Thread: MWF

So you really like that vintage blades soap eh...

Well for me the MWF definately needs more water than you think...practice a few bowls and keep adding water and you may find it seems to be too wet and then adding a bit more water will actually bring it into the money zone for a great shave.

It doesn't matter how much water I use with MWF, I still get lousy results. thin lather acts like there's nothing there, thicker lather that is more like normal lather acts like it's glue.

I have noticed that I got a lot more soap scum with MWF than with anything else, so maybe it was dropping soap scum on my skin and that's what was causing the problems. Past tense, because it's in the trash. Love the ceramic bowl though.

try using hotter water and also try using distilled water or filtered water. I drink distilled water I buy in gallons at the grocery so for my lather I build it with that. I warm just a small amount to soak my brush and make my lather...this has helped...

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm not interested in messing around with distilled water and hot pots. I get effortless lather and great shaves out of too many other soaps to fret about making MWF work, and I've long since tossed my MWF in the trash.

Originally Posted by erictski

try using hotter water and also try using distilled water or filtered water. I drink distilled water I buy in gallons at the grocery so for my lather I build it with that. I warm just a small amount to soak my brush and make my lather...this has helped...

Distilled water is potentially lethal, so I guess you're talking about demineralized water.

I'll be trying MWF pretty soon and I hope it works OK for me. Maybe I just caught a few horror stories here.

Originally Posted by captainboog

I may continue just using the MWF and a cream together. I have never nicked myself through the incredibly thick lather that the combo makes. I just want to try some other things to see if I really need to use two products. It would also be nice to have less to carry about when I travel. I've tried the Proraso cream alone on trips, and it dries my skin like crazy.

Captain, maybe you're just a cream guy instead of a soap guy, no sin there. I'm a big fan of MWF myself, but I often use a good cream for head shaving, precisely because of the extra cushion that cream provides over soap.

I shave my face with soap because I put a premium on slickness and glide over cushion, especially with a straight. My straight technique has improved and lightened enough over the last year that I want glide and closeness, touch.

But I find that with head shaving (with a DE, not yet a straight), cushion is most important, because I tend to use more pressure shaving my head. I don't do a 3-pass shave on my head, as I do with my face, or I'd be at the sink for an hour a day. The cushioning cream allows me to get a closer head shave than the slickest soap, because I'd get razor burn or cuts trying on the odd curves and large area of my scalp. And I *hate* getting shaving cuts on my scalp.

Originally Posted by Hillie

Distilled water is potentially lethal, so I guess you're talking about demineralized water.

And why is that?

Originally Posted by Hillie

Distilled water is potentially lethal, so I guess you're talking about demineralized water.

WHAT? Please Clarify

Not 100% sure, but I did realize today that it seems like everytime I've decided to try the MWF alone, I've also decided that it was time to try my "other" razor again. I don't really like my "other" razor. It tends to be harsher in all regards. Tomorrow I'll try just the MWF with my main razor. Should be interesting. I'll report back.

Originally Posted by Hillie

Distilled water is potentially lethal, so I guess you're talking about demineralized water.

I've heard the argument that distilled water lacks the minerals that you get from bottled or tap water. But seriously, if you are relying on water as a source of minerals you are doing something wrong!

The only way distilled water is harmful is if you drown in it or choke on it.

I have a water distiller that I used to make drinking water for a while. Trust me, if you saw the vile residue left behind in the chamber, there is no way any sane person would add that back to the pure H2O you have created.

I would avoid drinking distilled water meant for car batteries etc., but only because of the risk of it being contaminated.

Edit> Wow I just realised you can still buy Dasani in America. I was really happy when they introduced it into the UK, selling PURE water is such an obvious thing to do. Then I was disappointed when I realised they added stuff back in after the purification process. Then they stopped selling it here after it was found to be contaminated with carcinogenic chemicals!