It’s no secret that razors are expensive.
But a Pittsburgh engineer thinks he’s perfected the formula for the perfect shave – that’s also cheap. His company, Leaf Shave, creates razors that don’t use cartridges and use half of a standard double-edge blade. Though the razors are expected to sell for $79, the refill blades sell for as little as $.10 apiece.
CEO and Founder Adam Hahn said he was inspired by his own troubles shaving.
“We made prototypes,” Leaf Shave CEO and Founder Adam Hahn said. “We started shaving with them. And honestly, it was the best shave I’d ever gotten.”
Hahn has a background in mechanical engineering and previously worked for Blue Belt Technologies, another Pittsburgh-based start-up specializing in robotic-assisted surgical instruments.
“I was an early employee there and the sole mechanical engineer for quite a while,” he said. “So I’m not new to bringing a new product to market.”
And he used his engineering chops to create the new razor design. Leaf Shave uses a pivoting head and allows the user to adjust the blades, inserting one, two or three, in addition to customizing the aggressiveness. He's even created an easy explainer on how to break the double-edge razors in half.
His creation wasn’t an instant success, though. Hahn designed six prototypes along the way.
“I think the first one looked like this translucent monster with these blades sticking out and I’m like, ‘I don’t know about this,’” said Co-founder and Marketing Director Adam Simone.
Hahn is currently trying to raise money via Kickstarter to fund Leaf Shave. As of this writing, Leaf Shave has raised more than the $100,000 needed to fund the campaign, which ends Aug. 11.
In this week's Tech Headlines:
- The University of Pittsburgh has received a $1.5 million grant to work with the U.S. Department of Defense. Researchers from the School of Engineering will investigate a new approach for detecting and destroying chemical warfare agents and toxic industrial chemicals. They’ll focus on combating weapons of mass destruction.
- Several Olympians and visitors in Rio are expressing their frustration over not being able to play the mobile gaming app PokemonGo. The wildly popular game is being downloaded and played in more than 30 countries, but not Brazil. The maker of the app is reportedly working to release it in Rio sometime during the games.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
