Truefitt 1805

I picked up a tub of this at Nordstroms yesterday and just tried it this morning. I'm not nearly as experienced as the rest of you guys but it seems like a pretty nice creme. Lathered up thick and rich with just a tiny dab on the brush. Shaved ok (I honestly think the proraso shaved a little better but I just changed the blade in my feather and it's brand new scary sharp so I'll try a few more days first).

One thing that I did notice is that it smelled pretty good, pretty light though, until I put it on top of the proraso preshave. It clashed pretty bad with the menthol/eucalyptus smell from the proraso preshave. The combination was definitely not a pleasant one to my nose. I don't have any other preshave options so I'll try it without preshave next time.

-- Gary F.

Gary,

Both of those are outstanding products, and 1805 is one of my favorites. Rather than use Proraso Pre/Post with the 1805, try something new. Assuming you shower before shaving, apply hair conditioner to your face and leave it on throughout your shower, rinsing it off just before you exit the shower. It's a cheap way to soften up the beard.

RT

"try something new" he says. If he only knew... let's see, I've bought a new badger brush to replace my trusty burma shave, switched to proraso from about 15 or 20 years of williams hard soap, and bought a feather (with a beginners razor/strop/paddle kit on the way from Tony as well). Then I went and bought a $22 tub of white goopy smelly stuff based solely on the recommendation of a bunch of yahoos that I've never met :)

I'm trying about as much new stuff as I can handle at the moment :) Anything else and I'm going to blow a gasket. I'll try the hair conditioner trick though. I have to steal some from my fiancee because, well, if you don't have much hair like me you generally don't have conditioner either...

-- Gary F.

I love T&H shaving creams. Scent, lubrication, lather ... all excellent. I have tubs of 1805 and Trafalgar in rotation right now.

The trick is to have the right moisture content in the brush to start with. It's better to be too dry than too wet. You can always add a couple drops of hot water to the mug, but once the cream is thinned out by too much water, you might as well start over.

Lather really isn't an instant gimmick. You may need to swirl your brush around and pump it in and out of the lather to get a nice, thick, and chunky buildup. Once you score the ideal lather, you'll experience the love.

The conditioner works fine.

The 1805 is my favorite scent, unfortunately I can't use it all the time because my wife (although she likes it) finds the scent too strong. I've never found it necessary to use a pre-shave at all so long as I've thoroughly soaked and washed my face during the pre-shave shower. I leave my face wet and head straight for the sink to shave. Maybe one day I'll have to try a pre-shave or conditioner just to see if it makes a difference?
Ed

Ed I don't remember if you have the 1805 balm, but if not, try that alone after a shave in lieu of the cologne. It's strong enough to last all day itself. If I use skin food or some other balm, then I can use the cologne. 1805 is a strong one indeed, and I cannot use both the balm and cologne at the same time.

Jeff