When we first heard about the Skarp Laser Razor, a razor that uses lasers instead of blades, a few very clear, very foreboding images came to mind. A hair removal system that, with a single misguided flick of the wrist, could leave us looking like Harvey Dent or the victim of Bond villain torture? Why not!
Whether due to its novelty or its eco-conscious claims of reducing waste from disposable razors, Skarp managed to raise over $4 million — before having its funds suspended by Kickstarter itself. As The Register reports, the crowdfunding service "concluded that [Skarp] is in violation of our rule requiring working prototypes of physical products." In other words, $4 million had been sunk into a project that was nothing more than a highly dangerous idea at best, and a complete scam at worst.
Luckily, when a Kickstarter doesn't meet its goal or (as in this case) gets cancelled, campaign backers get their funds back.
The video at the top of the campaign page shows the creators holding and demonstrating a model of the razor, but the thing actually doesn't do a very good job of removing hairs. Kickstarter wanted one functioning prototype to prove that this technology was actually viable, and this was not the proof it was looking for. Back to your basic Gillettes, folks.
But, luckily for Skarp, the dreamers behind the Laser Razor can still bounce back from this — by heading to another crowdfunding platform. In fact, Laser Razor is already raising money on Indiegogo, and it's made over $240,000 so far. Hopefully Skarp will eventually fulfill its promise of easy, at-home laser hair removal — because unlike the Kickstarter folks, those Indiegogo backers will not be getting any refunds if the Laser Razor never sees the light of day.
We're happy to wait patiently for this plan to come to fruition; we expect the adventures and misadventures of the Laser Razor to rival only those of the turkey fryer in its early years.