I used distilled water

[hedonist222]

Hi everyone.

Last night I used distilled water.
I realized my water was hard because my TF&H razor had gunk (calcified is the proper term I think) all over the corners and its barely a month old. Apparently we do have hard water here. Which makes sense. Its seawater desalinated. I'll start a new thread about it though.

The first thing I noticed was how the blade glided over my face.

For a few passes I thought I wasn't getting the angle right and I was just moving the head (for lack of terminology) over my face until I realized the hair was gone with almost no effort.

When using normal tap water the blade would bump along my face no matter how taut I made my skin or how swift ,lightly but firmly I pulled the razor on my face. With distilled water it was smoother.

Also, the lather magically exploded!

I read about exploding lather before but did not imagine it to be this literal.

My setup:

Soaked brush in a bowl of distilled water (room temperature)
Washed my face with distilled water
Put squirt of cream on brush and face lathered
Dipped razor in distilled water
Did first pass
Rinsed razor in bowl of distilled water
Rinsed face with distilled water (distilled ice water)
Second pass and so on
Finally rinsed face with iced distilled water

I could not fathom how smooth distilled water shaving would be until I tried it.

 

[Mr_Spiffy]

Whenever I stay at a hotel, they usually have hard water. I find it much more difficult to get a decent lather, and the shave doesn't feel nearly as nice on my face. Water quality makes a huge difference in a shave. There are some soaps or creams that can perform fairly well with hard water. But just imagine if you take those same soaps and creams and use softened water with them! They'd be amazing! When I come home from traveling, I enjoy my shaves so much more because of the soft water.

Consider that, if after only a month, your razor has deposits from the hard water. What do your pipes look like? Or shower heads? Or faucets? Perhaps consider a whole-house softener. (Unless you're in an apartment, of course.) It will make a difference, not just with shaving, but with how often you'll need to clean your shower or tub, and prevent clogged pipes due to mineral deposits.

 

[hedonist222]

Completely agree with you. For now, I'll start with distilled water though.

Just surprised at how smooth the blade glided over my skin.

It was so smooth I actually nicked myself thrice in yesterday's shave!

I stopped nicking myself a couple of weeks after learning to use a DE. But last night was so smooth I literally could not feel the blade making contact with my skin.