A little late to the game here, but for several years I had williams soap and couldn't get anything decent out of it.

Last year, I forced myself to use it in a mug for two weeks with nothing else, and for lack of a better way to put it, I can get a very good lather out of it just because in two weeks I learned to out of no choice to do anything else*

It helps, and I know a lot of you guys don't like to do this, but it helps a whole lot with williams to have a brush that you can leave lather in. It's a hard soap and doesn't yield much soap, and aside from the quality of the soap itself being a little cheap, that's really where people are behind.

I shaved with it today, no problems. I make my brush medium wet, like what you'd flick off, and then put that in the mug to dig out some lather and that's it.





* the soap itself makes a dryish feeling lather, even if it's got plenty of moisture it has a sort of thin and not very lubricating feeling, but with a properly sharpened razor, there is no harshness left after the shave. If one is to use a very slick soap to cover up an edge that is a bit harsh, williams is not the soap for that.

I have been leaving soap in my brushes for several years now and with no ill effect to any brush. It remains the case that no brush that I have can't be easily washed out if needed, and none have dropped hairs or anything, despite the fact that I store some hanging and some sitting up. I started leaving soap in my brush because it was stinking after a couple of weeks of daily shaving. Leave a soap that has a preservative in the brush, and all of the sudden, no stink can grow in it. Now with 3 brushes, I just use each one a couple of days so that each brush gets a chance to dry out without me having to dry it out, and in the off cycle each brush dries completely - not all of my soaps have preservatives in them, and I think williams might be one that allows the stink to form if it's left in a brush.