Thread: Regular bath soap for lather

My dad told me that when he was a kid learning to shave, they never used special shaving soap. They just jammed used up bars of soap from the shower into the bottom of a mug and whipped lather with that. He said it worked great. Anybody do this? Not that it would take much for me to check it out myself...

Philip

I've used glycerin facial soap before and the lather wasn't all that great compared to Tom's of Maine, MamaBear's, or Tabac. I've also more or less tried to shave with regular Dove soap, but it ended up being a roundabout way of washing my face and getting massive razor burn.
A couple of people have said that they've used Grandpa's Pine Tar soap for shaving, since that's listed as one of its uses, and they say they've gotten pretty good results with it. It seems like you'd have a pretty cheap shaving soap if that's all you used it for.

Before I started buying shaving soap, I was using bath soap with cocoa butter. I felt that it soothed my razor burns and had a decent smell. I since then bought small stacks of shaving soap from classic shaving.com and col. conk soaps so I won't be using bath soap anytime soon.
Ernest

In the early days when men were men most used whatever soap they had lying around the house, hand soap, bath soap,whatever. Many shaved without soap at all just water. Afterall the purpose of it all is to keep your face well lubricated. We buy all these fancypants creams and soaps because we're all just a bunch of sissy's. (me included)

I've used plain old soap before, years ago, and I think it depends on your water as well because I used to get a decent lather at home but when I've been away from home and used it in some areas the water wasn't really good enough.
Not that it stopped me shaving but the lather did tend to be a little thin in hard water areas. Up here, where the water is so soft you only have to show the soap the water to get a good lather, it's ok.

I collected enough shaving soaps to last me about 5 years, so I went the other way and now use my least favourite shaving soap pucks as bath/shower soaps!

I do this often but find some soaps work well and others do not. When I travel the little soaps in the hotel room are incredible. Most bar soaps aren't so good.

The only rule I have found is the cream content in the soap helps. Dove for example works pretty well.

Nothing works as consistently as the small soaps you find in hotel rooms, which makes traveling for me easy. You don't even need a brush.

Originally Posted by texan

My dad told me that when he was a kid learning to shave, they never used special shaving soap. They just jammed used up bars of soap from the shower into the bottom of a mug and whipped lather with that. He said it worked great. Anybody do this? Not that it would take much for me to check it out myself...

Philip

This would probably make an excellent shaving soap!
Pure glycerin with lemon and pine essences! (Swedish Tallba bath soap)

I used Dove cream bar for years with a mach 3 thats before I found this place and coleen. Its works well - the smells. I've never tried it with a straight. must do

Originally Posted by murph

... I think it depends on your water as well because I used to get a decent lather at home but when I've been away from home and used it in some areas the water wasn't really good enough...

This makes excellent sense. We all know that you get more suds when using softer water, and there are some of us who regularly use distilled water for lathering. I have a few times. I would imagine that many hotels have water softeners and there soaps do tend to be a bit on the creamy side. I am still looking to try some of the pine tar soap. Get some of it for camping.

Matt