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It is a frustration that many know all too well: you take your time to pamper yourself, but right after drying off, your skin starts to burn. Not much later, painful red spots appear. Many people wonder how they can prevent razor bumps after shaving and immediately reach for expensive creams, lotions, and aftershaves to limit the damage. Often, 'sensitive skin' is blamed, but the real cause is much more likely to be the materials we use during the shaving process itself.

What is the impact of synthetic additives in your razor?

If we look at most razors in the supermarket, it stands out that almost all of them are equipped with a brightly colored gel strip. Conventional brands almost always add extra synthetic gel strips to their blades. The promise is that these strips hydrate the skin and ensure a smooth glide. In principle, your shaving soap does this too.

In reality, these strips are often full of artificial fragrances, preservatives, and other unnatural additives. When these come into contact with freshly shaved (and therefore lightly exfoliated and vulnerable) skin, it can immediately cause unwanted irritations.

As far as we are concerned, this synthetic strip is therefore unnecessary. Simply use your own trusted shaving soap or a mild shaving cream combined with high-quality Swedish steel. This is the first and most important step to prevent irritation.

How do you perfectly prepare the skin for a shave?

In addition to avoiding synthetic strips, proper preparation is also essential. Preferably shave after or at the end of your shower. The warm water and steam soften your hairs and open the pores. Use a gentle scrub to remove dead skin cells; this prevents hairs from growing back under the skin after shaving and causing inflammation.

How do you achieve a soft result without unnecessary plastic?

A good razor is the foundation for a great shave. Plastic razors often use unnatural gel strips. The 

 takes a different approach and keeps it as natural as possible. By staying away from synthetic additives, your skin remains calm and you are much less likely to get annoying red bumps.

With the five sharp blades, the flexible shaving head, and the comfortable bamboo handle, you always shave easily, softly, and smoothly. Moreover, by doing this, you directly help to reduce the amount of plastic waste.

Is design especially important to you? Then we have the 

 for you. This model offers exactly the same comfortable shave as the original model but features a subtle, nature-inspired engraving. For extra character and style. No bright colors or fast trends, but a thoughtful detail that makes every shave just a little more beautiful.

Click here if you are curious about all the ins and outs of the Smooth Touch

Still relying on expensive creams to soothe painful razor bumps? Discover why the familiar gel strip on your razor is the real culprit, and how a simple, natural switch could help to deliver a smooth, irritation-free shave.

How could I prevent razor bumps after shaving?

After about twelve weeks, the bristles start losing their shape. They bend outward, go softer, and clean less well along your gums and between your molars. Dentists and manufacturers, Oral-B included, use three months as the rule of thumb.

It isn't exact. Brush gently and it lasts a little longer; brush hard and it's shorter. The bristles tell you more honestly than the calendar does.

Watch the bristles above all. No longer standing neatly upright, but splaying to the sides? Then it isn't cleaning the way it should. That's the clearest sign on any head, ours included.

Some plastic heads have blue indicator bristles that fade as you use them. Handy, but not foolproof, and our bamboo heads don't have them. So go by two things: how the bristles look, and the calendar. Three months is a good rhythm.

And if you've had a heavy cold or the flu, a fresh head isn't a bad idea.

Nothing elaborate. Rinse the head under the tap after brushing, tap it dry, and let it air-dry upright, not sealed in a case where moisture lingers. That's plenty. No need to make a ritual of it.

Throwing one away four times a year, there's a catch

Do the maths. Four heads a year, per person. Living together? Eight. Each one is a small piece of plastic you use for a few months and then bin. Year after year.

Most people never notice. We did. It's exactly the kind of everyday throwaway that got us asking: why is this the norm, actually?

The swap: a bamboo brush head that fits your Oral-B

You don't have to replace your toothbrush. You only replace the head, and that can be bio-based too.

 click on just like you're used to. The bristles are bio-based nylon made from castor oil, the handle is 99% plastic-free, and they're dentist-tested. You give up nothing on the brush itself. They arrive through the letterbox. Order once, or have them sent automatically 

. Either way you're not locked in. If you're replacing it every three months anyway, that one swap might as well be right.

How often should I replace my electric toothbrush head?

