Rethinking wet shaving craze !!

[nugutr57]

All this information, and reviews will make you mad crazy. I purchased a CB razor with B,C solid bar back in August. I also have EJ 89L and Merkur 34c razor as well. All very good shaving tools in their own right. Yesterday I purchased a Williams soap puck at Wegmans for .99 to see what the fuss was about. Well I loaded up my EJ 89 with crystal blade and Poraso pro boar to whip up a lather. Well 3 pass shave bbs shave. Yes Williams takes a little more effort but worked fine. I'm reconsidering to purchase Karve open comb plates or not.I mean how much closer could one get.
It gets crazy that this soap or that certain razor blade combination works for them. Just because some products cost an arm/leg does not mean that they are any better.

 

[Twelvefret]

All this information, and reviews will make you mad crazy. I purchased a CB razor with B,C solid bar back in August. I also have EJ 89L and Merkur 34c razor as well. All very good shaving tools in their own right. Yesterday I purchased a Williams soap puck at Wegmans for .99 to see what the fuss was about. Well I loaded up my EJ 89 with crystal blade and Poraso pro boar to whip up a lather. Well 3 pass shave bbs shave. Yes Williams takes a little more effort but worked fine. I'm reconsidering to purchase Karve open comb plates or not.I mean how much closer could one get.
It gets crazy that this soap or that certain razor blade combination works for them. Just because some products cost an arm/leg does not mean that they are any better.

Welcome to reality.

 

[sharktown]

+1 - hear you loud and clear.

 

[rreynoso]

+1 A truth one have to learn by himself...

 

[Macfrommichigan]

More money usually gets you a bit more. A BMW, for example, is nicer than a Ford. But they both perform the same function.

 

[GaryTha]

More money usually gets you a bit more. A BMW, for example, is nicer than a Ford. But they both perform the same function.

Around here, people don't get to drive their BMW home from the store.

 

[davent]

"Don't believe the hype"!
dave

 

[Twelvefret]

More money usually gets you a bit more. A BMW, for example, is nicer than a Ford. But they both perform the same function.

I’ve had both. A BMW can a money pit and the Ford F-150 is the most popular vehicle in the US for a reason.

If you think a bar of soap is going to do some miraculous, that’s fine. Go ahead and pay $30. If you want to shave and go do something interesting, get some VDH or Williams. Smash a wet brush into it, make later using your face, the use your tool of choice. No need to make it complicated. It’s just shaving. Most think about it like brushing their teeth.

 

[AshleyC]

Nick Shabazz on the curve of diminshing returns.

He uses pocket knives to illustrate his point, but I believe the concept applies to razors too. In a nutshell, you experience your greatest leap in quality with the first $50. For example, the difference between an $8 Lord 3 piece and a $60 Game Changer. After that first $50, the differences in materials, fit/finish, and performance come smaller and smaller even at $100 increments.

I do not own a Feather AS D2, but I would bet that the difference in performance, fit/finish, and material between it and my .84 Game Changer is a lot narrower than the gap between my GC and that $8 Lord. Even though the Feather costs the same as 3 Game Changers.

Shabazz is also an advocate of DE wet shaving.

My budget doesn't really allow for buying a razor over $100.

 

[Clay S]

At a certain point, the performance gain becomes nil, and the cost is materials and fit/finish. I want start a storm by applying a figure to that point.

 

[GaryTha]

At a certain point, the performance gain becomes nil, and the cost is materials and fit/finish. I want start a storm by applying a figure to that point.

I figure around $12-$18.

 

[BigJ]

All this information, and reviews will make you mad crazy. I purchased a CB razor with B,C solid bar back in August. I also have EJ 89L and Merkur 34c razor as well. All very good shaving tools in their own right. Yesterday I purchased a Williams soap puck at Wegmans for .99 to see what the fuss was about. Well I loaded up my EJ 89 with crystal blade and Poraso pro boar to whip up a lather. Well 3 pass shave bbs shave. Yes Williams takes a little more effort but worked fine. I'm reconsidering to purchase Karve open comb plates or not.I mean how much closer could one get.
It gets crazy that this soap or that certain razor blade combination works for them. Just because some products cost an arm/leg does not mean that they are any better.

GOOD NEWS! You figured out what makes you happy PLUS how to get the results you want!!

Congratulations!!

 

[TimeOnTarget]

Nick is good people.

I bought a Merkur 23C based on his recommendation,and then I fell down a rabbit hole...

 

[Bogeyman]

The gain is not commensurate with the pain as they say.

I think most of the soap "snobs" are mostly about the post shave face feel which I am sure our grandfathers would have guffawed about and told them go fix them a sandwich. I will be the first to tell you that I can get a superb shave with a plain Williams puck & hot water.

 

[AshleyC]

Nick is good people.

I bought a Merkur 23C based on his recommendation,and then I fell down a rabbit hole...

I also love that...accent...of his. He sounds like the kind of guy a private detective would use as an informant in a 1940s radio show.

 

[Umma2gumma]

I figure around $12-$18.

