I have been frustrated with a lot of soaps lately. Today I used VDH Deluxe, lathered it for about a minute and a half or so, and it just wouldn't lather well at all. Too thin. When I went to strop my razor at the end of the shave (RazorPit), I used some excess soap and the razor had no glide, even less than when I use William soap. When I strop my wife's Venus razor and use her cream (Target Lavender), it just glides over the Razorpit, so I use that as my benchmark. But stropping my Gilette Glide was skippy and halting using this soap.
I'm using an Omega Syntex brush. It usually lathers creams great, but it's a bit more like boar in the scritchiness. Our water here in Orlando is moderate hardness, 8-9 grains. Honestly, Williams seem to lather better yesterday, and deliver a better shave (I used a touch of preshave oil, which I figured I would not need with the VDH, but I was wrong).
Is this typical for VDH to be so thin? It felt nice and slimey on my face but when I went to shave with it the glide was poor, and stropping proved the results.
I've thought about trying to shave with soft water, getting a shower mirror and a water softener for the shower head. The few times I have used softened water to shave seem to have been much better.
I'm using an Omega Syntex brush. It usually lathers creams great, but it's a bit more like boar in the scritchiness. Our water here in Orlando is moderate hardness, 8-9 grains. Honestly, Williams seem to lather better yesterday, and deliver a better shave (I used a touch of preshave oil, which I figured I would not need with the VDH, but I was wrong).
Is this typical for VDH to be so thin? It felt nice and slimey on my face but when I went to shave with it the glide was poor, and stropping proved the results.
I've thought about trying to shave with soft water, getting a shower mirror and a water softener for the shower head. The few times I have used softened water to shave seem to have been much better.
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