Thread: wow...hard water woes

I went on vacation this last weekend to the coast and brought along a couple of pre-stropped razors, brush, mama bear's soap...etc. The next morning, I got up and prepped the way that I usually do but there was something different this time. When I went to make lather, all I got was fizz...no lather even from my mama bear soap. The coastal water has a ton of chemicals in it and who knows what else...the shave was excruciating to say the least since I couldn't do my usual prep. The second day I went out and bought a gallon of bottled water but it wasn't much better!

I empathize with those out there that suffer from treated hard water...I don't know how you guys do it.

I live in the SE of the UK where the water is rated as very hard. Apparently it's been filtered through a few humans as well. Perhaps it's what you get used to but I never have any trouble creating good lather. I've not noticed any spectacular difference when I visit soft water areas.
Maybe it's not the hardness of the water but something else.

I live in London and we have very hard water here, as Welshwizard says. I dont have a problem making lather, you just have to adjust your technique to make the best of it..!

I find boiling the water first helps alot, as well as soaking the brush and putting some hot water on the soap to soften it.

Distilled water is essentially soft water too, I have tried it with great results.

Yeah hard water does make things a bit more interesting, I have learned many things about lather that way though...

Uberlather Rocks...
Certain soaps that you guys brag about, just don't cut it it up here at all
Heat helps..
Soaking the soap with a bit of hot water on top while in the shower really helps..

just a few

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Yeah hard water does make things a bit more interesting, I have learned many things about lather that way though...

Uberlather Rocks...
Certain soaps that you guys brag about, just don't cut it it up here at all
Heat helps..
Soaking the soap with a bit of hot water on top while in the shower really helps..

just a few

yep, even soaps made by the same company do not perform similar.
I have 4 different Mama Bears soaps and they all do differently when I am making Uberlather

There's all kinds of stuff you can have in your water that can affect the way it performs. hardness is the 600lb gorilla of water problems so it always gets blamed for everything. The only way to know is actually test your water and find out the grains of hardness it has. They sell kits in hardware stores or if you know someone with a fishtank they probably have the chemicals to test for hardness.

Another Londoner here who has learned how to make lather despite the water hardness. It definitely takes a little more work in my opinion. When I was ion Devon a couple of years ago on top of the moors where the water filters through peat etc. I was absolutely astonished at the softness of the water. It took an age to wash off soap. The shaves were excellent -- much less prep needed, and lather that just exploded from the brush.

At home, it's a case of mix it up with brush, add a little water, mix some more, add a little more water, mix some more, etc. until you get desired result. With soft water it seems to be: mix it up with brush, boom -- lather!

Ordinarily I can smirk about this as I have lovely soft Pennine water on tap, perfect for MWF, let alone other soaps. However, when I visit friends in the London area, it's a matter of . I feel like a beginner again. Normally I'd take a stick of Palmolive when travelling, but if it's to London, a tube of cream seems to be a better bet.

We got hard water at the house and I just learned to deal with it.
TILL!! One day I tried the bottled water from our cooler.
I heated it in the micro wave while a showered.
WOW!!!My mug over flowith!!!!
I was amazed at the amount of lather I was getting with the same tecnque I used with the tap water.
With the bottled water I can lather my face then strop my razor 50x and still have a lather to shave.
With hard water all I have left on my face after 50 strops is a glaze.
I think the water is more important than what soap you use.