Even less, perhaps.

I bought a Baili BD176 ($12 delivered from Amazon, $7.99 at Maggards, also sold as Razorock DE-1 for $7.99 by Italian Barber) after seeing a few people comment on how good they were. I think it absolutely lived up to the hype. I can't imagine any other razor of the same mildness level being significantly better (it is a very mild razor, but this is by design, not due to it being cheap).

I assume that there's a more aggressive razor somewhere out there that is at about the same price range and has about the same performance it it's category. Not ready yet to graduate to more aggressive razors, but from what I read the supercheap Rapira Platinum Lux razor, while ugly, provides excellent performance.

So it appears that yes, you are paying mainly for materials and workmanship, as quality of shave can be achieved at a very cheap level with the right razor.

 

[gsurko]

All this information, and reviews will make you mad crazy. I purchased a CB razor with B,C solid bar back in August. I also have EJ 89L and Merkur 34c razor as well. All very good shaving tools in their own right. Yesterday I purchased a Williams soap puck at Wegmans for .99 to see what the fuss was about. Well I loaded up my EJ 89 with crystal blade and Poraso pro boar to whip up a lather. Well 3 pass shave bbs shave. Yes Williams takes a little more effort but worked fine. I'm reconsidering to purchase Karve open comb plates or not.I mean how much closer could one get.
It gets crazy that this soap or that certain razor blade combination works for them. Just because some products cost an arm/leg does not mean that they are any better.

Wow! You’re in for it now. How dare you utter such truth.

 

[Boar Fighter]

All this information, and reviews will make you mad crazy. I purchased a CB razor with B,C solid bar back in August. I also have EJ 89L and Merkur 34c razor as well. All very good shaving tools in their own right. Yesterday I purchased a Williams soap puck at Wegmans for .99 to see what the fuss was about. Well I loaded up my EJ 89 with crystal blade and Poraso pro boar to whip up a lather. Well 3 pass shave bbs shave. Yes Williams takes a little more effort but worked fine. I'm reconsidering to purchase Karve open comb plates or not.I mean how much closer could one get.
It gets crazy that this soap or that certain razor blade combination works for them. Just because some products cost an arm/leg does not mean that they are any better.

The only thing that i am sure about after reading this forum, is that YMMV. I have 3 kind of mild razors. Baili 176, EJ DE89 and Weishi. All mild. The first 2, are perfect. So close that they are almost interchangeable to me. The Weishi though, it's not for me. Either it's the blade angle different or something, but i get a mild irritation and more nicks. I use it rarely. The other 2, are as good as it can get. I don't care about hype, there isn't any better shave for my face.

Soaps/creams... Maybe it's my ultrahard water, maybe it's my face, but, all these tremendous differences in lather that i read, i don't see them, with very few negative exceptions, where i am not even 100% certain, because i need to revisit those products in face lathering. The most expensive products i 've bought, were Truefitt Hill and Taylor's. I swear that i tried, but i couldn't tell some substantial difference from something more mundane like a Nivea or Lea for example. Now i have Haslinger in my rotation together with Lea. Other than the fact that Haslinger loads rapidly, i don't see some miracle lather compared to Lea.

The key to the lather, is how much water you add. You can make the lather more or less dense, accordingly. Maybe shavers with aggressive razors feel the difference, but i don't... I think you pay more about perfume of the soap and maybe some emollients that leave the face softer otherwise or fancy containers, than anything else. The thing is, my skin tends to the oily side and softer face is a job for the aftershave. So, to me, the soaps have certainly a big hype. And at the end, wetshaving is a business. Which means hype is part of the marketing game.

I think that technique and concentration is much more important than soap. You can blame the soap, but if your lather is frothy or you are heavy handed, it's not really the soap's fault.

ADDENDUM:
Another more benign misunderstanding, is how each person intends "lather". This affects directly the opinion of the soap. For instance, here is a local wetshaving celebrity, doing his famous "plaster lather". What possible information could i obtain from his opinion of a soap? Nothing. I am sure i would feel nothing similar to him, simply because, he makes completely different lather from the one i do:

(He also tests cushion, by scraping his cheek with his fingernails). My idea of cushion, is almost non existant, due to the fact that i use mild razors anyway and it's hard to nick myself, unless i am distracted.

 

[Russjones16]

Very true, most of what we pay for with anything is the “Name” and materials. Using my own kit as an example: I know one day the Head on my R41 is going to fail bc it is zamak however the head on an ATT H2 (which from what I’ve been told is as close as it gets to a comparison) is American made stainless steel so I wouldn’t mind paying their price knowing that it won’t ever break. But that’s just my opinion happy shaving

 

[Jetpilot]

I have sensitive skin. I need a lot of lubrication from a shave soap. All but a few give me irritation for hours after shaving. I can only scratch my neck and feel the burn for so long. I need the slickest of soaps.... Wholly Kaw, Barrister & Mann, Shannos’s. If it costs $15 - $20 for 6-8mo of irritation free shaves then so be it.