Best razor 2024: the finest wet shave razors for men

Remove stubble and beards the old-fashioned way with the best battery-aided and fully manual razors

One of the best razors, a Gillette, sitting on a bathroom sink next to a tap

If you favour the feel of cold steel of a morning, the best razors are exactly what you need, and in this guide, you can find the best of the best to buy today.

Whether you prefer a close shave or like to style your facial hair with minimal maintenance, the best razors for men can do it all. Remove stubble and beards has never been easier and our picks of the best battery-aided and fully manual razors are easy to use and deliver the best results the old fashioned way.

Before we go any further, the picks in this list are manual razors so if you prefer things electric, check out the best electric razors instead or check out the best beard trimmers. A lot of men are now getting keen on more classic, less tech-packed razors, often bought on a subscription basis. If you're one of these people, we have a guide to the best razor subscriptions, as well.

Without further ado, let's get into our list for the best razors in 2024.

Best razors ranking 2024

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Gillette ProGlide Flexball PowerT3 Best Buy Award

1. Gillette ProGlide Flexball Power

The best razor for men

Reasons to buy

+
Astonishingly smooth shave
+
Perfect ergonomics
+
Reliable brand

Reasons to avoid

-
Blades need regular replacement

Gillette's ever-growing range of razors reached its most recent peak with this powered, flex-headed , quintuple-bladed work of art. The 'Power' part is provided by a AAA battery and makes the razor vibrate as you use it. This may sound like a terrible idea but there is no doubt it improves shaving performance on this razor. 

The big leap forward here is the way the head pivots on a ball. This makes minimal difference to shaving your face but when you get to your neck there is a very noticeable improvement over rival razors and previous Gillettes. Meanwhile, the elongated lubricated strip complete with mineral oil improves the moisturising element Gillette has used for a while now and the blades are incredibly narrow and perfectly sharp.

As such, you need to replace blades far more often than on something like the old Mach 3. That aside, it's pretty much perfect.  

Gillette SkinGuard SensitiveT3 Approved Award

2. Gillette SkinGuard Sensitive

Best razor for sensitive skin

Reasons to buy

+
Very hard to be irritated by
+
Great for body shaving too
+
Sleek design

Reasons to avoid

-
Not suitable for longer stubble growth

With this razor, Gillette has called a ceasefire in the 'how many blades can we stuff into a razor casing?' war that has raged since the Mach 3. The SkinGuard has a mere two blades, separated by a 'SkinGuard Bar' that flattens the skin so the blades can do their business. 

More importantly, a lubricating strip surrounds the blades so the razor really glides. The result is a shave that's close without causing redness or irritation,  which is good news for the 33% of men who say they suffer from sensitive skin. 

Because of the way it cuts, I wouldn't recommend trying to use this on more than a couple of days' growth – you'll be there for hours. However, for daily use it's very hard to fault. Store it somewhere dry, mind, or that lubricating strip will degrade even faster than it usually does.

Wilkinson Sword Hydro 5T3 Approved Award

3. Wilkinson Sword Hydro 5

A great shave, though more old-fashioned

Reasons to buy

+
Five blades give rapid shaving
+
Professional shave
+
Hydrating gel reservoir

Reasons to avoid

-
Less technically advanced than Flexball

This five-blade stack is easy to handle, and undeniably gives great results. The flip trimmer on the back is another nice touch and a 'hydrating gel reservoir' lube-strip should last as long as the blade does. However, with its more rigid head, this does feel a step behind the Flexball Power. 

As with the GiIlette, there is a battery version of this (with variable power control, although that control is of dubious usefulness in my opinion). It is weirdly over-chunky, so you're arguably better off with the cheaper, non-powered version.

Wilkinson Sword Hydro 5 Power SelectT3 Approved Award

4. Wilkinson Sword Hydro 5 Power Select

Bionic version of the Hydro 5

Reasons to buy

+
Great shaving performance
+
Flip-up clipper
+
Gets the job done

Reasons to avoid

-
Overly chunky

The Wilkinson Sword Hydro 5 Power Select is another excellent razor option, again with a handy little flip-up clipper to do fiddly, sub-nose-type areas.

