Shaving Contradictions

[dotKomo]

This thread is intended to talk about shaving products you wanted to love and found you didn't versus products you didn't care for and then grew to like.

For me, I wanted to like the Fatip razors (Picolo and Closed Comb Slant specifically) based on other user feedback on B&B. After purchasing and using both of the aforementioned, I concluded they were just not for me and they have been passed on to other members.

In contrast, I have been wet shaving now for ten years and never really enjoyed the scent of bay rum until very recently. I have been using an AS splash kindly PIF'd to me which was sitting in my shave den. I have been using it in the past week now and have grown fond of it.

I am curious what other member experiences are in the genera.

 

[DesertIguana]

Well in 2023 we got so many choices of Razors, Blades, pre shave stuff, soaps, After shaved.

Think many folk have hard choice find GRAIL products.

Too many choices cause confusion.🫠

 

[emwolf]

Vetiver. I love the smell of various vetiver products (AS or.EDT) but when they're on me they smell like vegetable soup. Mild razors are another thing. When I first came back to DE shaving I thought I needed aggressive razor s. Turns out a mild with good technique is far kinder to my face.

 

[The Blackadder]

I bought several Arko sticks to use as urinal cakes at home, now it’s my favorite fragrance. I rub it on my neck every 30 minutes to attract the ladies

 

[Tirvine]

There are plenty of scents I like a whiff of, but on me they quickly become cloying. I had a late '70s or very early '80s Gillette adjustable I wanted to like. We just never got along. I have had my share of just ok soaps I used up because they were inexpensive and that is how thrifty I am. I never met a cream soap I loved. I was prepared to be unimpressed by Pre de Provence, inexpensive and sold in a grocery store. It is a very fine soap and scent.

 

[gpjoe]

I really wanted to love straight razors. I very much enjoy the challenges and rewards of shaving with open-blade razors (shavettes) which I thought would translate to straight razor shaving...and I was wrong. It is much more challenging.

 

[Phoenixkh]

I really wanted to enjoy various scents in shaving soaps/croaps/creams and even wanted to experiment with subtle aftershaves but it turns out, my face reacts to scented soaps.

I don't plan to revisit scented soaps somewhere down the line. I'm 70... I think my skin reactions to the ingredients used to add fragrances to soaps and other shaving products are mine for keeps.

I have no plans to purchase razors I've had but have sold or given away. There is one exception at the moment. I still mull over the idea of selling off my two complete RR SuperSlant razors and starting over somewhere down the line almost every day at the moment. I am about to start a series of DE slant razor learning sessions soon. I have three DE slants I haven't used yet: the Merkur 37C, the ATT S1 and the PAA Filament. If I'm able to master them, I might know which base plate I should be using with the SuperSlant or at least, that is the hypothesis at the present time.

 

[rbscebu]

I bought several Arko sticks to use as urinal cakes at home, now it’s my favorite fragrance. I rub it on my neck every 30 minutes to attract the ladies

Not sure if you mean what you write but there may be some truth in it. My girlfriends prefer that delicate scent of ARKO over all my other soaps. Perhaps they don't use urinals .

 

[The Blackadder]

Not sure if you mean what you write but there may be some truth in it. My girlfriends prefer that delicate scent of ARKO over all my other soaps. Perhaps they don't use urinals .

A little bit of both. I do keep a stick of Arko in my room. Even through the seal and package I get to smell it’s fresh scent

 

[BigJ]

For me, it’s the Veg. Just does not work!!

Others love it for sure!

 

[@ngel]

I wanted to love Williams soap, I managed to learn how to properly lather since it tends to be temperamental on that aspect and some people still haven't figured it out.

The problem I couldn't solve with Williams was the slickness. Just didn't quite offer me that sliding effect I like in my lathers no matter how different water/soap ratio I tried. Also add the fact that I was/am biased since I love the results I get with other soaps like Proraso or Tabac.

One product I didn't care about was alum.
I didn't really had irritation problems before using it. And I was adamant that less was better so I was set on just soap, razor and aftershave and done, didn't need anything else. Till this day I still don't care for pre-shave products.

But I was given as a gift a set that contained an alum block and I started using it post shave before applying aftershave. Then I stopped using it and was relegated to live on the back of the bathroom cabinet. Fast-forward a couple of years later and I dusted the thing and gave it a try, this time consistently every single shave even if I had no irritation at all and I fell in love with the results, my skin loves it, I feel it more firm and supple

 

[dotKomo]

I wanted to love Williams soap, I managed to learn how to properly lather since it tends to be temperamental on that aspect and some people still haven't figured it out.

The problem I couldn't solve with Williams was the slickness. Just didn't quite offer me that sliding effect I like in my lathers no matter how different water/soap ratio I tried. Also add the fact that I was/am biased since I love the results I get with other soaps like Proraso or Tabac.

One product I didn't care about was alum.
I didn't really had irritation problems before using it. And I was adamant that less was better so I was set on just soap, razor and aftershave and done, didn't need anything else. Till this day I still don't care for pre-shave products.

But I was given as a gift a set that contained an alum block and I started using it post shave before applying aftershave. Then I stopped using it and was relegated to live on the back of the bathroom cabinet. Fast-forward a couple of years later and I dusted the thing and gave it a try, this time consistently every single shave even if I had no irritation at all and I fell in love with the results, my skin loves it, I feel it more firm and supple

I also had issues with modern Williams. My wife picked up a vintage puck at a rummage sale which sat for a long time. I got it out last week and - WOW - what a difference. Easy to lather and nice and slick. Too bad they messed with the formulation.