About this project


The Skarp Razor is the future of shaving!

At first glance it looks like a traditional razor. But that is where the similarity ends.

Shaving has been using essentially the same technology for 5000 years. To make any real progress, we needed to take a radical new approach.

The Skarp razor is powered by a small laser which cuts through hair for an incredibly close shave. There are many benefits to using the Skarp Razor including:

No scratches
No razor burn
No infection
No itch
No accidental cutting
No irritation
Effortless smooth stroke
No painful waxing or messy depilatory creams
Incredibly close & smooth shave
No expensive cartridges replacements
Little to no water usage
Environmentally friendly
The last two are very important to us. 2 Billion razors or razor heads are thrown away each year in the US alone! Due to the hazardous nature of the blades, they can't be sorted & no individual municipality or district produces enough to make specialized collection cost effective. So they end up in land fills & garbage dumps.

This isn't 2 billion, but you get the point!
This isn't 2 billion, but you get the point!
Many areas of the world are experiencing a drought & paying high prices for water. As these droughts become more common & severe, water usage becomes more restricted.

Even though the Skarp Razor can be used with water, for example in the shower, it doesn't require any water. Which will help you feel better about keeping that lawn green or having that next water balloon fight!

Design

Some of the 3D printed prototypes
Some of the 3D printed prototypes
The design was really important to us. We wanted something familiar yet completely different.

3D printer making plastic prototypes
3D printer making plastic prototypes
Together with designers, we created something we believe you will love using every day.

The prototypes we created were built from 6061 aluminum & feel really wonderful in the hand.

Two of the aluminum prototypes with the laser turned on
Two of the aluminum prototypes with the laser turned on
Our Founders

Morgan Gustavsson MBBS, has been working in the medical & cosmetic laser industry for three decades.

He invented IPL (Intense Pulsed Light) in 1989, which is still a preferred method of hair removal & dermatology treatments to this day.

Morgan had the idea for a Laser razor in 2001. However the laser technology at the time was not available. He soon realized that his idea was a little ahead of its time.

He spent the next decade investigating & made a breakthrough in 2009 with a wavelength that could cut any color hair.

In 2013 Paul Binun joined the effort & working solution was developed. They made quick progress and knew they had something special.

Morgan Gustavsson & Paul Binun
Morgan Gustavsson & Paul Binun
How it works

Wavelengths of light had already been discovered that could cut through dark hair, but finding a way to cut light hair was proving incredibly difficult.

After years of research & development, they discovered a chromophore in the hair that would be cut when hit with a particular light wavelength.

Chromophores are particles that absorb certain wavelengths (colors) of light.

This chromophore they identified is shared by every human, regardless of age, gender or race.


Morgan grew up in Sweden and when deciding on a name, the Swedish word for sharp seemed appropriate. Skarp was born.

Our team has made incredible progress, but to start mass production, we require capital.

We have identified manufacturing partners and have preliminary agreements in place. We are in the beginning stages of manufacturing, and thats where you come in as an early supporter.

Prototype with laser attached
Prototype with laser attached
We really need your support, and we hope you will join us in the shaving revolution!

Shaving has been the same for 5000 years, it's time to bring shaving to the 21st century.

With the Skarp Razor, there's never a dull moment!


Risks and challenges

Due to the size of the micro components involved, there will be un-known levels of fine tuning required for automated production in high volume. However we have taken this into consideration for our projected delivery of March 2016.

Similarly when ramping up delivery of key components, quality control could become a challenge & is of high priority to us.

Morgan Gustavsson & his team have decades of experience with bringing new technologies, cosmetic & medical products to market successfully.

SlaveToDorkness wrote:March of '16??!!!
We can't get Kickstarters for little resin toys realized on time... no WAY some high tech like this gets done in 6 months.

Laser razor thrown off Kickstarter because it doesn't work
Citing rules introduced three years ago, the crowdfunding platform has removed the $4m project

Bad news if you want to burn hairs off your face using a laser: Kickstarter has pulled the fundraising page for the “Skarp” laser razor, despite the project having already raised $4m on the crowdfunding platform.

Kickstarter’s reasoning is fairly straightforward, however: the Skarp doesn’t actually work.

Specifically, the Skarp is “in violation of our rule requiring working prototypes of physical products that are offered as rewards”. That rule was introduced in 2012 after a rash of failed projects that over-promised and under-delivered. Now, a company must demonstrate at the very least a working prototype for any object which it is actually intending to ship to backers.

Unfortunately, Skarp did not. The company made one video available of what it said was a prototype, showing a device struggling to remove more than a couple of hairs on the back of a man’s hand – a far cry from the smooth shave the designers promised.

It seems that Kickstarter agreed that the video didn’t fit the definition of “working prototype”, and removed the project to prevent disappointment down the line (either from the delivery potentially slipping later and later than promised, or the device being shipped under par).

Kickstarter aggressively polices its site, and until 2014 the company pre-emptively checked every project going up to make sure it fit with the stated policies. Now, the volume is too high for that, but it’s still very rare for a project to hit the volume the Skarp did, raising $4m in pledges from thousands of backers, and then be pulled.

In an email to backers, Kickstarter emphasised that “suspensions cannot be undone”, and so whatever happens next, Skarp will have to find another source of funding to continue development. Whether that means returning to crowdfunding on a different platform, or raising private funding some other way, remains to be seen.

Kickstarter told the Guardian that Skarp’s creators “would be welcome to resubmit their idea to Kickstarter for review if they developed a working prototype. Or they could submit a project that is focused on developing a prototype, as long as they didn’t offer the razor itself as a reward.”