Welcome to Paradise. Much like our fellow traveller Dante, you have arrived here after a trip through Hell and Purgatory. The only important difference is your trek was a metaphorical trek through endless shaves with dull razors and middling gels, while Dante actually passed through the waiting room of our fair Lord as well as Satan’s unholy pit of damnation. Fictionally. Soooo... basically even?
Kramer from Seinfeld shaves with butter. Countless males throughout the glove spray ready-made foam out of a can. I, on the other hand, find lathering up a good cream to be one of the great pleasures of classic wetshaving. (Note: traditional shaving is called wetshaving because water is a critical ingredient in a successful shave, rather than incidental, for cleanup as in modern products) And while razors and blades are big factors in your comfort, a good shaving cream or soap contributes in very important ways:
Lubricates the razor against the skin.
Acts as a protective cushion between the razor and your tender flesh.
Contributes to the hydration of your facial hair.
A shortfall in any of these areas usually results in applying more force than is necessary to get the razor to cut, which of course leads to...
And much like in part two, there are modern choices, and there are correct choices. Said modern choices usually consist of canned gel and cream. No matter what the Squatty Potty ad tells us (look it up on youtube and bust a gut laughing), THIS is what unicorn shit looks like. And I’m not about to use feces of any sort to shave, even if it is the sparkly, toothpaste-like unicorn variety. Man... lots of scat language here... Sorry?
I don’t find these kinds of products be be very useful. They work up to a point, being relatively slick and somewhat cushioning -- but that only ticks two of our three boxes, leaving hydration... hung out to dry?
Yeah, yeah, I know. Get off your ‘we hate puns’ high horse, to quote Bill Hicks. Wet hair cuts MUCH more easily than dry hair, and I find these products don’t really assist in hydrating. They gain little to no benefit from mixing with water, and can actually keep water away from your beard, causing it to dry out and increase the difficulty and coarseness of a shave. I also find better lubricity and cushion elsewhere.
A superior alternative would be a traditional shaving cream or soap. Quality products don’t cost a lot (although they can get there FAST), usually last a lot longer than cans or pre-whipped stuff, and I find them to be generally slicker, more cushioning, and vastly more efficacious in keeping your bear hair well saturated with water.
There is one ‘downside’ to using these products: they need to be mixed with a small amount of water using a shaving brush. This is not actually a disadvantage as it allows you to make up your cream to precisely your own specifications. More cushion? Done. Slicker? Simplicity itself. So instead of taking what Barbasol gives you, you can tailor the product to your needs.
And the shave brush, preferably made from some sort of badger hair:
A brush is not strictly necessary--you can just smear the cream on your face and rub it around, and a few days’ worth of stubble makes a passable (if decidedly mediocre) substitute. But this is wasteful, as less product goes further when properly mixed--and anyway, the lather ends up better with a brush. After all, most creams and soaps are specifically designed to be mixed with a brush, the hundreds of badger hairs whipping up the cream into a rich, superlative lather. More on brushes in the next post, part 4.
Option One: Shaving cream
In my opinion, creams are better than soaps for the novice wetshaver because the are generally easier to mix. They also tend to be more cushioning than soaps, which lean towards slickness, and thus can be more forgiving given a novice’s limited razor technique.
In fact, differentiating shaving creams from shaving soaps is a bit deceptive, as the creams are really just loose soaps, made in similar ways. Most come pretty thick, anything from the consistency of a white sauce all the way up to nearly-hard soaps. A thick paste is usual:
Pros:
Lasts months, used properly
Better cushion than soaps
Generally, superior scent to Walcrap varieties.
Cons:
Not advisable to ship them in extremes of hot or cold weather
No others, unless of course you hate quality.
Producing a lather from shaving cream:
This takes some practice, but really is quite simple once you get the knack of it. This basic procedure--on which there are endless variations--assumes you are using a brush. It also directs you to mix the cream on your face, though it can be done in a bowl or on one of your hands. Face is my preference, but those with sensitive skin may prefer another palette upon which to mix. Some people say the brush ‘exfoliates’ the skin, but I’ve long thought this was a laughable assertion. I mean, we’re about to drag an incredibly sharp piece of steel over our face. That’s gonna exfoliate plenty.
Oh, and in general, take a nice hot shower before shaving. It’s about the best way to hydrate your beard. The alternative is endless splashing with hot water to get your beard/stubble to soak up enough water. For the record, this whole process should ultimately take just a minute or two, maybe more if you stretch it, which is not a bad thing.
Soak your brush in hot water for a few minutes, until it feels limp, wet, and floppy--not unlike one’s hair after a really good shower. Speaking of showers, I usually soak the brush during one. When the brush is nice and drenched, give it a couple lazy shakes to remove excess water. Many people don’t do this, but I like to, because adding more water to cream as you mix is simplicity itself. Adding more cream is problematic, and taking water away impossible. And anyway, a few drops too many, and you’re starting over.
