This Razor Will Completely Change The Way You Shave

Full disclosure: The following story is about my pubes. Or rather, it is about shaving my pubic area, in case that makes it any less TMI (although I somehow doubt it).

Anyway, it was right around the time in middle school when people started growing body hair, during the delightful life stage known by endocrinologists as puberty, and I only knew one thing: I wanted mine gone. After nearly slicing off half my labia with my dad's safety razor in the shower, I decided it was time to seek help. So I did what any 13-year-old would do, and bypassed my mom or physician in favor of a decidedly cooler classmate who could give me some pointers during free period. For the closest shave, she whispered, use your razor in a back-and-forth motion — first in the direction of your hair growth, and then against the grain, as many times as you need to before it's all smooth. Quite the pro tip, my younger self thought. And it worked... for a time.

That was when the inevitable onslaught of tiny, red razor bumps and unsightly ingrowns soon speckled my sensitive bikini line — a result of dragging a razor across it over and over and over again. I finally switched to waxing in high school, which was infinitely more painful, yes, but also didn't make my nether regions as pink and bumpy as a plucked chicken.

But more than a decade later, Schick's latest razor launch has me reconsidering my options. The brand's newest innovation is called Intuition f.a.b., which stands for forward and backward, and it does exactly what its name implies: shaves from both directions at the same time. "The upward-facing blades enact a 'pull' stroke synonymous with traditional uni-directional shaving," Eric Kaplan, a Project Manager on the Research & Development team at Edgewell Personal Care, tells me. "The downward-facing blades shave with a 'push' stroke." So, you can get the same effect as shaving in both directions, but with just one pass of the razor this time.

I brought it into the shower with me this week, and was shocked by how effective it was. The razor felt soft and comfortable on my skin, with zero tugging, and it moved and shifted with my body's curves, so I didn't have to do my usual leg gymnastics in the shower. The result was a gentler, smoother, bump-free shave that 13-year-old me — and my misguided classmate — would have killed (or at least given up our Britney Spears concert tickets) for.

The future of beauty is here — and you’re invited. Check out the rest of our 2018 Refinery29 Beauty Innovator Award winners for a full look at the products, brands, and people that are breaking the rules and redefining beauty standards, one lipstick at a time.