What a difference the right cream/soap can make...

[FloorPizza]

When I started shaving with a straight, I was doing one pass WTG with the straight, then switching to a DE for XTG and ATG for a BBS quality shave.

After my face was "broken in", I finally managed to do XTG, then eventually ATG with a professionally sharpened straight. This went on for a couple weeks.

Then it seemed like I was always in a hurry, so I went back to one WTG with the straight, and follow up DE passes.

So last week I attempted to do XTG and ATG with a straight for the first time in quite a while. I was completely unable to. The blade skipped, hopped, pulled, and bit like crazy. I tried using every blade in my arsenal to no avail.

It turns out it was the cream. I wanted to use up my tub of TOBS avocado, so I had been using it every day for several weeks. I finally ran out, and I switched back to Tabac, in spite of the fact that I despise the smell.

I had forgotten just exactly how good this stuff was/is. It allowed me three full passes, as well as clean-up work after the last pass. The blade never skipped, bit, hopped... nada. Just smoooooth sailing. "Velvet squeegee" as someone here so eloquently put it.

Used with a few drops of glycerin, the stuff *really* rocks. I don't get any of the usual soap drying effect, and it seems to prevent the lather from drying out as fast. For lack of a better term, it gives you more "working time".

I thought I'd post this in the Newbie's Corner instead of under soaps/creams, cause there's a newb moral to my whole rambling: TOBS Avocado is a good newb starter cream, and Tabac just flat rocks as a soap, newb or otherwise.