Category — Soaps

C.O. Bigelow Shaving Cream, as Proraso is sold in the U.S.

The weather in my area today is supposed to reach 104 degrees F (that’s 40C) today. Hot. I mean hot. Almost too damn hot to shave with hot water.

Luckily for wetshavers, it gets hot in Italy, too. This is the time of year I appreciate Italian shave products. Nothing cools the face like a dense lather of Proraso cream. It contains eucalyptus, something you won’t find in the English or German products… where it doesn’t get so damn hot.

As much as I love Tabac lather, sometimes I’m just not up for that powdery scent when the sun is blazing.

Cella soap, also from Italy, does well in the heat. Its sharp almond scent isn’t too cloying, when the streets are melting outside.

Proraso can be purchased in the U.S. under the C. O. Bigelow label at Bath and Body Works, or you can spring for the real stuff online.

Lately I’ve seen posts by frustrated shavers on the message boards complaining of weak, runny, bubbly, short-lived lather from some of the better known soaps out there.

Particularly maligned lately have been one of my favorites, Mitchell’s Wool Fat, and venerable Williams Mug Shaving Soap.

I’ve never had trouble lathering MWF, and I just finished my first shave with Williams and got good lather from it. So what’s the deal? Do I have a great brush, or super water? No and no. I have a good brush and (thankfully) good tap water.

I have learned how to get a good lather from shaving soap.

Have you seen the internet ads lately talking about ‘one simple rule’? “I lost belly fat, pimples, an ugly mother-in-law, yada yada.. by following One Simple Rule!”

There’s One Simple Rule to lathering soap as well. You have to do it on the face.

You can make great lather with a cream in a bowl. Not so with soap, because it’s all about bringing enough product to bear. So, without further ado:

Now you can start making lather. Keep the tips of the brush going in a circular motion all over the face. Add water to the brush as you go. I turn the brush tips up into a thin stream of hot water. Dipping the tips would work as well.

What you want is to add water into the mix as you keep the brush going on your face. As with any wet shaving lather, you don’t want so much water in the mix that it runs off your skin, but you don’t want the soap so dry it causes your razor to skip instead of gliding smoothly.

As you keep mixing and adding water, at some point (as wetshavers love to say) lather is going to explode. You’ll know when you’ve hit that sweet spot. Suddenly lather is going to run down your hand, fly onto the mirror, just go all over the place.

Because you got enough soap product into your mix. That’s the rule, the key, and that’s what I believe guys who aren’t getting good lather with primo products like Wool Fat or ordinary stuff like Williams are missing. Using the method I’ve outlined, you will have plenty of lather still thick and slick after your third or fourth pass.

You just can’t do it in a bowl. You gotta get plenty of soap on to your face BEFORE YOU START MIXING.

Note: for those gents or ladies who aren’t familiar with making lather at all yet, I refer you to the blogroll to the right. Our friend and mentor Mantic has made videos that will get you started better than I could describe.

Enjoy your shave!

Method Shaving is an alternative style of wetshaving conceived by Charles Roberts, an entrepreneur who hails from Austin, TX.

The Roberts Method relies on the use of products designed by Mr. Roberts and available through his shop, Enchante. The products stress natural ingredients minimizing the use of chemicals. All Method products are meant to keep the maximum amount of water on the face and beard, saturating the whiskers to their utmost potential.

Strict ‘forms’ of whisker cutting are observed, making Method Shaving almost a martial art in execution.

While devotees of Method Shaving are few, they are loyal and their numbers are growing.

I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on the Method, as I haven’t tried it. I do want to add information about Method Shaving to the Wet Shavers Blog for the record, and give you a handy jumping-off point to find out more about it.

Here’s a list of links to sources of details on the Roberts Method. First off is of course a video by Roberts’ fellow Texan, Mantic.

Mantic’s Concepts of Method Shaving Part One

Hydrolast products forum

Method shaving board at The Shave Den forum

Enchante shop online