Thread: Tabac soap + pre shave?

Just wondering what would be good as a pre-shave to Tabac soap. I normally use the excellent Coral Skin Food by G F Trumpers along with their Rose soap (an excellent combination), but just wondering if the Coral Skin Food might be a bit of a scent clash with the Tabac.

What are people's thoughts?

Regular soap and water, that's what I use...

Nenad

my favorite pre-shave is lather. I've used all kinds of products when I was learning to shave with a straight and I've stopped using all of them. I'll lather up and do the hot towell for a couple of minutes. I'm convinced that lather will soften the beard just as well as any preshave and most barber texts will tell you to apply lather, hot towell, relather, and shave. Also, you get to smell that tabac soap while you are applying your hot towell. Stuff smells great

I simply take the soapy water from the tabac soap and apply it to the beard work great

Originally Posted by saladbar2000

my favorite pre-shave is lather. I've used all kinds of products when I was learning to shave with a straight and I've stopped using all of them. I'll lather up and do the hot towell for a couple of minutes. I'm convinced that lather will soften the beard just as well as any preshave and most barber texts will tell you to apply lather, hot towell, relather, and shave. Also, you get to smell that tabac soap while you are applying your hot towell. Stuff smells great

I agree with you! I do two hot towel routiens: The first one I just lather up with a soap I am not particularily shaving with (I have sooo many) - I do a hot wet towel over that cream or soap. For my second hot towel, I lather again with which ever soap or cream I am going to shave with that day with. It works great! I have found the shave sticks from QED or Mama Bear's works really great as pre-shave soaps; and they are easy to apply, too. I use my brush and lather them up prior to the hot towel.

I don't have to hunt for a good pre-shave product. I already have plenty right there in my bathroom, shave soaps.

Steve

The scent from the Coral Skin Food is very short lived. I don't see any problem with the combination.

RT

I had a puck of williams, a bowl of omega soap, florena cream, and wilkinson sword soap.

i like the sent of the williams, the cooling feeling of the omega, the lathering ability of the florena and the slickness of the wilkinson.

one day i was bored and decided to combine all 4 into one super soap! the results were less than stellar. the resulting soap creates a lather that leaves your skin "sqeaky-clean" and kind of sticky. trying to shave is frustrating as the blade likes to stick if there isn't a generous layer of lather. this soap and my old omega boar brush are what i use for my pre-shave prep

Originally Posted by zepplin

I agree with you! I do two hot towel routiens: The first one I just lather up with a soap I am not particularily shaving with (I have sooo many) - I do a hot wet towel over that cream or soap. For my second hot towel, I lather again with which ever soap or cream I am going to shave with that day with. It works great! I have found the shave sticks from QED or Mama Bear's works really great as pre-shave soaps; and they are easy to apply, too. I use my brush and lather them up prior to the hot towel.

I've not really tried a "pre-shave" soap before. Normally I just put my hot towel on my face after a quick rinse with warm water. I notice Lynn puts some soap on his face before the hot towel treatment, then re-lathers and shaves, in his world of shaving DVD.

Will it really make any difference compared to how I'm currently doing my hot towels?

rum

it isn't a pre-shave soap but just ordinary shaving soap. It can be lather from a different soap than you are shaving with or the same soap you are shaving with. It can be lather with creams also. Just lather. Hot towels and hot water (the hotter the better because high temperatures will damage the cuticle of the hair on your beard) are essential because you want the hair of your beard to be fully saturated before you start. Most shaving soaps and creams are alkaline in nature so they also help damage the cuticles of hair in your beard (with that outer shell damaged, the hair will absorb water more easily) and they also contain humectants wich help absorb moisture and keep it in. Some type of humectant is probably in your soaps and creams and it is probably one of the first ingredients listed. The lather should help you fully saturate the hair on your beard faster but you still need the hot water and/or the hot towel. With the hair fully saturated with water, it will be much easier to cut (like a hot knife through butter)

it isn't a pre-shave soap but just ordinary shaving soap

Thanks. I am aware that it's no a special type of soap, that's why I used quotation marks around the term "pre-shave soap" in my previous post.

Originally Posted by saladbar2000

Hot towels and hot water are essential. Most shaving soaps and creams are alkaline in nature so they damage the cuticles of hair in your beard (with that outer shell damaged, the hair will absorb water more easily) and they also contain humectants wich help absorb moisture and keep it in. With the hair fully saturated with water, it will be much easier to cut (like a hot knife through butter)

I am not disputing the fact that a wet beard will be shaved closer and more smoothly, I am merely asking what difference I will see to using a pre-shave lather (from whatever source it may be) before my hot towel compared with using, say, a Skin Food before my hot towel.

Apologies if my previous post wasn't very clear.