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.

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!

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

When shaving your sacred beard to save your cowardly ass from the Pakistani Army, what product do you use?

News reports out of the Swat Valley in Pakistan have Taliban members shaving their trademark beards in an attempt to get the hell out of Dodge before the Pakistani military moves in.

Possibly they don’t expect nice treatment if captured. You think?

So, if you’re going to shave your beard and incur the wrath of Allah anyway, you might as well do it right.

You’re probably going to need a straight (or cutthroat) razor to get that bushy thing off.

I recommend the SIMCO brand. They’re made in Pakistan so you should be able to find one laying around someplace.

Lather up with an Arko shave stick from Turkey. Or, better yet, since the Swat Valley used to be a tourist paradise, see if there are any Valobra or Tabac sticks around in stashes your pals put together while ransacking hotels and tourist cottages.

Don’t forget a thorough hot-towel prep first!

You’re going to Hell for shaving that beard. Might as well treat yourself right while you do it.

The idea is to keep your lather warm by keeping hot water in the bottom portion of a ceramic dish, while your soap/brush rests up above.

Some entrepreneurial potters out there are making very cool scuttles aimed at the modern wet shaver market. I like them, but at an average price tag of 45 bucks American, I can’t justify a purchase with three mouths to feed and an uncertain employment future.

I do like warm lather, though. What to do?

Fill a ceramic dog bowl with hot water. Set a free promotional latte mug in water, let brush stay warm in there.

Total cost of scuttle: about two Fusion cartridges worth.

Poor wet shaver's scuttle.

When I was a kid, I used to like the commercial for Norelco featuring Santa riding one of their razors down a slope as though it were a sled. The brand name at the end would morph into the spelling “Noel co”. Fun.

This year, we have the Braun Series 7 with ‘pulse-a-riffic’ technology. This thing sends out some kind of pulse that makes the skin ripple, thus providing a closer shave. Somehow.

I checked this little number out on Amazon. While it lists for $269.95, you can get it now for a mere $225, though that price is so low they aren’t allowed to show it unless you click a special link.

Two Hundred Twenty-Five Dollars for an electric shaver. Just wow.

Ladies, Wet Shavers Blog would like to provide you a service if shaving is your goal for your man’s gift this year.

On the right sidebar, you’ll see selections pulled out of Amazon and gathered in one handy stop, all related to old-style wet shaving.

Nip in there and pick out:

• Razor. I’d go Merkur brand. The HD (Heavy Duty) is probably the best choice for a beginner.
• Blades. The razor will likely come with a couple of Merkur blades. Grab another pack just in case.
• Brush. Go wild here. A wet shaver’s first brush is a starting point. You needn’t put too much thought into this. Somewhere between $50 and $100 would secure a high-quality shaving brush that will last a lifetime.
• Cream or soap. For the $225 that Braun is going for, we have enough room left in our budget for a top-shelf shaving cream. Check out the George F Trumper’s or Taylor of Old Bond Street classic English shaving creams and see what scent you’d like, or think he’d like. These are among the finest shaving creams in the world.

If you like, grab some cologne or maybe a nice thick stoneware bowl or mug that he can make lather in. The bullet points alone will get enough gear to allow your man to have a shave Christmas morning; and start him down the path to a lifetime of enjoyment.

I’m sure ’sonic-pulsing-gizmonics’ electric shavers are nifty items. I’m not sure guys love them the way they do wet shaving.

Take a chance and be a little different this year. I’m virtually certain you and he will be glad you did.

"Mmmmm, nice shave."

I’ve mentioned that lots of guys get into wet shaving initially because they’re sick of paying through the nose for overpriced cartridge blade shaving systems, a la the Gillette Fusion.

Yeah, you come for the money savings. Then, you get used to the sheer pleasure of warm lather being worked into your face with a soft, silvertip badger shave brush. Before you know it, you’ve got Wet Shaving Acquisition Disorder and you’re all over the Net bidding on Fat Boy adjustable Super Speeds, looking at the fine English soaps and creams, checking out the Rooney and Vulfix brushes, ordering blades by the gross and wondering how you’re going to explain all this stuff coming into the house to your wife.

