Splash Vs. Balm

I remember when I started this whole adventure, I was VERY zero-sum. Balm over splash. Straight over DE. Everything wet shaving was about finding what was best for me and if I used anything else, I’d somehow be losing something. Why?

I’m not sure where this mindset came from. I guess it’s ingrained in me via today’s marketers vying for my consumer dollar, but it’s really done nothing than deprive me.

With respect to aftershaves, being I have relatively sensitive facial shin, I was always about the balms. The balm won lol. But as you know balms in the summer can really get bogged down. I searched and searched for lighter balms rather than just cutting it with water or using something else. Worse still, I didn’t get that lovely pore closing from the splash. I went on this way for years.

Anyway, today, after my shaves I’ll rub any remaining suds around my face, rub alum across it, splash some water on my face and then use a nice splash to shock the old face. I finish it off with a little balm. So I use every aftershave type available to me, not just one. It’s awesome!

What about you? Any secrets? Insights? I love “closing” with a little bit of everything. Zero-sum sucks!

My grandfather and father always used a splash while I was growing up, Old Spice and Mennen respectively. When I started shaving in 1962, I naturally did what I'd seen them do all those years. Somewhere along the way I added a balm after the splash. My routine is a cold water rinse, followed by a splash (I still like the burn of an alcohol splash), followed a little later with a balm. I do have lighter balms, really more of a milk, that I tend to use more often in the summer. Some of the newer splashes are not just alcohol, but contain many skin nourishing products, in which case I'll just stick with the splash. Men are finally starting to catch on to what women have known all along, that it's important to use skin nourishing products on a regular basis. Now that we're in our seventies, my wife complains that I look ten years younger than she, as I don't have wrinkles, because of all the "girly" products I put on my skin the past 55 years. I think it's more related to genetics, but I do try to use shaving soaps with shea butter and other ingredients good for the skin, as well as moisturizing after shave products.

I like both balms and splashes, but when I look at my aftershaves, I have more splashes than balms.
I suspect that I have more splashes because they are cheaper and more common.

Right from the outset, I tried everything I could. Cost me an arm and a leg, but it was fun. Well, most of the time, it was fun. Sometimes, it was just downright horrible.

I have ended up with regular aftershaves by Meißner Tremonia for warm(er) days, and either Baume.be, Esbjerg, or, typically, Meißner Tremonia balms for the rest of the year.

That said, these products are expensive (relatively, but justifiably so because of the quality of their ingredients). Unless you have hypersensitive skin, much cheaper solutions will work. Like these unsong hero of post-shavedom by Beauty at Creightons (the guys who apparently make all major brand English shaving creams): Male Grooming by Beauty at Creightons. "Groomed!" is a killer line if you find the rather proletarian scents agreeable.

Lanolin containing cosmetics can solve the problem of irritating skin and give you the fresh look. Many creams and balms do have Lanolin Anhydrous in the composition. Also, if you can spare some time to it, you may watch some nice tutorials of making DIY after shave balm in YouTube since you have pure ingredients.