I must be honest, I've been using water straight from my tap for the years that I have been shaving, and I've yet to have a shave I'm REALLY proud of. I think one of the big reasons why I refuse to use my DE 95% of the time is the head tends to stick to my skin and not glide because my water is so hard, and I can never get a good lather out of soaps, especially Trumpers. I need tactics on how to combat hard water so I can actually have a decent lather for once, any ideas would be appreciated.
Hard water problems
- Thread starter TheRuckus13
- Start date
Try this. If you have a carbon filter like a Pur, Brita, Waterpik on your kitchen faucet, run some of the filtered water into your mug to see if that improves your lather. If you don't have a filter, get some distilled water at the store and try some of it.
I know that my water is full of heavy mineral content and it makes my lathering more difficult if I use tap water without filtering.
Hope this can help.
I know that my water is full of heavy mineral content and it makes my lathering more difficult if I use tap water without filtering.
Hope this can help.
Have you tried lathering with bottled water? I think that would be the easiest way to rule the water hardness in or out of the problem.
If bottled water helps, then you have a number of options: you can continue to use it, or soften the water on an ad hoc basis (salt, or http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=116927 might help), or install a water softener. There may be soaps and creams that perform well with hard water: the membership will probably suggest some answers there.
I also wonder if all hard water is equal? My own water is medium-hard in terms of calcium carbonate, but soft in terms of other minerals. The calcium is great for brewing beer, and doesn't seem to be a problem for lathering soaps.
If bottled water helps, then you have a number of options: you can continue to use it, or soften the water on an ad hoc basis (salt, or http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=116927 might help), or install a water softener. There may be soaps and creams that perform well with hard water: the membership will probably suggest some answers there.
I also wonder if all hard water is equal? My own water is medium-hard in terms of calcium carbonate, but soft in terms of other minerals. The calcium is great for brewing beer, and doesn't seem to be a problem for lathering soaps.
A water softener? Or call culligans?
I have hard water too and find it a pain in the butt. I bought some of the proraso pre shave cream and it made a world of difference. you could try creams instead. I'm still trying to convince my landlord to put a water softener in my place.
I have hard water too and find it a pain in the butt. I bought some of the proraso pre shave cream and it made a world of difference. you could try creams instead. I'm still trying to convince my landlord to put a water softener in my place.
- Thread starter
- #5
Well, all I know is I can get tube shave creams like Proraso to explode like C4 but I can brush away at Trumpers SS or Cella for hours with all sorts of different amounts of water with my really nice brush and nothing happens it just sort of pushes the soap I picked up off the puck around and reacts in no way. Yet the second my brush touches really soft creams, like I said, the lather is out of control. So it's not like I'm COMPLETELY incompetant of lathering..maybe a little but still.
Well, until you can figure out the water problem, add a 1/8 teaspoon of borax on top of your soap. Let us know what happens when you try this.
Oh, I forgot, rinse well, and don't swallow!
Temporary fix only.
Temporary fix only.
I also have hard water. One thing I have found to help immensely , albeit wasteful, is to have more water in the brush when taking it to a puck of soap.
- Thread starter
- #9
Interesting...have you tried this yourself?
+1 ...it works very well without resorting to installing expensive equipment
I've just plain abandoned trying to lather in a bowl, or trying to pick up soap with the brush. I use all soaps as sticks, apply cream right to my brush, and face-lather everything. My shaves improved greatly once I started this. Even using the bottled water didn't help much.
No, this is just theory. I'm still getting over some of my earlier experiments!
I'm going to change my suggestion to just a pinch of Borax. (Oh my, what have I done now?)
Creams aren't a problem with my hard water. With soaps, I find (as mentioned by Doric) that more water in the brush helps when loading up. Also, for some reason I seem to get better results with glycerin based soaps rather than tallow, but that may just be my skin type, technique, or something else.
I've tried using distilled water, but didn't really notice any big difference day to day. Sometime I'll have to compare both side by side at the same time.
I've tried using distilled water, but didn't really notice any big difference day to day. Sometime I'll have to compare both side by side at the same time.
I have been using hard water for the past 10 years. I wouldn't get a decent shave unless I had multiple days beard growth. I finally said enough and invested in a soft water system. I have no idea why I didn't do it 9.5 years ago. It is a world of difference for shaving and general skin care. I would highly recommend one as I believe they are worth every penny. Just my .02
