Panasonic Close Curves ES2207P

Bottom line

If you struggle with razor burn, reviewers recommend the Panasonic Close Curves ES2207P shaver as an excellent alternative to razors. It's quiet, easy to handle and gives great results for underarms and bikini lines. It may sometimes miss hairs on legs and doesn't get quite as close as a manual razor, but no electric shaver does. Wet/dry performance is a big plus.

Performance

An antidote to razor burn. "Close shave, no razor bumps = HAPPINESS," writes one woman posting to Target.com. She nicely sums up the general opinion about the Panasonic ES2207P: If you suffer from razor burn, this is the shaver for you. It doesn't get quite as close as a manual razor, but that's typical for an electric shaver.

Women rave about the ES2207P's performance on the underarm and bikini line and say the pop-up bikini-line trimmer works very well. Complaints about occasional missed hairs do pop up when it comes to shaving legs, though. "Not the closest shave, but is very good at getting the job done in one pass rather than shaving the same area repeatedly," writes one woman at Amazon.com.

Ease of use

Take it anywhere. The Panasonic ES2207P is fully immersible; you can use it on dry skin, which many reviewers seem to prefer, or even take it into the shower or bath with you. We found quite a few posts from women who dropped this shaver in the shower hard enough that the pieces flew apart. This makes us wonder if the handle is a little slippery when wet -- nobody comments on this directly -- but the good news is that once the shaver was put back together, it almost always worked.

On the downside we also found quite a few reports of battery problems -- shavers that stopped holding their charge after weeks or months or sometimes wouldn't turn on at all. There were also a few complaints about customer service, though nothing pervasive. When the shaver does work, women rave about how long its battery lasts.

A set of replacement blades and foils retails for about $18. Assuming twice-yearly replacements, that adds up to a monthly ownership cost of $3 or a yearly cost of $36.