Take a generous almond-sized scoop of cream and place it on the tips the brush, or smear it on your face. This is probably a little too much depending on your interpretation of ‘generous almond-sized’. Most beginning cream tutorials recommend far less, but for noobs, ‘too much’ gives you a margin for error. Using too little can produce a thin lather that never thickens up. You can dial it back to suit your tastes after some experimenting.
Begin rubbing the tips of the brush over your face in a circular motion, using very little pressure. The goal is to mix the cream with water and whip it up to a thick, dense lather, and the tips are best for this.
Source: Archer
4. The cream will smear around a bit at first, but will begin to build volume and soak up some water from the brush. Once you feel/see the lather just begin to build, or if it seems dry and looks a bit chalky, add a few drops of water to the brush (literally just two or three, easy to add more but nearly impossible to correct overdosing). With experience you'll begin to work in bigger doses,
5. Continue mixing on the face for ten or fifteen seconds, then add a few more drops of water if needed.
6. Repeat step 5) until the lather begins to look shiny, and feel slick and dense.
To test your lather, rub some between a damp (not dripping) thumb and forefinger. It should be very slick and have some body. If it’s too dense and/or not as slick as you’d like, add a few more drops of water and continue. If it feels thin and not as slick as you like, you either went too far with the water or didn’t start with enough cream. Or the product is crap. Learning curve! Oh, and if you have hard water at home, building good lather will be more difficult. Shaving with soft water is a dream, though not one of which I often have the opportunity to avail myself.
With experience, I think you’ll really appreciate the flexibility a real shaving cream brings to the table. Modern commercial products often lock us into a very specific formula, while traditional products can be mixed up to precisely your requirements in any given moment. Had a rough shave yesterday, or is your blade old? Leave it thicker for more cushion. Just doing a quick touch up, or using a new blade? Add a touch more water to leave the final lather thinner, but slicker. It’s your choice.
Sourcing Shaving Cream
If you’re tremendously fortunate, you’ll have a shaving supply store in your town. But for most people, unless you live in a HUGE metropolitan area, the internet is be your only recourse. Shaving-specific websites like the aforementioned westcoastshaving.com, classicshaving.com, or qedusa.com are tremendous resources, and the owners are often very willing to answer your questions. You can also find plenty of stuff on Amazon. The sheer number of options is dizzying, but I have a few recommendations (detailed shortly), and badgerandblade.com has a vast review forum with oceans of reviews.
Still, good brands include Proraso, Taylor, Trumper’s, Trueffitt and Hill, Art of Shaving, Salter, Castle Forbes. Honestly, most traditional shave creams are pretty good. If the company’s been producing cream for more than fifty years and it’s designed to be used with water and a brush, it’s kinda hard to go wrong. I would beware of ‘premium’ shaving products offered by the big players in mainstream shaving companies, as these tend to be brushless creams that are little better than gel-in-a-can. Some recent boutique producers produce fabulous products, but it’s probably safer to go with one of the brands mentioned above.
For the beginner, I feel a solid, price-conscious choice is Taylor of Old Bond Street:
That image came from classicshaving.com. Taylor’s is a traditional English cream that is excellent in quality and extremely reasonable in price. It’s every bit as good as the grandaddies of the shave cream universe like Trumper’s or Truefitt & Hill, both of which easily cost twice as much. Their scents tend to be relatively strong and not as natural as pricier options, but everything in life is a trade-off, even if you’re a jillionaire like Shaq. And if you like subtle scents or have sensitive skin, there is a sensitive skin version in their ‘Jermyn Street’ flavor, and even a fragrance- and preservative-free version in their ‘natural’ cream. You can buy Taylor’s most anywhere shaving supplies are sold online, even Amazon. 5.3 oz tubs generally go for around $14, and smaller tubes $10.
Prices for other brands can skyrocket for various reasons, but there are a LOT of very reasonable options out there. Still, if you've got cash to burn, there are plenty of furnaces to shovel it into. If you find a soap-based cream on any of the shaving-specific vendors I mentioned, there’s an excellent chance you’ll get a quality product. It may not be one you like, but it will be solid. These boutique vendors simply cannot afford to sell inferior products. Still, if you’re curious, check out shaving forums and look for reviews from experienced wetshavers.
Traditional creams may sound expensive when compared against the gels and foams on the shelf at Wally World, but bear in mind traditional creams are concentrated products, while drugstore brands tend to be sold usable as-is. Taylor’s 5.3 oz tubs will last months and months, so the price is actually fairly comparable and in most any case I think you’re getting a superior product as well.
And finally, I recommend shipping these products in temperate weather. You don’t really want it to freeze, and you DEFINITELY don’t want it stuck in the back or a scorching UPS truck for days on end, which could well cause products to liquify or even separate out. Not good.