Every three months, or as soon as the bristles fan out. Whichever comes first.

Worth doing after a heavy cold or flu. Replacing it does no harm and feels fresh.

Our heads are compatible with all Oral-B® models except the iO and the Pulsonic. Using one of those two? Then they won't fit, unfortunately.

Yes. Treat them like any head: rinse and let them air-dry upright.

Every three months. Or sooner, if the bristles start to fan out. That's the short answer. Below you'll read how to spot it yourself, and where the real gain is. Because it isn't in how long you stretch one out, but in what you pick next.

How often should you replace your brush head?

We put it this way on purpose. "Bamboo is sustainable" has become a sales line, and that does not help you if you just want to make an honest choice.

Bamboo is not a tree, it is a grass. That sounds like a detail, but it changes everything.

A grass grows back after you harvest it. You do not have to replant anything. In the growing season, some bamboo species shoot up tens of centimeters a day. It needs no fertilizer, no pesticides, and far less water than many other crops.

Translated to a product: the raw material grows back fast, does not exhaust the soil, and ends up bio-based instead of fossil plastic. That is exactly why you see bamboo more and more where there used to be only plastic, in toothbrushes and in the heads for your electric brush. A plastic handle or head starts as crude oil and ends up in a landfill or the sea. A bamboo handle started as grass.

So if the question is "is bamboo better than plastic", then for most bathroom items the answer is: yes.

Fair question, and the honest answer is: it does. Bamboo mostly grows in Asia. That means transport, and transport has a cost. We do not think you should paper over that with a pretty picture of a forest.

So we had it calculated. We compared the total CO2 emissions of a bamboo toothbrush with those of an ordinary plastic toothbrush, also from China, so transport counted on both sides. The result: the bamboo toothbrush comes out at around 19 grams of CO2, against more than 40 grams for the plastic one. Well over half less, including the trip over here.

One toothbrush, and still half. That is the point of bio-based: it wins not because it grows far away, but in spite of growing far away.

Look at a brush head, and you will fortunately find out that the bristles are not bamboo. Bristles have to be fine and firm. For that, we use bio-based nylon made from castor oil, from the castor bean, instead of nylon from crude oil. Better, but not nothing. That is why we say 99 percent plastic-free, not 100 percent. That one percent is still there, and we do not pretend otherwise.

We know how to fight the last percent. With our razors, we wanted to get plastic out all the way into the cartridge. That final bit turned out so stubborn that at some point we launched anyway, with a nearly fossil-free make-up, rather than wait forever for a perfect 100 percent. That same honest story sits in the brush heads: we would rather say 99 percent and be right, than 100 percent and overstate it.

What people usually really mean when they type "is bamboo sustainable" is this: will I not feel silly later for buying something that turned out to be dressed up nicer than it was?

Honest answer: one bamboo brush will not save the world, and it does not have to. The difference is in the repetition, and it only starts to mean something when you spread it over years.

Do the sum. You swap a brush head roughly every three months, so four a year. Over ten years, that is forty heads. At around 20 grams of plastic per head, that comes to about 800 grams, nearly a kilo of plastic that you simply never make over ten years. Roughly eighty plastic bottles, from one person, in one bathroom.

And that is just you. For tens of thousands of people taking part, it is no longer kilos, but tonnes. Without anyone having to turn their whole life upside down.

That is the whole idea behind a swap. Not your entire bathroom at once, not a lifestyle. One thing you already use every day, made from bio-based materials.

An easy place to start, because you already use it: our 

 for electric toothbrushes. We offer alternatives to Sonicare® and Oral-B® plastic replacement brushes.

They fit all Oral-B models, except the iO and the Pulsonic, and click on the way you are used to. The bristles are bio-based nylon made from castor oil, dentist-tested, and the head is 99 percent plastic-free. For sonic models, check the 

Want to read on first? This is a good next one: 

Is bamboo really sustainable, or is it marketing?

Bamboo is a fast-growing grass that comes back after harvest, needs no fertilizer or pesticides, and is bio-based instead of fossil-based. That is real. The nuance is transport from Asia and parts that cannot be bamboo, like bristles. That is why we say 99 percent plastic-free, not 100.