Been there. It happens to us all.

Wet shaving is such a pleasurable hobby, it’s hard not to go a little overboard when you get into it. Yes, I said hobby. It’s strange how a routine that used to be a dreaded chore becomes an anticipated ritual. You put a lot of thought, time, and money into it. Shaving becomes a hobby.

That’s because it feels so damn good.

So good, that I’ve seen more than one stogie-chomping, Marine Corps serving, muscle car-driving, deer hunting, bar brawling tough guy turn into a Nancy Boy-shopping metro after taking up wet shaving. OK, maybe I exaggerate a bit. But not by much. Pampering oneself a bit is enjoyable. Nothing wrong with it.

You start taking better care of your skin and grooming overall. Maybe you invest in some real bathing soap when you learn that deodorant bar you’ve been using for years isn’t really soap at all, it’s detergent. You might get serious about losing some weight (happened to me) and keeping your hair a little better barbered than you used to. You invest in some nice cologne or aftershave and finally put on those clothes she bought for you that you wouldn’t have been caught dead in.

Next thing you know, your partner gets that gleam in her eye again when she looks at you and you’re getting some of the best sexing up you’ve had since you started dating.

All because you got fed up with paying Gillette too much money for a shave you hated doing anyway.

Yes, yes. Come for the savings. Stay because it feels good.

Photo credit: Mark J. Sebastian

Regardless, the fact that they feel they have to stress the cost-effectiveness of the Fusion cartridges shows that Gillette knows people think these things are ridiculously overpriced. The reason many wet shavers got started with the habit was the high cost of cartridges.

So, how much do you figure your shave costs per week?

In the previous post, I mentioned about forty-five cents max. That would include fixed costs of the DE razor and brush, premium blade like a Feather, cream or soap and water/water heating cost. The average wet shaver gets about a week out of a DE blade and they are available at far less than a Feather would run. A quarter a week total cost would be easy to achieve. Straight or ‘cut-throat’ razor shaving would be even less.

Come on over to the Dark Side, Fusion users. You’ll save a hell of a lot of money and we have cookies.

A dollar a week? Lol.

Using the most premium blade available, like the Feather, and including the fixed costs of making soap or cream lather, shaving brush wear (almost none), DE razor (Merkur x about $40 spread over a lifetime), water and energy, you’re looking at maybe 45 cents a week for a far superior shave.

The mighty Proctor and Gamble could have embraced wet shaving. Instead, they are taking a pot shot at it. Their call.

Interesting that the trend seems to have finally officially hit the radar screens on Madison Avenue.

Essential oil is captured by distillation from the parent plant. Steam is passed through the plant material, distilled and voila! Essential oil.

EO’s are easy to come by at the drugstore or online. They are potent, so care needs to be used not to get it directly on your skin.

I like to mix up a little with unscented shave cream like Kiss My Face brand, or put some in a spritz bottle of witch hazel.

Glycerin soaps can be (carefully, slowly) melted, some EO stirred in and allowed to cool creating a custom-scented soap.

In my early days wet shaving I experimented a lot with this. I was going for a scent made popular by the Nancy Boy company: Lavender, peppermint, and rosemary. I’d melt a little Van Der Hagen soap and stir in some oil. I got a mix I liked but it took a few tries.

We have some hand soap around now, that’s really slippery and smells like chewing gum. Nothing I want to shave with, but it’s fine for hands. No need to waste perfectly good soap just because it’s got more peppermint scent than I anticipated.

Essential oils differ from fragrance oils in that fragrance oils contain some synthetics. I’m not sure whether they would do any harm mixed with soap; probably not.

Using your own essential oil, there is no limit to the possibilities of scent in your morning shave.

In this post, I want to present the flip side.

Tabac Shave Soap comes out of Germany from Maurer & Wirtz. From what I gather, Tabac is to Germany what Old Spice is to the US. It’s a standard, time-honored everyday shave soap/after shave that your old man or grandfather used.

