william's mug soap

does anyone else use Williams soap? I use it and I love it, it smells awesome (reminds me of granps), it seems to have the perfect sticky/slick ratio for it to stick good but allow the blade to pass very smoothly ( i even have a tendency to push extra hard sometimes by my jaw line cause my hair there is extra thick, and i never get irritation!), but the only problem I've found is that sometimes i have to lather up a few times because by the time i get the second side of my face done, the first is almost non-existent. But usually if I just lather up a little more vigorously in the mug, the second time i pass over my face it stays just fine. So I guess what I'm asking is, anyone have any input on this product and their experience with it (or any other mug soaps)?

i have been using the williams soap for ~3weeks or so...... found a tip someone on here said about heating up the cup and the puck.... so i run the sink full of HOT water while i put preshave oil... and put HOT water in on top of the puck.... then i pour the water out of the cup and wet the brush...

i found with this method that it makes a very creamy lather... but you are right about shaving one side of the face and the other side is dry...lol....

Williams used to be good before they changed the formula decades ago..now, not so much imo. It dries out and isn't thick like it was.

What do you recommend?

Whatever you like...
I love tabac, its cheap. I also love cella...
I wasn't saying you shouldn't use williams if you like it. I just think its a common mistake to think the williams used in the old days is the williams now, its not its a different soap.

I use Williams regularly in my soap rotation. If you know how to lather it well, it works for what it's made for.

If you're looking to try other soaps check out DR Harris. The lather quality is fantastic.
If you're on a tighter budget, check out Bairlea Farm soap; it's on par with DR Harris and costs much less.

I got a puck of vintage Williams at an antique store. As soon as I finish my current puck, that one will go in my Williams bowl. I am excited to try the old stuff.

I've used Williams for a number of years and in fact started with it about 18 years ago but use it only infrequently due to the disappearing act. Even now, if I use it, I add a few drops of glycerin to it.

I use Williams often. The smell is great, the glide and cushion is good. I shave both cheeks fairly quickly, then relather for the rest and subsequent passes. I lather right on the puck and there is always mounds of available lather. It will dry out, but for $1.49 a puck I can live with it.

Sometimes I use a daub of Bigelow in the cup - just for kicks. The lather last a bit longer that way.

I gave Williams a try, it wasn't do much that there was anything wrong with it, there were just too many better soaps to try. I rarely reach for it now, but if you like it more power to you!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tjdoyle

What do you recommend?

---

I have to admit nothing smells like Williams. I love it. But I can't get past the short life span of the lather. An alternative in the same price range as Williams is the stuff they sell at Wal-Mart. VHD is the brand. Its cheap, it lathers up fine and lasts the whole shave. However, it is odorless. There's literally no smell at all. Which is more important to you in your daily shave? You decide.

Williams and others like the VDH and Surrey come under the classification of "it works". Most of us started out on these and certainly many still use them and like them. It's just that once you expand your horizons you realize there is a whole other universe out there.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by paco664

i have been using the williams soap for ~3weeks or so...... found a tip someone on here said about heating up the cup and the puck.... so i run the sink full of HOT water while i put preshave oil... and put HOT water in on top of the puck.... then i pour the water out of the cup and wet the brush...

i found with this method that it makes a very creamy lather... but you are right about shaving one side of the face and the other side is dry...lol....

---

I started out with Williams and encountered the other side of the face's lather drying up. I didn't lather up the other side until I was ready to shave it.

Gentlemen:

I agree with my good friend thebispendur. The world of soaps is a great adventure and it's a shame not to explore it. Many of us used Williams and VDH a long time ago — I did once or twice — and moved on to far superior soaps. Williams and VDH, therefore, are little vignettes from my early life. I visit the memory from time to time not because I miss the quality of those soaps; rather, it's the spent period, a short one, at that, during which I used them that I miss.

Williams has a clean and fresh fragrance, but a shave soap should offer more than just that. In experienced hands, many low-end soaps can make big lather. How good the quality of the lather, the creamy structure of it, the moisture, the glide, and the cushion, that is the bigger consideration. Big lather is no indication of quality lather for the shave.

Yet, if gentlemen wish to limit their experience to only Williams and VDH, I find that acceptable. To each his own. Who am I to criticize their choice? Better Williams and VDH, I say, than some foamy substance spewed from a can that pretends to be shaving cream.

Regards,

Obie

I've mixed together VDH and Williams soap at about 2 parts VDH to 1 part Williams. Now i get a great lather(with a little cream of course) and the hint of williams sent. Lather lasts for all three passes when the razor allows me to do so.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Obie

Gentlemen:

I agree with my good friend thebispendur. The world of soaps is a great adventure and it's a shame not to explore it. Many of us used Williams and VDH a long time ago — I did once or twice — and moved on to far superior soaps. Williams and VDH, therefore, are little vignettes from my early life. I visit the memory from time to time not because I miss the quality of those soaps; rather, it's the spent period, a short one, at that, during which I used them that I miss.

