We had a cleaning lady come to clean our house. In the process of tidying the bathroom, she washed out the stainless steel shaving bowl. Totally cleaned out the leftover lather, and left the inside sparkly clean with a small amount of solid soap stuck to the bottom. I’m sure she would have washed that away if she could get it to unstick. It was amusing, in a give-me-my-soap-back kind of way.*
I mean, if it’d been a $17 puck of Mitchell’s Wool Fat or something getting scrubbed away, I’d have been pretty distraught.
Hey, did anyone else here sign up to Dollar Shave Club a little while back. I did and have yet to receive anything. :-\
How can you use any soap other than Proraso? That stuff is sovereign. Rich is absolutely right.
Because Colonel Conk. But by Ed and Rich’s recommendation, I’ll queue up some Proraso for next time. Is there a particular variation you recommend?
This one has eucalyptus and menthol.
But it’s upside-down. I don’t trust upside-down soap.
Fuck Proraso. Tabac 4 life.
My first jar was Tabac. I haven’t tried anything else, so it might be worth it to try Proraso, but the Tabac seems good to me so far.
Though, my wife does say “It has a very … mmm … classic scent to it” in that way that makes me think she doesn’t really like it.
I’ve recently been combining a stick of Tabac (rubbed onto the face) with some Taylor of Old Bond Street Sandalwood cream (swirled onto the brush) for a really interesting and “classically masculine” scent. I really love the latherability of the Tabac, but find that TOBS creams provide an incredibly smooth surface to shave on, so why not mix 'em up?
That said, the scent of the TOBS Avocado is absolutely divine. Has hints of peony in it, to me at least.
I do have a tube of Proraso cream, though, and as we move into the warmer months, I may be going back to the mentholly goodness more often.
Would really like to try out some other Italian soaps/creams like Vitos and Cella. . . as well as the aforementioned Mitchell’s Wool Fat. . . and a redditor is making some handmade soaps of which one is entitled “Black Tie” and is described as the scent you’d imagine the Rat Pack would have worn out to the bars. How can I possibly resist that?
Yeah, even if you still use cartridge razors or the DollarShaveClub stuff, there’s almost no reason not to buy a $10-15 Omega Boar brush (say the big 48 or 49 Pro model) and a tub of nice soap. Doesn’t take much longer to lather up than canned gel and gives a hell of a better shave and smells absolutely divine. Or “classic,” if you’re nKoan’s silly wife!
Armando, do you have any experience with the TOBS Lavender?
EDIT: well, I’ll find out! I just ordered a nice sampling from Amazon. Even though I’ve been happy with the Tabac so far that doesn’t mean I can’t experiment with other soaps, right?
Unfortunately I don’t. My fiancee is allergic to lavender (not sure if it’s artificial or real, and we don’t really feel like testing), so I have to avoid products containing that scent like the plague :(
That said, I’ve been consistently impressed with the TOBS products I’ve used. I think the first tub I got (Avocado cream) might have been a bit old, because it had a consistency close to peanut butter and could be used sort of like a hard soap. It lasted from Christmas Day until now with daily or every-other-daily usage, and there’s actually still a few shaves’ left lining the sides of the tub. The new tub (Sandalwood) arrived on a hot day and is a consistency between whipped butter and yogurt. It may not last as long just because it’s easier to get a lot of it out of the tub at once.
Hoping you enjoy it! If not, I’d offer to buy it, but then I wouldn’t get any kisses for a few months ;)
I decided to give it a shot because we both like lavender. My only concern (and it is fairly minor) is that it might be too floral. I don’t mind walking around with a hint of lavender, but i don’t want it to be overwhelming.
I had a hard cake of the TOBS lavender soap and while it had a strong lovely smell while shaving, it was not overpowering afterwards.
If it was anywhere as silky and fantastic feeling as the Tabac is, I’d love to have that scent back. Maybe I should try their creams… It’s just tough to switch to anything else after how much my face gets along with Tabac.
I think I found my Father’s day gifts! I like to make suggestions that are fun to look forward to, but won’t break the bank. A safety razor from my wife and some lather products from the kids sounds like the perfect fit!
If you’re comfortable having them go the ebay route, Lijunand Frank’s Shaving sell phenomenally value-conscious brushes on there across a big range of prices. Quality is surprisingly good and you don’t have to spend much at all to get a lifetime brush. Otherwise Omegas in the $10-15 range are also phenomenal.
