Thread: Happiness, or heresy? Straight razor soap in the shower

Originally Posted by hoglahoo

I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but you're going to have to get one of these. Contact me for special pricing

Whee!

I'll send you a personal check drawn on the First National Bank of Iceland.

(Nice cert, btw. Some kind of DIY Web program, perhaps?)

do whatever works for you. personally, i feel using a straight in the shower is a safety issue (as much the safety of the razor as myself), but there's nothing wrong with using a brush and soap.

Originally Posted by miketo

Is it permissible to use straight razor soap and brush for a less-than-gentlemanly shave with a disposable in the shower?

Of course it is...unless it's the same disposable your wife uses to shave her legs with.

Now that I got that off my chest I have to ask why you're doing this? Does it take too long to shave with a straight? Try multitasking and do several things at a time like lather up then strop etc.

My own personal technique when I'm pressed for time and have to cheat a little on the prep part is to take my Proraso with me in the shower. I wash my face first then apply a daub of cream and lather it up using just my hands and finish my shower. No reason you couldn't do that with your soap and brush.

Continuing on what AusTex said, depending on how fast your beard grows, you could take your time and do a nice slow shave the night before. I'm usually fine for the next day.

When I first became interested in straight razor shaving, the Mach 3 was what I wanted to get rid of. I liked everything about the Gillette Gel. My plan was to use the Gel and just switch the razor. I read all the "canned goop is rubbish" stuff on here, but I didn't care, I liked the stuff. Nobody ever gave a good reason WHY the canned stuff is bad, just that they didn't like it.

Well, before I got set up with a straight razor, I ended up trying mug and soap just for the heck of it. I lathered up and began to shave with my Mach 3. I immediately noticed something- the soap was rinsing cleanly off the razor. The result of that was, I literally doubled the number of uses I got with a Mach 3.

After that, I bought some poraso cream and a sample pack from the gentleman's quarter and have never looked back. I am now shaving with a straight and touching up with a Mach 3, and only use traditional soaps and creams.

Here are my "Good" reasons for liking the traditional soaps and creams:

1. Clean rinsing- this is the only one that makes a "real" difference- like I said, it doubles the life of my disposable razors.

2. Smells! What a great variety. TGQ stuff is very strong smelling, some I don't like, but there are many that I do. Much more variety than canned cream.

3. Temperature- I know there are warmers for canned cream, but it is so much easier to whip up a batch of warm lather in a bowl.

the only aspect of canned creams that totally outclasses traditional soaps and creams is the lather "body"- the canned stuff just blows the traditional stuff away when it comes to lather body. I know I will get disagreement here but I am basing that on my own experience and many pictures and videos that have been posted here.

If you are pressed for time and have to resort to (eew) multi bladed disposable, just get up earlier and shave properly. A woman needs her eight hours of sleep, but us men can get by on just three.

I'm with ndw76. When I started shaving with a straight, after almost 20 years of vintage Gillette DEs, I decided to just get up 30 minutes earlier every day. Everyone else is asleep, so I get good my-time for a proper shave experience.