In its most fundamental form, shaving involves a barber's hand-held single bladed classical straight razor. Shaving, however, is a dynamic process. The blade is not simply moved across a flat surface, cutting hair bristles as it glides over that surface. Nearly all surfaces shaved on the human body include soft tissue, muscles and fat, which underly the skin to be shaved. The surfaces to be shaved, without exception, are not flat, but rather constitute a section of arcuate, moveable surfaces. Effective shaving, therefore, requires that the skin be immobilized so that a moving blade can shear hair off. This is accomplished by pinching, stretching, or pressing with the shaver's (or the barber's) other hand until the skin is rendered taut.
The existing designs of shavers are not very effective in immobilizing skin and tissue as required for effective shaving. The least effective in immobilizing skin is the classical straight razor. This classical razor uses a planar cutting surface which results in an area of contact, between the cutter and the tissue to be shaved, that is quite limited. Moreover, in such a configuration the cutter has no capability of restraining or immobilizing the skin and tissue. For this reason, the classical razor has been largely supplanted by the "safety" razor.
The "safety," or conventional, razor has built in skin immobilization by means of a passive sliding plate or support (sometimes incorporating rollers) situated parallel to the cutting surface at a distance of 0.5 to 1.0 mm from the cutting edge. All such designs are characterized by the parallel orientation of the cutter blade and support plate. In actual operation, this plate does produce some skin immobilization and stretching. However, the skin immobilization is inherently inefficient, requiring stretching with the shaver's other hand or some other method of rendering the skin to be shaved taut.
Similarly, the design of conventional electric razors is hampered by their inherently inefficient, or lack of, immobilization of the skin. The basic current design of electric razors typically includes one moving blade and a second parallel stationary surface comprising a screen mesh or slotted plate. In operation the hair is trapped between the stationary surface and the moving blade, and sheared off with little or no immobilization of the skin.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a shaving device that is capable of improved immobilization of the skin, in comparison with conventional shaving devices, to facilitate shaving effectiveness such as closeness, and that is capable of improved contact with an arcuate surface to also facilitate shaving effectiveness and speed.