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mitchells wool fat first use

I had a puck of the Fat back when I first started shaving. I sold it off after having some trouble with it (very possibly/likely user error). One day I might get back to it to see what my experience would be: I've got a lot of soaps to get through first. That, and I discovered Haslinger's Schafmilch, which did what MWF seems to be reported to do but I had no trouble lathering it.
 
OK, so Ive tried about 23,597 different shave soaps, completely finished well over 15,000 pucks, and still have about 30,000-40,000 unused pucks just lying about (it’s not easy finding storage for that many shave soaps). After all that, MWF and Tabac are my top two soaps.

Alright, I may have exaggerated slightly on my shave soap usage, but one thing I know for certain, before I was thirty I had eaten over 10,000 Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and then I stopped counting (actually a coworker was counting and let me know when I was approaching 10,000. I had no idea he was keeping score).
It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you don’t keep score. The best round of golf I ever shot was when I wasn’t keeping score and didn’t know my partner was. At the end of the round he came up and said, do you know you shot a 95? That’s a good 30 stokes off what I normally shot.

I quit golf sho after that. There isn’t any point in playing if all it does is make you frustrated and mad. I was never able to master the swing of the sticks.
 
I get fantastic shaves off the Fat. Ive read a lot of the threads where it drives people to distraction but for whatever reason I do just great with it. In the early months of wet shaving, with a (ahem....) somewhat imperfect technique, the Fat saved my face on a number of occasions. Its the only soap where i would happily not bother with a balm or splash after a shave.

I did nearly give up on the Fat though. My first dozen or so lathers were terrible - weak, frothy, dissipate in seconds type of lather. I think i cracked it by fluke. First, I chucked out the Semogue Boar brush that i was using. I hated that brush - the handle paint split from day one of use and after a month the damned thing was still like shaving with a pan scourer. So I began using a high loft synthetic. The improvement was immediate. At the same time, by chance (i think) a dozen or so uses had hydrated the puck and the real magic began to happen. Perhaps foolishly I bought 10 further pucks of it. Not only is it the best face feel soap i have tried so far but at under £6 for 120 ish shaves its far cheaper than some of the increasingly expensive artisan offerings.
 
The Fat was delivered yesterday. This followed much deliberation, having read many of the threads on here regarding difficulties with the soap. As it transpired, I needn't have worried. The fact that I have very hard water in southern England - and, that I simply lathered it with my synthetic brush and no special technique, as I would Proraso, were inconsequential. The soap lathered beautifully in spite of its hardness and was very protective.

I expected either an unpleasant or a non-existent scent, which wasn't the case - it's a mild bath soap scent with a slight lavender note. My preference is for non-tallow soaps usually, so this one is a bit of an outlier. I am pleased with it, though, and the dish is a nice ornament.
 
The Fat was delivered yesterday. This followed much deliberation, having read many of the threads on here regarding difficulties with the soap. As it transpired, I needn't have worried. The fact that I have very hard water in southern England - and, that I simply lathered it with my synthetic brush and no special technique, as I would Proraso, were inconsequential. The soap lathered beautifully in spite of its hardness and was very protective.

I expected either an unpleasant or a non-existent scent, which wasn't the case - it's a mild bath soap scent with a slight lavender note. My preference is for non-tallow soaps usually, so this one is a bit of an outlier. I am pleased with it, though, and the dish is a nice ornament.

Im also in southern England and the hard water was a concern to me when i purchased the Fat. Fortunately the shave gods smiled on me and the lather is amazing. I must confess to loving the ceramic bowl as well.
 
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