Philips OneBlade Pro 360 review: a physio's verdict on face, legs and strapping

Most Saturdays, I'm the volunteer physio at an amateur rugby league club just outside Huddersfield. Before kick-off there's a queue of lads at my bench waiting for their ankles to be strapped. And before the tape goes on, the hair comes off, with a cheap disposable razor, in a cold changing room, on a leg that doesn't want to keep still.

You can guess how that goes. Nicks, red patches, and tape that stings when it comes off. My own jaw isn't much happier with a razor, and as a club cyclist I shave my legs too, mostly so road rash is easier to clean if I come off on a descent.

So when the Philips OneBlade Pro 360 came up for testing, I had three jobs for it at once: my face, my legs and the strapping queue. I used it for seven weeks. Here's how it did on each, with the numbers.

Not a razor, not quite a trimmer

Think of the OneBlade as a hybrid. Behind a protective grille, a tiny cutter shuttles back and forth 12,000 times a minute and snips each hair a fraction above the skin. Nothing drags across the surface. You lose a little closeness, and you gain a lot of calm skin.

What the Pro 360 brings over the cheaper OneBlades: a head that tilts and rolls freely, which helps round the jaw and in the hollow under your chin, a single comb you twist through 20 lengths from 0.4 to 10 mm, and a little screen that shows the charge left.

The UK Face + Body box I bought (QP6652/61) also has a body comb, a skin guard for sensitive areas, a spare blade, a charging stand and a travel case. It's wet and dry, so you can use it at the sink or in the shower. That spare blade turned out to matter more than I expected, but we'll get to the rugby club.

How we tested it

I paid for the kit myself and used it from 1 May to 19 June. Face: four times a week, alternating full shaves with 3 mm stubble trims. Legs: every ten days or so, both legs, with the skin guard. At the club, I kept the spare blade just for strapping and used it on 29 ankles over six Saturdays, cleaning it with alcohol wipes between players and only ever on unbroken skin.

For each session I noted the time taken, the number of passes, any redness after an hour and again the following day, and a "back of the hand" smoothness mark out of 10. At the club, players scored the sting of the tape coming off out of 10, which I set against the razor weeks earlier in the season. I also drained the battery completely on two occasions. The wider method we all follow lives on our how we test page.

My jaw: the result I care about most

I have light brown stubble, freckles and a jawline that goes red and spotty after a five-blade razor, every time. After a razor shave I'd count 3 or 4 spots along the left jaw the next day. With the OneBlade I counted none at all on 24 of my 28 shaves, and a single spot on the other four.

The shave takes longer. From four days' growth to clean, I averaged 5 minutes 40 seconds, against about 3 minutes 30 with a razor. What worked was little flicks upwards, against the direction of growth. Big sweeping passes skipped bits of my neck, where the hair grows in a swirl I'd never really noticed until I had to chase it.

"First time in years I've gone into clinic on a Monday without a rash I have to explain to a patient." Me, in my test notes, week three, slightly too pleased with myself

Comfort, then, is a clear yes. The fair next question is how close is close.

How close does it get?

Closer than a trimmer, not as close as a blade, and Philips never claims otherwise. On my back-of-the-hand test, a fresh razor shave is a 10. The OneBlade scored 7 dry at the sink and 8 in the shower. Stroke upwards from your collar and there's a faint grain left, like the finest sandpaper.

The shadow comes back sooner, too. After a razor, I looked clean until about 8 p.m. After the OneBlade, a faint shadow showed from about 4 p.m. For clinic days and the school run, it didn't matter. For my cousin's wedding in June, I used a razor and accepted the spots.

The rugby club test: 29 ankles

This was the test nobody else seems to have done. Ankle strapping goes on better on hairless skin, and it comes off with less pain. My usual tool is a disposable razor, and over a typical six Saturdays I'd nick four or five players. Nothing serious, but blood and tape don't mix.

With the OneBlade and the skin guard, I shaved 29 ankles over six match days with zero nicks. It was also faster on a jumpy leg, because you can't really cut someone with it if they flinch. One of our props, a man with calves like hams, asked if I could "do the whole leg, like a footballer." I declined, politely.

