Razor maker aims to ease challenge for caregivers
An estimated eight million Canadians provide unpaid care to loved ones, according to Statistics Canada data.
While basic elements such as bathing and feeding are more commonly discussed among the caregiver community, one element that’s not as openly explored is shaving.
The team at Gillette is looking to change that.
“There have been 4,000 razors created to shave yourself, but zero have been designed to shave someone else,” says Peter Ries, a product engineer at the company’s research and development branch. “Until now.”
As a co-founder of the Gillette Treo razor, Ries helped to create a disposable home-shaving tool that features a waterless shave gel in the handle so a person can be shaved wherever they feel comfortable in their home.
Good for two to three shaves, the razor and gel are designed to empower caregivers with the tools to safely care for their charges without any worry of shaving mishaps. We chatted with Ries to learn more.
Q What was the workflow of creating a product like this?
A We started following a trend on social media where people were talking about caregiving and the challenges associated with it. We followed that down a bit of a rabbit hole and realized that we had a sort of right and an opportunity to play in that space, which is not something we had thought about before.
Q What did you learn during that research?
A The insight we were given from consumers is that it’s an honour to care for their loved ones on a daily basis. But, it’s also a struggle.
Q Is there anything that surprised you during your research?
A It was incredible the insights we gained. It’s not just people who are aging. It’s the mom who is taking care of her son who has autism or a father who is taking care of a daughter with a degenerative disease and he wants to help her shave her legs. Interestingly, 25 per cent of the people that are being shaved are women. So, there is just a massive diversity in the types of people who are dealing with caregiving.
Q What are some of the features of this product?
A In self-shaving, it’s about closeness and comfort. In the context of assisted shaving, what we learned is safety is the key benefit — it’s really Benefit 1, 2 and 3. And then the others are control and convenience. The product has three elements that tie into these benefits. The first is the specially designed blade, which has a safety cone on the front of it that keeps the skin at the same level of the blade to help prevent nicks and cuts, while still allowing the hair to pass through it. From a control standpoint, we changed the ergonomics of the shave since you’re not shaving yourself anymore and you need to hold it differently. So, we designed it so that you can hold it like a painter would hold a paintbrush. And then, from a convenience standpoint, you have the integrated non-foaming shave gel. It doesn’t foam because, when you’re shaving someone else, you want to see exactly what you’re doing.