Quote Originally Posted by Agamemnon View Post
Although I strop before and between shaves I normally use only bar soap; Ivory, mostly, which seems to work well enough as long as the razor is sharp. One of these days I'll throw money into actual shaving soaps and see what difference it makes.
Wow! You're missing out, definitely. I've tried shaving with a couple types of "regular" soap, and it just didn't hold a candle to even cheap shaving soap.
You don't have to spend a lot to get quality soap. I love the Glycerin soap by Surrey (May be Van Der Hagen, I've heard the company uses both names for different regions), and it usually retails for 2 or 3 dollars. Their "Deluxe" soap is nice too.
If you want even cheaper soap, Williams soap is nice, and only costs a buck or two.
My current favorite is Palmolive cream, in the red tube. It lathers very easily, and gives a really slick result. I get an amazing lather even with my cheapo brush (And if you're not using a brush, you can get a Van Der Hagen boar brush for about 6 bucks. It's what I use, and it serves me nicely!).

I can't imagine DE or Straight shaving without shaving soap and a brush. Not only are there real benefits (Exfoliation from the brush, and extra moisturizers in the soap), but it just adds so much to the experience.

All of the stuff I mentioned in my post can be bought at just about any Walgreens, CVS, Sav-On and sometimes Target (Target also often has Proraso products. I've never tried them myself, but I've heard good things about them.)