Need soaps for hard water

[Triple Beam]

I recently sold my house and moved into a rent house -- the water is REALLY hard. The house needs a water softener but I doubt the landlord will pony up. It is only temporary, so I'll live.

Anyway, I need some soaps that perform well in hard water. I face lather, and I am currently having to reload the brush for every pass. MWF does terrible, Cyril Salter is better, Kell's is pretty okay too, but nothing too great yet. Suggestions, fellas?

 

[The Last Chimney]

My water isn't awful, but it's moderately hard. MWF works for me, but only if I spend a lot of extra time on it.

Ogallala's Bay Rum does not seem to care what kind of water it touches. I get fantastic lather out of it. Don't let the initial foaminess put you off. The scent is powerful, and excellent if you like Bay Rum. If not, I believe Ogallala makes an unscented puck.

At less than $5, everyone should try it out at least once.

 

[Leche]

I have pretty hard water and feel your pain. MWF works fine, just takes some effort. Some soaps that work pretty easy for me are Tabac, PS Green Tea, PdP, IK, Speick, Arko, and Palmolive.

 

[wdwrx]

I've got really hard water (250 ppm dissolved solids) and find I have better luck with creams, some more than others.

I've also taken to adding about 3 or 4 small squirts of Glycerine to the mix. That seems to help tremendously.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

Here in the hard water capital of the world I'm able to get excellent lather from every soap I've used.

D.R. Harris, all flavors
Pen's EF and BB
MWF
Gentlemens Best
C&S 88 and O&C
Proraso Green
Monsavon
PC OS
Tabac
vintage OS
vintage Yardley
Knize 10
RL Safari

Each has it's own water ratio, but once you figure that out it's not a problem to make a good lather.

 

[Newfie]

I've never lived anywhere with water that hard, but here's what I have done when I'm travelling somewhere with hard water.

Get some bottled water and nuke it in the microwave in a mug (not to boiling obviously) and soak your brush in that. Even better if you have one of those water dispensers that have the hot water option. I don't know if the hardness of bottled water varies or not, but I've had success.

Worth a try I guess.

 

[Deltaboy]

Get a VDH Deluxe and Soak the Puck in Hot Water along with the Brush.
Shower ect then Dump the water off shake out the Brush and get to work.

As someone else said Creams will work also. Try CO Bigelow from Bed Bath and Beyond it is about $6.00 a tube with tax and you will get a month of shaves out of it.

 

[Menhir]

Hard water where I live, so I just have to live with hard water.

I've used several different "flavors" of Conk's, regular VDH, and Ogallala Bay Rum.
Honestly, by now I can get a decent enough lather out of all of them by just playing around until I got it to work for me. Practice.

Like Deltaboy said:

Get a VDH Deluxe* and Soak the Puck in Hot Water along with the Brush. Shower etc then Dump the water off shake out the Brush and get to work.

*or in my case, whatever.

Having said that: I like my Omega boar brush, but my EJ badger makes better lather more easily, and the Ogallala soap lathers easier than the others, too. But they all work.

 

[DSB]

Since I have been a wet shaver, I have only lived in an area with hard water. I have no difficulty with any of the soaps I use:

T&H Luxury
DR Harris (lavender, marlborough, arlington)
La Toja
Speick
Irisch Moos
Tabac
C&S 88
Knize 10
AOS Sandalwood
Yardley
L'Occitane Cade
QED Sandalwood
Valobra
Palmolive
Trumpers Rose (vintage tallow)
Santa Maria Novella
Penhaligon's EF (tallow)
Penhaligon's BB (tallow 5th)
Courtley

 

[Triple Beam]

I have got some Cade and Irisch Moos to try out still.
I am on a well -- so water straight outta the ground with no filter and no softener. I have lived in Houston and other areas with supposedly hard water. Never seen anything like this before though. I just need to tweak my program. I may have to go back to bowl lathering or maybe try some creams.

Thanks for all the input guys.

 

[benvh]

Water is hard here and I've had trouble with a lot of soaps. I found that using more soap helps. I used a Toja shave stick today for the first time and it lathered great! I'll be using it more for sure.

Ben

 

[spiffykyle]

Super hard water here as well and no real problems with the soaps. VDH deluxe is really easy to lather. I normally add a few squirts of glycerin to soaps and creams as well. MWF and Tabac are champs and my Ogallala soaps perform well too.

 

[RayH]

I'll second the idea of using VDH. It works great with hard water. Col. Conk will also. If you need to use a cream, I would suggest Kiss My Face or C.O. Bigelow from Bath and Body.

 

[blood_type_O]

Water is hard here and I've had trouble with a lot of soaps. I found that using more soap helps. I used a Toja shave stick today for the first time and it lathered great! I'll be using it more for sure.

Ben

I have hard water. Using more soap works for me, also. But I don't think you'll end up looking like Santa Claus.

 

[routeinfo]

I've got really hard water (250 ppm dissolved solids) and find I have better luck with creams, some more than others.

Here in the hard water capital of the world I'm able to get excellent lather from every soap I've used.

You guys don't know how bad it can be. I live in the mountains where all our water comes from a few local wells. According to my water company the calcium carbonate is between 300ppm and 580ppm with an average of 418. Add to that the magnesium, manganese and other crap and the TDS ranges from 500 to near 1000ppm depending on how low the wells are running. Fortunately there are no pesticides or other nasty stuff in my water that other folks have to deal with. If I use enough product I can make good lather with anything.

It may be your problems are not hard water related but are due to other contaminants in the water. I suggest you try a Brita type water filter carafe to clean your shaving water.