But then I noticed on Personna's Med Prep page that another feature of Med Preps is that they are "Comfort-Coated® for smooth shaves". My friend asked his vendor about this, and the vendor (who must remain nameless here) said that the coating is PTFE (a/k/a Teflon). Now that, to me, would explain the difference! Although I couldn't find information on the Personna website as to whether Labs are coated or not, it seems to me that there would be no reason to coat blades intended for laboratory use. And the absence of coating would also explain why Labs cost less than Med Preps.
To recap, I think that Med Preps are slightly smoother than Labs (your results may vary, of course), because Med Preps are PTFE-coated, while Labs are not. Edit: But I was wrong about the coating. See Jon1944's post, below.
Your thoughts?Can anyone confirm that Labs are, in fact, not coated?
A friend of mine on the other side of the pond, who has used Med Preps for some time, e-mailed me to say that he had just tried a Lab and found that it was not quite as smooth as the Med Prep. This remark, and recent posts by B&B members ackvil and delisle, got me thinking. I decided to try a little experiment -- actually two.
On Day 1, I put a Med Prep in my Gibbs DE razor and a Lab in my Old Type (both are open-comb razors, about equally aggressive). For the first pass, I shaved one side of my face with the Gibbs and the other side with the Old Type; for the second pass, I swapped the blades. I was surprised to find that, in both razors, the Med Prep was slightly smoother than the Lab.
On Day 2, I closed my eyes, shuffled the blades, and, with my eyes still closed, put one in the Gibbs and the other in the Old Type. I honestly had no idea which razor had which blade. (Don't try this at home!) I then did a three-pass shave, alternating between the two razors as I went along. The idea, of course, was to see if I could tell which blade was which. Before the end of the first pass, I had no doubt that the Med Prep was in the Old Type -- and, in fact, when I opened the razors at the end of the shave, there it was. My conclusion: the Med Prep delivers a perceptibly smoother shave than the Lab.
Supposedly the only difference between Labs and Med Preps is that Med Preps go through a final washing process. I've always found it hard to imagine, though, that washing could change the way a blade shaves. But then I noticed on Personna's Med Prep page that another feature of Med Preps is that they are "Comfort-Coated® for smooth shaves". My friend asked his vendor about this, and the vendor (who must remain nameless here) said that the coating is PTFE (a/k/a Teflon). Now that, to me, would explain the difference! Although I couldn't find information on the Personna website as to whether Labs are coated or not, it seems to me that there would be no reason to coat blades intended for laboratory use. And the absence of coating would also explain why Labs cost less than Med Preps.
To recap, I think that Med Preps are slightly smoother than Labs (your results may vary, of course), because Med Preps are PTFE-coated, while Labs are not. Edit: But I was wrong about the coating. See Jon1944's post, below.
Your thoughts?
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No bang for the buck, no sale to me. I was in retail; I know what sort of value I'm after.
