Thread: My Biggest Problem

Originally Posted by Kees

Canned lather, Joe? I got my worst shaves ever with them! IMHO canned lather is just a lubricant, it hardly penetrates the whiskers so it does not soften them. It is colder as well as you do not use hot water to whip it.

I'm not saying use it forever, I'm saying take lather making and the brush out of the picture until you learn to shave. You don't need the distraction.

There is some decent canned stuff out there. I used Noxema for many years and it was OK. In a pinch I'll even use some now. Or you can use some Palmolive brushless cream, whatever. The idea is to take lather and the brush out of the picture at first. Another thing to think about is that newbies often do more damage with a dry mix than they would using something canned. I'll agree it doesn't necessarily have to come out of a can, as long as it's ready to use. So, if you want to get fancyuse some Nancy Boy out of the jar. Just don't get involved in making lather and using a brush when you first start. Concentrate on the basics of shaving: prep and razor technique.

As for your worst shaves, did you get them using good prep and good razor technique? I doubt it. I've been wet shaving for nearly 50 years, and 90% of that time I used either canned stuff or drug store products (Palmolive, Surrey) or no brush. My shaves were a lot better then than when I first started to use a str8 and also used a Kent BK8 and fancy Taylors and Trumpers creams.

Joe, I once borrowed some canned stuff from a friend and vowed never to use it again! This was in the 80s of last century, it was in the US of A, its brand was unknown to me and has been erased from my biological hard disk.
If I remember well I followed the instructions on the can.

My honing and shaving technique at the time were worse than now. Also my skin was more sensitive at the time, even cartridge blades and DE's cause a lot of grazing to the skin of my neck at the time, I never had problems with my cheeks.
it took my skin at least 7 years to get used to wet shaving, I started shaving electrically.