The cologne aside, the shave soap here in the States is the stuff of wet shaving legend.

Tabac, baby. Your (German) grandpa knew what he was about.

Tabac comes in cake form with the option of including a cool ceramic bowl. The price is in the mid range for imported shave soaps. It works up a tallow-based lather that’s incredible.

What I like best, and provides the flip side to Arko, is the Tabac scent. It’s kind of a powdery, somewhat floral, sweet pipe tobacco (Tabac, right?) aroma.

I’ve heard the scent described as ‘old world’ and that seems to fit. I can easily picture a Saturday shave at a European barbershop of days gone by when I shave with Tabac.

I can also understand how scent snobs (of which I suppose I’m one) look down on it. ‘Powdery’ is a sneer in some circles. It is kind of simple. To me, that’s a big part of its charm.

There are a number of shave soaps and creams that I love… but I have to give Tabac the nod as my favorite. Highly, highly, recommended.

The humble Arko Shaving Stick comes out of the unlikely country of Turkey. I say ‘unlikely’ because that’s how it would seem to an untraveled Yank.

In reality, the Turks are masters of the barbershop shave. Check out some online videos of ‘Turkish Shave’ or a similar search. This is a barbershop shave I’d love to enjoy someday. The finish with flame to singe hairs thus discouraging their regrowth seems like a fun little test of manhood. I am unlikely to make it to Turkey in my lifetime, but there seems to be a number of Turkish barbershops in the UK. That doesn’t seem too far out of reach.

Anyway, back to the topic: the Arko stick. Available for under three US dollars, this product lathers like a real champ. It is a tallow-based soap stick, which should be noted for those sensitive to the use of animal products. The lather is very easy to make; it’s protective, slick and lush.

However.

The Arko stick does have a significant scent. To me, it’s more of a ’stink’. There is a range of opinion out there; many guys don’t mind the scent at all and describe it as ’soapy’. I fall into the camp that believes the smell is that of a ‘urinal puck’.

The stick works so well, though, I found a way around the scent.

In a thread at Badger and Blade, a gent posted that he’d put an opened stick under his bathroom sink and forgot about it for a few months. After recovering the forgotten stick, he found the scent had diminished significantly. He was able to enjoy the spectacular lather without being troubled by his olfactory sense.

Sounded good to me. I included a stick in a soap purchase. I anticipated smelling this stuff I’d read so many descriptions of. Yuck.

I molded the tick into a small Anchor Hocking bowl and tucked it away under the sink. I didn’t forget it though; every time I opened the cabinet door the Arko funk would rush out and announce itself. After a few weeks, I decided I was ready. I loaded the brush from the bowl as I would a cake of shave soap (essentially killing the ’stick’, but I wanted as much surface area exposed to air as possible). Wow! The stuff lathered every bit as well as I’d read.

To this day there’s still enough smell left to be unpleasant. I counter this by ’superlathering’ it, mixing in a bit of Prorasso cream to punch up some menthol aroma.

That combination works up a lather so fine, I look forward to Arko shave days as much as those using the fine, high end soaps.

Give this stuff a shot. The shipping would run more than the stick by itself; I’d recommend including one in a buy along with other soaps, a razor, some blades… you get the idea.

Arko is included in the ’soaps and creams’ category in the Amazon selection I’ve put together in the right sidebar. Pick one up and try that lather and scent for yourself today.

Shave sticks have a loyal cadre of wet shaver fans. Beyond the mere convenience of the size and shape, guys love to shave with them.

Why?

One reason is shave sticks are great for face lathering. Wet the end of the stick a few minutes before use to soften it up; rub that sucker against the grain of your beard until you get a nice coating of soap, and go to work with your brush. Many guys prefer this method of face lathering to the rubbing of the brush on the cake of soap to get the base going. Sticks are nice for use in between passes, to get a little extra punch in the lather. It does seem to be easier to create more lather with a bit more soap once you have a good load in the brush than starting from scratch.

