Thread: A Blind Study? One Shaving Cream To Rule them All.

Originally Posted by TrilliumLT

My idea was for 10 members to shave with all 10 different creams and see what we come up with in the way of results. I agree a larger study would be better but we are just a bunch of normal guys that liked the idea of trying 10 different shaving creams each and put a rating to them.
Maybe a supplier would like to do the 100 person study but im not going too.

No, my bad. When I read your OP I thought it sounded like 1 person, 1 cream. If it is each cream per person, you have a repeated measures study and it is essentially equivalent, in terms of replication, to 10 separate people per cream (or a 100 person study). So that should be good.

James.

This sounds like an interesting idea, but I suspect we could do all the double-blind, variable-controlled experiments we want on every cream made, and we'd end up right back where we always do with creams/soaps, and other personal products....wait for it...YMMV.

For anyone who doubts this, just do a search on this forum, or B&B (even more so, much more cream and soap wars over there for whatever reason) for Williams, Tabac, or MWF.

Speaking from the perspective of a newbie, this is an interesting idea. I'm pretty sure there won't be any great revelations in this, but its seems like a nice way to try 10 different soaps or creams (even if it is for just one shave) just to get an idea of scent and other things you can see right away. I'm still working on my first tub of Proraso and just don't have the heart (or finances) to buy 10 different soaps to try. My main obstacle is what happens if I just plain old don't like the scent or the way it feels on my face?

This way I can get an idea of what to try next without going into it completely blind.

If you guys do this you probably should aim for 2-3 shaves with each cream. I know it takes me that many tries to get proper lather whenever I get a new soap or cream that I'm not familiar with. Although I may be biased because I use almost exclusively soaps and then the amount that the brush picks up when I'm loading it can vary dramatically depending on how hard the soap is. With cream you know exactly how much you're using.

Maybe it will be "fun." One thing (the only thing?) I have learned over my years of straight shaving is that there is no"best." There is the hand and the mind of the operator, both of which are in constant flux, and from those two variables, all results depend.

Enjoy.