Williams has a clean and fresh fragrance, but a shave soap should offer more than just that. In experienced hands, many low-end soaps can make big lather. How good the quality of the lather, the creamy structure of it, the moisture, the glide, and the cushion, that is the bigger consideration. Big lather is no indication of quality lather for the shave.

Yet, if gentlemen wish to limit their experience to only Williams and VDH, I find that acceptable. To each his own. Who am I to criticize their choice? Better Williams and VDH, I say, than some foamy substance spewed from a can that pretends to be shaving cream.

Regards,

Obie

---

Good points Obie. I loved the smell of Williams and it was the first shaving soap I have ever used and I was using a shavette at the time. As a matter of fact, I started out with Williams before I joined this forum and learned more about wet shaving and getting away from the canned foams and gels. So Williams was my welcoming into this wet shaving world. Hmm, I will pick up another puck and give it another go since I have switched to a straight razor and my shaving technique has changed. And yes, I will welcome William's scent once again.

Just used Williams today as part of a wonderful uber-lather with Palmolive lemon. While Williams can be used for a very sevicable lather by itself, I've found that it really shines in conjunction with a cream.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Theseus

Just used Williams today as part of a wonderful uber-lather with Palmolive lemon. While Williams can be used for a very sevicable lather by itself, I've found that it really shines in conjunction with a cream.

---

That sounds great. I have had the same experience using C. O. Bigelow shave cream (by Proraso) with VDH. Where do you get your Palmolive Lemon from?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by pmburk

That sounds great. I have had the same experience using C. O. Bigelow shave cream (by Proraso) with VDH. Where do you get your Palmolive Lemon from?

---

I bought mine from Men's Shaving, Grooming, Skin and Hair Care - West Coast Shaving

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Theseus

I bought mine from Men's Shaving, Grooming, Skin and Hair Care - West Coast Shaving

---

Thank you for the link!

add a drop of glycerin....It will help keep it moist..I am an advocate of williams...

VDH was my first soap, williams was my second, haven't used it in a while but thanks to this thread I'll be picking some up in the morning for my shave. I do love the scent of williams and it has always lathered well for me.

-dan-

This is one of my fav. topics.

Some love i,t some leave it, we all have an opinion
except for the unlucky ones that have never tried it.

There are a lot of folk that pine for the "old" formula
but that is folk lore IMO. Put a handful of pucks up
in a warm dry place for a year or two and let them age.
I am not as old as some folk here but Williams and I go
back to the '60s.
:cry::angel:

Williams will teach you to lather with a mug and
brush. It clean well so working men like it --
try face lathering after a hot dusty day.

It is more difficult to lather than some soaps but
it is bunches less expensive than a $15+ puck from
AOS that is also moderately difficult to lather
at first.

It is a great base for uberlather. It accepts
help from a pea size bit of Erasmic or Proraso
or other creams. Williams + Zirh cream works when
Zirh does not cut it at all for me by itself.

I have used it to fill the bottom of
a big coffee mug so an expensive puck
of soap was easy to reach.

There are better soaps.. but without Williams
setting the bar you will never know how good
some of them are.

It may dry out for some but so what... you have more
in the mug so just use it. If there is no extra
in the mug you are being too stingy with a very
inexpensive soap.

Try it....
You will love or hate it....
If you hate it you will love your other soaps more.
(Something you cannot rightly do with women BTW).

Save it for uberlather, otherwise move on to bigger and better things.....

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HNSB

I use Williams regularly in my soap rotation. If you know how to lather it well, it works for what it's made for.

If you're looking to try other soaps check out DR Harris. The lather quality is fantastic.
If you're on a tighter budget, check out Bairlea Farm soap; it's on par with DR Harris and costs much less.

I got a puck of vintage Williams at an antique store. As soon as I finish my current puck, that one will go in my Williams bowl. I am excited to try the old stuff.

---

Really like the Bairlea Farm soap as well. That Cucumber Melon scent is really refreshing on hot summer days.

In Re: Williams, I have no problem with it. I have also experimented with melting it down and adding glycerin. They probably downgraded it because it is a signature product and not enough people buy it in this day and age.

I have some williams, I like VDH better, but as others have said I am to the point in my shaving where I want to expand my soap horizons.

Those who are having lather trouble with williams may want to try using a bigger brush and soaking the puck. My experience with williams taught me that my existing brushes at that time were too small and in order to get enough lather to cover my face I was building a large dry lather. With better products, the defects in the user's lather building are much less obvious.

cheers!

I have used about 3 or 4 pucks of Williams in the past couple of years, and I also have found that in conjunctoni with a decent shave/cream it work wonders and smells great!!!!
I do like other though, DR Harris is a puck I'm using now and it is very very creamy and holds a lather "long time'
And if I may risk being lashed to within an inch of my wet shaving life, I do very much like Col. Conk shaving soap, for the money it's a great soap!!

Just my opinion, yours may vary!

tinkersd at home and feelin' Groovy!!