Option Two: Shaving Soap
The image is from straightrazorplace.com, another excellent internet forum about wetshaving.
Shaving soaps more closely resemble products we’re familiar with, in this case bars of hard soap used in bathing like Ivory soap, etc. As stated earlier, they tend to be slicker than creams, though there are exceptions. A personal favorite of mine is the above ‘Harris’ soap, but I rarely use soaps, so whatever. It’s pictured with a fancy wooden bowl. I’ve never owned one of those, thinking them to be a complete waste of money. Wet the bottom of a puck of soap and drop it into a mug to dry, and it’s not going anywhere. You can also grate them with a cheese grater and press them into small tupperware containers. This does not hurt a soap or its resulting performance in the slightest.
Pros:
Slicker than creams.
More compact, no real air travel restrictions.
Most last longer than creams.
Can grate and press them into damn near any container you want.
Most can be shipped in any weather.
Cons:
Can be trickier to mix, especially those of modern makers
More susceptible to hard water problems
Lather sometimes fades more quickly
Producing a lather from shaving soaps:
As mentioned, hard shaving soaps are trickier to get a good lather from. There are endless procedures, but the one I'll present is designed with the novice in mind. It starts with a dry, pasty foam, to which water is added as the lather is built with a brush. This is in order to minimize the risk of too little product or too much initial water ruining your end product. Again, I recommend mixing the lather on your face, but a bowl or your hand will work fine. And more so than creams, hard water impacts the quality of lather that you can achieve. That said, with soft water, these can become unbelievably slick.
As before, take a nice warm shower before you shave. Before you get in, soak your brush in hot water, and rub a single drop of water around on the surface of your shaving soap. This loosens up the top layer of soap, making it easier and faster to load the tips of your brush.
Emerge from the shower without slipping and breaking your neck.
Shake the water out of your brush energetically, decidedly more so than in our cream procedure above. The brush hair should be pretty dry, though still damp and floppy.
Gently swirl the brush around the top of the soap in a circular motion. Do not use much pressure. Continue until you’ve got a fair bit of dryish, pasty foam, as if you had barely dampened a bar of soap and spent a minute rubbing it in your hands. There’s not enough water present for lather to build, but just enough to keep pulling soap from the bar. If you seem to have stopped stripping soap, add a single drop of water and continue swirling. You want the tips of the brush to hold about 1/4” of this dry foam. As before, this is probably too much, but you can dial it back with experience. Most tutorials advocate starting with a laughably small amount of soap on the brush, with which I have never succeeded in producing usable lather.
With your brush mow loaded with concentrated soap, begin swirling the brush on your face in a circular motion, building the lather on your face as in the ‘shaving cream’ tutorial above. Mix, add drops of water as needed, mix some more, until you arrive at your desired outcome.
Rubbing a bit of the lather between damp fingers is a good test. It bears repeating that the lather built from soaps tends to be somewhat thinner than that built from creams. This is to be expected. Body and cushion are more elusive, but good soaps are very slick.
Expect this process to have a longer learning curve than building lather from creams. Normal, but not a bad thing. I prefer creams, as I said, but I have gotten some wonderful shaves from soaps, and some folks swear by them above all else.
Sourcing Shaving Soap
The best guidance I can offer on this front is to buy REAL soap. Made with oil and lye. Some shaving soaps are just melt n’ pour glycerine soaps, like the kits you buy at a craft shop, with some lubricating oils and scents added. I hate glycerine soaps, some folks love ‘em. They tend to be very slick, but rarely offer much of anything in the way of good lather or cushion. All the vendors from the cream section are great choices from which to order. Check out reviews at badgerandblade.com or other reputable shaving forums.
Your local drugstore probably has a shaving soap or two. ‘Williams’ brand is highly regarded by many, but I find it to be utter crap. Van Der Hagen soaps are often packaged with cheap brushes at Walgreens, but I've never had much luck with that brand. YMMV! Others swear by such products as ‘Mitchell’s Wool Fat’ and ‘Musgo Real’ soaps. I’ve not gotten result I prefer from them, but they’re not bad, and I could see how some folks would love them. As soaps are a bit touchier, I recommend a ‘Dr. Harris’ soap as a good starting point. Pretty easy to mix, very good quality, and a nice balance of cushion and slickness. Harris products are a little harder to find, and tend to run a little pricier than the others at $15-20 a puck, shipped, but it’s as close to idiot-proof a soap as I’ve found. And they are pretty dang concentrated, so seem to last forever.
* * *
A good lather is the foundation for a good shave. Good razor technique can compensate to a certain extent for poor lather (and vice versa, but not nearly so), but only be combining great lather with great tools and techniques will you get the best shaves.
Shaving Perfection Part 1: The Problem
Shaving Perfection Part 2: Sharp Things
Shaving Perfection Part 3: Shaving Cream and Shaving Soap
Shaving Perfection Part 4: Shaving Brushes