DE shaving with shave foam

[slybrewguy]

I like foam, always have. Barbasol is great, especially in a thin layer with some water. Proraso foam is fantastic, super slick and I swear the menthol is stronger then in the cream/soap. La Toja foam is supposed to be great as well though I never tried it.

Slap some foam on yer face boy, s'good fer ya

 

[Dave-the-rave]

I do not like canned foam although canned gel can be excellent, you can even whip it up with a brush to give excellent results. I prefer traditional hard soaps and the occasional soft cream but whatever I am using, regardless of an improvement or even degradation of performance, a brush for me is essential simply because it feels great. Using a brush gives me a great deal of pleasure and I would sooner grow a beard than not use one!

Must agree with you re gel. I stopped using canned foam 30 years ago when I found some good canned gels. They weren't all good but some were.

 

[BigJ]

It is tough to argue with the ’brilliant results’ you get with canned foam! Whatever works is just fine.

I used canned products to get socially acceptable shaves during my cart days. I did not enjoy shaving!

After I learned to lather quality soaps my shaves improved considerably, even if I had to resort to a cart during travel! But that’s my experience.

 

[Billy T.]

You can use foam. You can also use a fork to eat soup. Your choice.

 

[Dave-the-rave]

 

[Billy T.]

Perfection.

 

[MntnMan62]

I only see shaving foam or mousse as one to be used for time convenience alone. For decades I used Noxema and then Edge Gel. Once I started using a brush with quality soaps and creams I never looked back. But I will say that my newfound interest in shaving has introduced me to Gillette Foam Mousse Barbershop Fresh which I find to be much better than the foams I've used in the past. But in the end, you have to use what works best for you.

 

[Tallships]

I've tried the foams and gels out of a can. The soap in a can does not come near the quality of a lather that I get with Brush and Soap, even by rubbing and massaging the canned soap or gel is still no match. Maybe I'm not using the canned stuff right but I'll stay old school.

 

[Alex A]

I always have a spare can of barbasol for whenever I need a quick shave.

 

[kingfisher]

It's too thick for my tastes. Works ok if water is added.

 

[serikloo]

Aloha,

I have a Conair hot lather cap that I use with Barbasol occasionally, which I apply with a brush. I prefer to whip up my own lather, but when you're pressed for time on a cold morning

I do the same thing when it hits a bone chilling 62 degrees in Hawaii. But, most of the time it sits in the back of the shave den.

I just re-visted a can of Nivea Sensitive Skin Shave gel. A wet brush, some water in the bowl, and a squirt of canned gel. I whipped up perfectly. I always have a can of Barbasol and Proraso Green for those days when i'm running late.

Mahalo,

 

[cryhavoc]

If shave foam works for you and you get a great shave that is all that matters. It is your shave so do what you enjoy!

I still use Barbasol every once in a while, I love the smell. I get a good shave when I use it but I do find it a little drying.

 

[garyg]

It's the OP's shave, as noted, and as others have experienced, I get the opposite results. When I went back to brush & soap/cream a dozen years ago, I had a stash of barbasol & some travel sized gel. For a couple years I used them latter when in a rush, and me socks never did go Up & Down. I finally s-ditched all the canned, and now in a hurry I use a synth brush and some Proraso cream that is reserved for the purpose. I think in my case, with a thick beard the brush is the key though .. exfoliating and spreading the medium far better than hands could

 

[Chandu]

I use it sometimes and I like it. In fact used it today.

 

[Roedeer]

How many of you can share a similar experience or am In the only person?

This is going to be long. Hope it isn't going to be a "teal deer".

I've had some atypically bad results using soaps, which I have worked around.

I wanted to like them, but the sorts that were easily available here (Wilkinson puck, Arko stick free with online blade order, Palmolive stick) gave me irritation that seemed to be chemical, and might have been alkaline. See footnote *. Disappointing, as I was looking forward to trying fancier ones.

After that, I didn't have an incentive to try more exotic (= more expensive) soaps by mail order.

Boots Cool Cologne Lather Shave Cream (in a tube) was the nearest thing to an old-fashioned brush lathering product that didn't irritate me. Got myself 2 spares before lockdown set in.

As several people point out up-thread, some foams are too thick, and lack slickness. The foam marketed as "Skinguard" is one of the thinner types, and works well, and irritation-free, when combined with a pre-shave oil.

That's not an encomium, because if you apply foam on top of good shave oil, the oil film is probably doing the hard work in the blade-meets-skin zone, and the foam is just acting as a marker of what you've shaved. I get great results from that combination, though.

Recommended shave oils: 1) Holland and Barrett Vit-E oil (not sold as a shave product), 2) Nuage Men Menthol, cheap, mostly refined sunflower oil, and 3) King of Shaves "blue" (sensitive), slicker than any natural oil, but a lot of stuff like siloxanes that you'll have to make up your own minds about.

The blue shave gels in cans (branded "Mach 3" and "Gillette Sensitive" ) are also not great to apply by hand (too thick again), but work surprisingly well if you take the attitude that they are really shaving creams, packaged for some weird reason in a can, and lather them up in a bowl, using a brush. You can then control the thickness of the lather, the slickness is very much superior to the canned foams, and they don't cause a chemical irritation.

I can't measure pH here, but I'm prepared to guess that the synthetic stuff in the gels is nearer a neutral pH than a real soap.

[*] Is there an ingredient in most shaving soaps that isn't in plain bar soap? I never get any irritation from washing my face with ordinary Palmolive or Simple, no matter how much soap I use. There's an experiment I must try soon: lather up some Simple (unscented) with a brush...

 

[Chandu]

@Roedeer From your decription I would say you are probably more sensitive to higher pH than most of us. No worries, use what works for you. Of the canned foams the best foams I've used (no particular order) Gillette Barbershop scent mousse, Barbasol (orange can and purple can - much slicker than regular), La Toja can and Nivea gel. For me the biggest things with foams out of a can are finding ones that I think are slick enough and those are.

You might try a newer glycerine based puck such as VDH, I would think they would have a more neutral pH. No shame in what you are doing though. Results, not the tools are what matter.

 

[Chef455]

Still a fan of canned foam for a speedy or lazy shave. I like to lay down some Cremo as a preshave under my Barbasol schmoo. I will then use a Feather Popular because that plastic handle give me a feel in NY hand reminiscent of a cart razor. Still a superior shave.

 

[dotKomo]

I have had the opposite experience.

I have a can of Nivea Deep Clean shave gel I use when I'm in a pinch, but my experience is that the slickness is just not there for me.

 

[Ivo4u2]

For shave oil give floid a go.

 

[Zig the Pirate]

It works for you and canned foam is inexpensive.
Win / win.