US Patent 8429826 Shaving razors and cartridges

A shaving cartridge has a housing with at least one blade having a blade edge. A first guard is in front of the blade. The first guard has a plurality of projections defining a plurality of open slots extending generally transverse to the blade edge. Each slot has a leading end portion for receiving hairs and a trailing end portion for feeding the hairs to the blade. The projections are stepped with a height of the projections that define the leading end portion of the slots that is less than a height of the projections that define the trailing end portion of the slots.