Shaving sticks can be very economical because many of them are milled to a hardness that makes them last a long time.

Scent lovers can get a heavy dose of their fix when the stick is applied to the mustache area.

Shaving sticks definitely have an appeal that goes far beyond their convenient travel size.

Ah, Arko

Valobra Shave Stick

During my shave today, the thought occurred that without world peace and free trade, we wet shavers would really be over a barrel.

Consider the global representation involved in the shave:

• Russian blade.
• German razor.
• Lather made with Turkish soap and Italian cream.
• British brush with badger hair from China.
• Towel from Vietnam… or was it the Philippines? I need to double check that.
• Finished off with French cologne (mmmm…. Guerlain Vetiver)
• and oh yeah, I did splash some American witch hazel as a toner.

So yeah, I think it would be worthwhile to pursue this. ‘Wet shaving for World Peace’, or ‘Shave Aid’, or ‘Global Shave-in for Peace’.

Anybody know Bob Geldof’s email address?

Bay Lime Shaving Cream

So how do you make lather?

Using a bowl or large mug (a latte mug is great for this), start by soaking your brush for five minutes or so in warm water. Lots of guys set the brush soaking before they get in the shower.

When the brush is well-soaked, dump the water from your bowl. Shake most of the water from your brush. It wouldn’t even hurt to give the brush a gentle squeeze to rid it of excess water. It seems counter-intuitive, but there’s plenty of water stored in the bristles of the brush after a good soaking.

If you’re using cream, drop an almond-sized dollop into the bowl. Start whipping the cream using circular motions of the brush. When you’ve got a paste going, it’s now time to start adding water. This should be done carefully, as lather that’s too wet runs off the face and is pretty useless. Add water a half-teaspoon at a time, and keep whipping with the tips of the brush.

After a couple of minutes, you should get the result you’re looking for: a meringue-like lather with nice pointed peaks coming out of the brush. This is a perfect lather; not too dry, not too wet. Spread the lather on your beard. Once the beard is coated, it’s a good idea to ‘paint’ the lather over the beard area to get an even coating.

Some cream makers advise leaving the lather in place for a couple of minutes to aid in softening the beard. You can certainly do this; but it’s still a good idea to do a thorough prep first.

Making lather with soap isn’t too much different from making it with cream. A soap puck will be in a mug or bowl (lots of soaps can be purchased in their own fancy wooden or ceramic bowls). Some guys put a few drops of water on the puck while the brush is soaking to soften the top layer.

Once again, take the brush and shake and/or squeeze it to rid it of excess water. Swirl the brush tips around the soap puck until you get a good coating on the bristles.

Here’s where paths diverge on the best way to lather with soap: some men make the lather in a bowl or mug just like a cream, others like to start whipping the lather right on the face. Either way, keep whipping and adding water bit by bit until you achieve the ‘peaks’ on the brush indicating it’s ready.

Which is better: soap or cream? This is a point that can be discussed endlessly. It’s really a personal preference. If you’re into a variety of scents, cream is probably the way to go. There are many, many scents to choose from, giving you an olfactory kick while you’re enjoying the warm lather goodness.

Soaps are probably a bit more economical as they will tend to last longer.

Most wet shavers will start out with cream. I did. Proraso cream from Italy, sold in the U.S. at Bath and Body Works under the C.O. Bigelow brand, was the starter lather base for myself and hundreds of other wet shavers. It’s hard to go wrong using this as your wet shaving lathering kickoff.

I’ve now swung to the other side of the fence: I like soaps, and lather on my face. I like the exfoliating scrub I get from the brush while the lather is building.

Face lathering gives prep an extra boost. You get that couple of minutes with lather on the beard while you make it. Also, to keep the lather warm, a few drops of hot water on the bristles does the job nicely.

One can even combine the best of both worlds. ‘Superlather’ is the term for a lather made with a mix of soap and cream.

Let your imagination run wild, enjoy the luxury of warm lather you made, and get the shave of your life.

Bay Lime Shaving Cream