Thread: Cushion? So what is cushion?

One tried several times to explain the "cushion" concept to me, and for me it just doesn't make any sense ... at all. Mystical bullshit imho.
I don't see any physical process that could help protect your skin from a razor blade.

I would agree with everyone that slickness is the most important as it allows the blade to slide along creating less friction. Without water you have a dry powder flaking on your face. The soap traps the water (which is the most important Ingredient IMO) and let's you see where you have already shaved.

Here is something to think about: would lather be more important the longer the facial hair?

Why? The blade is operating at the skin level, why would length of whisker above the edge change anything...other than more to work the lather down through and loading up quicker.

I'm not sure if it does. It was just a thought. Maybe it would be more important to stand the hair up since stubble is really already standing? Again, just a thought.

Originally Posted by decraew

I don't see any physical process that could help protect your skin from a razor blade.

Has anyone ever tried making Überlather with expanding foam and Teflon spray? Might be interesting...

I think cushion a nonsense word when it comes to lather. The best explanation I have heard for it is residual slickness. Using a wet finger you can test it. Some soaps as soon as the blade passes the skin feels dry whereas with some the skin still feel very slick and slippery. How this relates to "cushion" I have no clue.

I wonder if you get more "cushion" if you "bloom" the soap longer

I'm guessing here ! Maybe the lather lubes the skin for the razor to glide over, and cushion has nothing to do with the skin. It is the consistency of the lather that holds the hair out for the razor to shave off. Like shampoo does in your hair when you wash it. The hair doesn't lay again the scalp until you rinse the soap out.

I don't think guessing will help us much here. There are a number of well researched characteristics of good shaving soaps (or creams). If you talk to actual soap makers (not the guys and girls who use ready made soap stock), they will tell you that they will look for the ability to de-grease whiskers, make hair follicles more accessible (hence the need for a proper brush instead of just smearing on the lather), and, of course aftershave skin care.

The manufacturers I've spoken to have no idea what "cushion" could be, nor which sense it might make. Except, possibly, to make what the inventor of the term said slightly more distinguished sounding. In reality, "cushion" is bollocks. Or marketing speak. Or both.

Just my $.2. YMMV, of course.

Slickness makes the razor glide on your skin effortlessly.

Cushion makes for a comfortable shave(painless) just like the cushion on your chair!

If that were the case, Martin, "cushion" would mean "local anæsthetic". Which, in reality, quite a few shaving soaps or creams actually contain. However, I would rather call that "local anæsthetic" than cushion.