The honest catch: the OneBlade leaves a tiny bit of stubble, and the tape held a little less well. On two ankles the edge of the strapping lifted by the second half, which I've rarely had after a razor. Players rated tape removal at 3.2 out of 10 on average, against 3.6 in the razor weeks, so a touch kinder coming off. For match strapping I've kept using it, with one extra anchor strip at the top. For long-hold taping on a weak ankle, a closer shave is still the safer bet.

Cyclist's legs, with the skin guard

Most cyclists I ride with shave their legs. It's partly habit and partly practical: road rash is easier to clean, and sports massage is more comfortable. My usual method is a razor in the bath, and my usual result is a nick on each ankle bone and one on the knee.

With the skin guard on, both legs took 12 minutes in the shower, against about 8 with a razor. The result looked smooth and felt a little rough to the touch, with visible regrowth on day two rather than day four. But in seven weeks I didn't open a single plaster. For three sessions I used the body comb first to take the length down after a lazy fortnight, which made the skin guard's job much quicker.

My daughter Evie, who is seven, watched once from the bathroom doorway and asked why I was "shaving like Mummy." I told her it makes me faster. She has since told her whole class that her dad shaves his legs to go fast, which is a sentence I'll be living with for a while.

Stubble and edges: its best trick

As a shaver it's good. As a line-drawer it's brilliant. Because the cutting edge is visible and works in both directions, you can put a neckline or a cheek line exactly where you want it. Mine took less than a minute and came out neater than any I'd done in my own mirror.

Day to day, the dial comb won me over. You turn it, feel a click at each setting, and it doesn't creep. Three weeks of 3 mm stubble, topped up every three days, and it never went patchy.

My mate Tariq, from the cycling club, has a thick black beard with grey coming through at the chin, about 4 cm long. The longest comb setting is 10 mm, so he only let it near his edges and cheek line and kept his big trimmer for everything else. His verdict: "Brilliant for the lines. Useless for the lawn." Fair enough. Long beards were never its job.

Battery, blades and running costs

An hour on the stand buys you up to 120 minutes of use, says Philips. My two flat-to-empty runs gave 112 and 108. Even with my face, my legs and the Saturday queue, a charge lasted about three weeks, and with the percentage on the handle I was never caught out halfway round my chin.

Blades are where the money goes. Philips reckons one lasts around four months. Mine began to catch slightly under the jaw in week six, but it was doing three jobs. Two 360 blades cost roughly £20 to £25 in UK shops, so for normal use think £30 a year. Rinse it every time and let it dry in the air, and it'll go the distance.

Four things I got wrong in week one

• Leaning on it like a razor. Push down and the hairs lie flat, so the cutter rides over them. Hold it like a pen, not a trowel.
• Ignoring the swirl on my neck. Feel which way the hair grows before you start, and go against it in short strokes.
• Trimming stubble straight after a shower. Wet hair lies flat and the 3 mm trim came out patchy. Trim dry, shave wet.
• Leaving it wet on the stand. Hair and water packed in the blade made it tug. Tap it out, rinse, let it air dry.

Once I'd stopped doing all four, every job above got quicker.

The numbers in one place

Should you buy one?

If it's not quite right for you

OneBlade 360 Face + Body (basic): often about half the money, same cutter, a 5-in-1 clip-on comb rather than the dial. A cheap way to find out if the idea suits your skin.

A foil shaver (Braun's Series 9, say): a closer finish and still gentler than blades, but you'll pay several times more and it can't draw a line.

A full-size beard trimmer: for a beard like Tariq's, the wider head and beefier motor get through the bulk far quicker. Use the OneBlade for the finishing touches.

On the hair side of the bathroom cabinet, our health and beauty tester Gillian spent six weeks with the Dyson Airwrap Co-anda2x. And if recovery kit is more your thing, my own Theragun PRO Plus review covers six weeks with a massage gun in clinic and at home. Everything else is on the blog.

What people ask us about the OneBlade Pro 360