Does the transport from Asia not cancel out the gain?

We had it calculated. The total CO2 emissions of a bamboo toothbrush, transport included, come out at around 19 grams, against more than 40 grams for a plastic toothbrush that also came from China. Well over half less, including the trip over here.

For one brush head, little. Over ten years, a lot. Four heads a year, ten years long, at around 20 grams of plastic each, is nearly a kilo of plastic per person. For tens of thousands of people taking part that adds up to tonnes.

Is bamboo better than plastic for a toothbrush or brush head?

For both, bamboo wins, because the raw material grows back fast and is bio-based, while plastic starts as crude oil and does not break down. The gain is mostly in repetition: things you replace often add up.

Bristles have to be fine and firm, which bamboo cannot deliver. We use bio-based nylon made from castor oil, from the castor bean, instead of nylon from crude oil. Hence 99 percent plastic-free.

Which Oral-B does a bamboo brush head fit?

All Oral-B models, except the iO and the Pulsonic. For sonic models like Sonicare, the full list is on the 

Yes, bamboo is more sustainable than plastic for most everyday items. And no, it is not 100 percent perfect. Both are true. In this piece we compare bamboo and plastic the way you meet them in the bathroom, from your toothbrush to the head on your electric brush, and show where bamboo really wins and where it does not.

Is bamboo really more sustainable? Our honest answer

Most people do not think much about the blue strip at the top of their razor blade. It is just there. It makes the razor glide better, and when it fades, you know it is time to replace the cartridge.

We thought about it a lot. Specifically, we asked: what is actually in that strip, what happens to it when it dissolves on your skin, and where does it go after it washes down the drain?

We could not find a satisfying answer anywhere. So we commissioned one.

In 2025, we worked with a team of six MSc students from Wageningen University to investigate the ingredients in razor lubrastrips, their potential effects on human health, and their environmental impact. The team, called MYSTIKZ ACT Consultancy, spent several months reviewing scientific literature, analyzing the ingredient lists of 10 different razors, and working through EU legislation to understand how and whether lubrastrips are regulated.

You may request the full report if you are interested.

The good news first: the plastic polymers in lubrastrips, mainly polyethylene glycol (PEG), are unlikely to form microplastics during normal use. The conditions needed to break down these polymers, extreme heat or UV light, are not present in a typical bathroom. PEG is also biodegradable, though the larger chains take longer to break down.

The more interesting finding was about a different group of ingredients: synthetic phenolic antioxidants, or SPAs. These are added to lubrastrips to extend their shelf life. They were found in five out of ten razors tested, and one of them, BHT, has been linked in some studies to altered sex hormone levels and shows environmental toxicity to fish at higher concentrations.

None of this means your razor is poisoning you. The concentrations are low, and the evidence is mixed. But it does mean the question is worth taking seriously, and right now, it largely is not.

Here is the part that surprised us most. Under current EU law, it is genuinely unclear whether razor lubrastrips count as cosmetic products. A non-binding EU manual suggests they might, but the final classification is made case by case. This means the ingredients in lubrastrips may not be subject to the same safety assessments as those required for other products that come into contact with your skin every day.

The 2023 REACH microbead ban and the planned 2027 ban on synthetic polymer microparticles in rinse-off cosmetics are important steps. But if lubrastrips are not clearly classified as cosmetic products, they may fall outside the scope of these protections entirely.

We are calling for lubrastrips to be explicitly included in EU microplastics and cosmetic product regulation. The classification ambiguity needs to be resolved. Consumers deserve to know what is in the products that touch their skin, and regulators deserve clear frameworks to work from.

We are sharing the Wageningen findings with relevant bodies and will update this blog when we have more to report on that front.

The Smooth Touch razor does not use lubrastrips. It never has. We designed it that way partly for sustainability reasons, and partly because we were always uneasy about the ingredients question. This research confirmed that our instinct was right.

If you want a close, smooth shave without the lubrastrip question, you know 

The lubrastrip question nobody is asking…

How could I prevent razor bumps after shaving?

How often should you replace your brush head?

Is bamboo really more sustainable? Our honest answer

What is actually in your razor?