Personna Medical Prep Sample

[Viseguy]

Well, I don't think Personna's going to give us shavers an exact answer to all of this... the mystery of it all is making them money..
Nobody would buy the Meds anymore (most likely) if we were told they are the same as the Labs....

I don't think it's much money. The regional sales manager quoted in one of the threads was surprised to hear that the blades were being used for shaving, so I suspect that 99.9% of the market for Med Preps is hospital/medical. If the medical industry no longer needed those blades, I think we shavers would be out of luck.

 

[Cacique]

I wish I felt they were the same, but my face disagrees. I recently traded some blades for both the blues and some meds and while they both work great, it doesn't feel the same. I've been alternating, using 1 blade for it's duration and then swapping to another one. I find the blues not as smooth as the meds. I'm able to easily do a 3 pass shave with a med without irritation and maybe 1 nick, but swapping to a lab usually ends up with more blood and not as smooth shave.

I've been using the same prep and same razor and I'm finding the same results on both my New SC and my tech. I'm continuing to try them to make sure it's not me or bad blade(s).

 

[mblakele]

Here is a quote of the original post about the extra cleaning. Note that this was posted over three years ago, on 2010-09-23. At that time ASR/Personna was in bankruptcy, and just two months later Energizer (parent of Schick) acquired the company. Things may have changed: for example I think this predates the "now 25% sharper" packaging.

As I previously posted, I wrote to both EMS and Personna concerning the Robbins blade and the EMS blade.

Today, I received an e-mail from a regional sales manager for the medical division of the Personna American Safety Razor Co. and also had a follow up telephone conversation with a a representative from the medical division.

In brief, the two blades in question (the Robbins and EMS blade) are identical except that the Robbins blade goes through an additional "cleaning up" process that is required for hospital use. The cleaning up process does not change the way the blade shaves.

I asked why the two blades and the answer is that the same blade is made by two different divisions. The Robbins blade is made by the Medical Division while the EMS blade is made by the "industrial" division, which sells it to labs. However, the process for making the two blades is the same and the blades for all practical purposes are identical.

Supposedly, someone from the industrial division will contact me within the next two days.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the prompt answer I received from Personna.

The representative was surprised that many of us like to shave with these blades and I said that Personna is missing out on some sales to the public since they sell their regular products from their website but not the medical blades. She said the medical blades are sold to distributors in lots of 1,000 or more.

In any event I had my second shave with the EMS blade and as I indicated yesterday could see no difference in the shave. As far as I am concerned they are both excellent blades.

I traded with my friend some of my Robbins blades for his EMS blades and we will both be shaving with both to see if we can see any difference.

 

[shave/brush]

I recently traded some blades for both the blues and some meds and while they both work great, it doesn't feel the same. I've been alternating, using 1 blade for it's duration and then swapping to another one. I find the blues not as smooth as the meds. I'm able to easily do a 3 pass shave with a med without irritation and maybe 1 nick, but swapping to a lab usually ends up with more blood and not as smooth shave.

If you are getting nicks with both blades then maybe it's more of a technique problem than the blade.

 

[xillion]

There are some photos of Meds and Labs under the microscope below:

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...-Another-Personna-Med-vs-Lab-thread-With-pics

 

[Cacique]

If you are getting nicks with both blades then maybe it's more of a technique problem than the blade.

I get that, but when I do the same amount of passes with the same prep and I get irritation with one and not the other, then one obviously works better for me.

 

[Viseguy]

There are some photos of Meds and Labs under the microscope below:

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...-Another-Personna-Med-vs-Lab-thread-With-pics

Thanks a million, xillion! Now I'm back to thinking that the two blades are different, no matter what Personna says. And my impression is that while some people don't see any difference, more people have voiced a preference for the Med Prep. I'm not complaining about the Labs -- I'm happily working my way through a box of 100 -- but I do think that Med Preps are ever so slightly smoother on the first shave. To me, the blades become indistinguishable by the second shave.