Boar brushes break in and get softer after a dozen uses or so and really benefit from a 5-10 minute soak in hot water before use (shaking most of it out). Badger, horse, and synthetics tend to be okay just having hot water run over them right beforehand.
Soaps tend toward more economical just because they last so long, but if you have hard water at home, I’ll say to avoid 'em. It really messes with the lather. Creams don’t last quite as well but are easier to work with and don’t mind hard water as badly.
In terms of brands, um, almost anything. There’s an infinite amount of variety in an infinite amount of scents and colors and ingredients, from full vegan to tallow-based. They might have a lot of fun picking out some of the funkier ones ;)
On the safety razor route, spending a bit more tends to do well. Merkur and Edwin Jagger quality control is light years beyond Parker and Lord; EJ has the more recent “head” design that gives a really phenomenal shave.
Probably more than you wanted to read, but as this is one of my few remaining hobbies, I really enjoy talking about it :)
No, I appreciate it. Even the EJ’s don’t seem that expensive, especially compared to an electric. I got an electric a few years ago, but I’ve never really enjoyed it.
What’s the difference between soap and cream? Do you mean like a cream in a can? Or are you talking about the pre-cream stuff I’m seeing linked on Amazon. I thought most of what I’ve been seeing in this thread (after a quick read) looked like soaps that you put on with one of those big fluffy brushes.
From top to bottom: (1) pre shave creame, (2) brush and (3) shaving soap, and grandpa (4) after shave!
http://www.amazon.com/Proraso-Shaving-Soap-5-2-147/dp/B0015UWUFM/ref=pd_sim_hpc_2
http://www.amazon.com/Taylor-Old-Bond-Street-Sandalwood/dp/B0007MW2ZW/ref=sr_1_1?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1336829932&sr=1-1 - Shaving cream, a thick goop that you can scoop small portions out of to lather with. Some guys like to spread a fingerful or two onto their beard and apply a damp brush in swirling motions to work up the lather; other men like to put the almond-sized dollop into a bowl or mug and swirl it around with the brush to lather in there. Either way, most creams will give you enough of the godo stuff for 2 or 3 “passes.”
http://www.amazon.com/Conk-Worlds-Famous-Shaving-Weight/dp/B000MXGMHU/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1336617107&sr=8-2-fkmr0 - Shaving soap, a little bar or puck of hard soap. Most guys will mash it into a bowl or mug (getting the bottom of the puck wet before the mashing, then leaving it for a day will tend to make it “stick”) and leave it there. Before shaving, dampen it a bit with a spot of water. You then briskly whip the brush over it for 30-60 seconds to “load” the brush, then either lather on your face or in a bowl as before.
Final suggestion:
A blade sampler pack. like this or this. Shave with each in turn (depending on your beard and blade, you should get 3-6 good shaves out of each blade). For some guys, a brand will skip and leave them scruffy, while those very same blades in a different handle or on a different face work like a charm. Better to see which one works best for you before you go out and buy a two year’s supply for $10 - $30 bucks.
Unnecessary but neat accessories:
And if you’re a dude with bad skin problems, recurring acne, or just general sensitivity, following up your shave-and-rinse routine with a rub from a damp alum block (or cheaper crystal deoderant with the same ingredient - potassium alum) does wonders. It will also seal up minor nicks you might give yourself if you rush or press too hard (with DE razors, you should never apply pressure: the weight of the razor will provide all you need).
After letting that sit and work its antiseptic magic for a few minutes (in addition to tightening the skin, it also kills surface bacteria), rinse it off with a spot of water and think about throwing on a bit of cheapo store brand witch hazel, an anti-inflammatory (and brands with alcohol as preservative are also mildly antiseptic) that will reduce redness and bumps if you suffer from that.
Some dudes like brush/razor stands, but since capillary action will dry a well-rinsed and shaken-out brush over the course of the day, they’re not at all necessary, but they do look neat?
A blade bank is a safety-conscious way to dispose of your old blades so that your local trash guys aren’t picking up trash bags filled to the brim with biohazards-with-a-bite. Other, more economical dudes, will just buy a $0.50 can of chicken stock or similar, cut a hole in the top or side, drain it, rinse it, and use that. Best part is, once it’s full (10-15 years later), you can hammer the hole shut and recycle the whole thing!
I’ve seen guys walk away from the whole thing having spent $150 on their first kit. If you’ve got the disposable income and like shinies, I suppose you could do so, but that just strikes me as excessive. You can easily put together a great starter kit for $50 and something that’ll last a lifetime for under $90.