While tt is a tad chunky – unlike Gillette's powered Flexball, which is barely different from its non-powered sibling, visually – and I don't quite know why you'd want three levels of power control. But hey, it's there if you want it and it doesn't do a bad job! For simplicity, ease and 'just-get-the-job-done' attitude, you can't miss with the Wilkinson Sword Hydro 5 Power Select.

Gillette Fusion ProGlide Styler 3-in-1T3 Approved Award

5. Gillette Fusion ProGlide Styler 3-in-1

Handy jack of all shaving trades

Reasons to buy

+
Versatile
+
Cheap
+
Another popular Gillette option

Reasons to avoid

-
Not amazing at 2 of its 3 functions

The Gillette Fusion ProGlide Styler 3-in-1 lacks a Flexball and it's a step down for facial shaving from the ProGlide at #1, but it's still a very good performer, with a handy single blade on the rear for edging.

The Styler also comes with little plastic combs for beard trimming, and a little tiny powered foil thing which I think is for doing your downstairs. It's not amazing for these purposes but it's still a versatile razor for the price.

Gillette Fusion ProShield FlexballT3 Approved Award

6. Gillette Fusion ProShield Flexball

A cross between the FlexBall and the SkinGuard Sensitive

Reasons to buy

+
Extremely smooth to use
+
SkinGuard tech
+
Comfortable with two blades

Reasons to avoid

-
Lube strips and blades wear out pretty quick
-
Less effective than ProGlide

Another version of the ProGlide, this takes the SkinGuard approach, with lubricating strips positioned both before and after the blades. The result is that it glides even more smoothly and safely over your dermis

Again, the down side here is that I find it glides so smoothly, it actually shaves less effectively, because the blades are fractionally further away from your skin, and in contact with the hairs for fractionally less time. More to the point, the SkinGuard takes a similar approach but is even more comfortable, due to only having two blades, leaving this older razor as a rather niche product.

How to buy the best razors

Razors come in a bewildering array of special packs, limited edition packs, multi-packs and… just packs. The obvious thing to do is to buy the cheapest version of any given razor – usually just the shaver and one blade – when you're trialling a new one. 

Once you've established what your favourite is, scour the deals at Boots, Amazon et al to find the best price on blades. Half the time you'll find the very cheapest option is actually to buy a pack with a new razor and a stack of blades. Economies of scale and all that. 

You can also Subscribe and Save on razor blades at Amazon so you get new blades through the post at regular intervals.

Duncan Bell

Duncan is the former lifestyle editor of T3 and has been writing about tech for almost 15 years. He has covered everything from smartphones to headphones, TV to AC and air fryers to the movies of James Bond and obscure anime. His current brief is everything to do with the home and kitchen, which is good because he is an excellent cook, if he says so himself. He also covers cycling and ebikes – like over-using italics, this is another passion of his. In his long and varied lifestyle-tech career he is one of the few people to have been a fitness editor despite being unfit and a cars editor for not one but two websites, despite being unable to drive. He also has about 400 vacuum cleaners, and is possibly the UK's leading expert on cordless vacuum cleaners, despite being decidedly messy. A cricket fan for over 30 years, he also recently become T3's cricket editor, writing about how to stream obscure T20 tournaments, and turning out some typically no-nonsense opinions on the world's top teams and players.

Before T3, Duncan was a music and film reviewer, worked for a magazine about gambling that employed a surprisingly large number of convicted criminals, and then a magazine called Bizarre that was essentially like a cross between Reddit and DeviantArt, before the invention of the internet. There was also a lengthy period where he essentially wrote all of T3 magazine every month for about 3 years. 

A broadcaster, raconteur and public speaker, Duncan used to be on telly loads, but an unfortunate incident put a stop to that, so he now largely contents himself with telling people, "I used to be on the TV, you know."

With contributions from