But not anymore!
Here's my secret: I've been avoiding Williams because of its horribly polarizing reviews. Not because of its price, since I gave ol' Van Der Hagen a shot. Some loyalists love it, but the general majority of users hate it, even those that have been trying to get a decent lather after 25 years. Of course, it'd been pretty hard for me to find - not sold in any Walgreens, CVS/pharmacy or grocery store nearby; and my Rite-Aid has always been sold out. Well, a single, solitary blue & white cardboard box was sitting next to the VDH brush and soaps yesterday, as I stopped by to replenish my ASB. For only $1.49, why not? I already liked the smell better than Tabac or VDH, so it could replace them as a break-in soap if I didn't like it.
Now, I'd read the "tips" on how to handle the soap. Use hot water. Soak your puck. Say your prayers and take your vitamins. But when I got home and felt the puck in my hands, I said to myself, "I don't need that hooey!" So, this morning, I ran my normal prep with a rinsing of warm water on my face, and a rubbing of pre-shave oil. I pulled my trusty Semogue 830, and set it to soak up a little water into the bristles. Spent a few minutes taking care of my morning e-mail, then headed back into the bathroom. So I took the brush, gave it a small shake, and then to town on the dry puck - my boar wasn't dripping wet, but I could have squeezed the knot and water could have come gushing out pretty easily. All evidence points to having to use a lot of soap while lathering, so that's what was going to happen.
I started to load the soap like I do everything else. Suddenly, I was hit with the scent of Ivory soap and citronella candles. Very reminiscent of the Arko shave stick (but that also has a hint of urinal cake), which I never particularly cared for. As I look into my cup after about 15 seconds, I start to wonder what everyone is fussing about. This thing is starter to build lather like Mitchell's Wool Fat can only dream. After a little bit, I start lathering my face, adding little dips of water. Again, I fail to see the difficulty others are experiencing, but I've never had problems with MWF either. This is thick and creamy and moist.
Out comes my favorite straight, my very simple Korn Booster, with the blued tang. Without changing routine, I go for my usual 2 pass shave: once across the grain, then again against the grain. It's all astonishingly normal. No destabilization of lather noted in the time it took to complete my shave. It was as slick as anything, nearly on par with my AOS soap. However, I did notice it lacked a bit of cushion, despite how thick I like my lather. Oh well. It's not like I'm being careless here or anything. The Williams just shaved very, very smoothly. After rinsing my face, I found it to leave my skin smooth as well. Not soft like Cella, but just plain smooth without being dried out. My favored AOS sandalwood doesn't even do that (it leaves a very slight tack on my face, in fact), only MWF does. Finishing with some witch hazel and ASB, it's a perfectly satisfactory shave. No nicks. No weepers. No irritation.
Aside from the smell, I have zero issues with the soap. Well... it could be a bit bigger, like the other soaps I use. Man, that puck is tiny. But it performs perfectly fine. Were it the only soap available to me, that would be fine. It's more suited to straight shaving than Cella IMO, with its greater glide. It treats my skin better than VDH which dries my face out something fierce. And it lathers more easily than MWF, which performs very similarly when shaving.
If it only had the sexy smell of AOS sandalwood.
Here's my secret: I've been avoiding Williams because of its horribly polarizing reviews. Not because of its price, since I gave ol' Van Der Hagen a shot. Some loyalists love it, but the general majority of users hate it, even those that have been trying to get a decent lather after 25 years. Of course, it'd been pretty hard for me to find - not sold in any Walgreens, CVS/pharmacy or grocery store nearby; and my Rite-Aid has always been sold out. Well, a single, solitary blue & white cardboard box was sitting next to the VDH brush and soaps yesterday, as I stopped by to replenish my ASB. For only $1.49, why not? I already liked the smell better than Tabac or VDH, so it could replace them as a break-in soap if I didn't like it.
Now, I'd read the "tips" on how to handle the soap. Use hot water. Soak your puck. Say your prayers and take your vitamins. But when I got home and felt the puck in my hands, I said to myself, "I don't need that hooey!" So, this morning, I ran my normal prep with a rinsing of warm water on my face, and a rubbing of pre-shave oil. I pulled my trusty Semogue 830, and set it to soak up a little water into the bristles. Spent a few minutes taking care of my morning e-mail, then headed back into the bathroom. So I took the brush, gave it a small shake, and then to town on the dry puck - my boar wasn't dripping wet, but I could have squeezed the knot and water could have come gushing out pretty easily. All evidence points to having to use a lot of soap while lathering, so that's what was going to happen.
I started to load the soap like I do everything else. Suddenly, I was hit with the scent of Ivory soap and citronella candles. Very reminiscent of the Arko shave stick (but that also has a hint of urinal cake), which I never particularly cared for. As I look into my cup after about 15 seconds, I start to wonder what everyone is fussing about. This thing is starter to build lather like Mitchell's Wool Fat can only dream. After a little bit, I start lathering my face, adding little dips of water. Again, I fail to see the difficulty others are experiencing, but I've never had problems with MWF either. This is thick and creamy and moist.
Out comes my favorite straight, my very simple Korn Booster, with the blued tang. Without changing routine, I go for my usual 2 pass shave: once across the grain, then again against the grain. It's all astonishingly normal. No destabilization of lather noted in the time it took to complete my shave. It was as slick as anything, nearly on par with my AOS soap. However, I did notice it lacked a bit of cushion, despite how thick I like my lather. Oh well. It's not like I'm being careless here or anything. The Williams just shaved very, very smoothly. After rinsing my face, I found it to leave my skin smooth as well. Not soft like Cella, but just plain smooth without being dried out. My favored AOS sandalwood doesn't even do that (it leaves a very slight tack on my face, in fact), only MWF does. Finishing with some witch hazel and ASB, it's a perfectly satisfactory shave. No nicks. No weepers. No irritation.
Aside from the smell, I have zero issues with the soap. Well... it could be a bit bigger, like the other soaps I use. Man, that puck is tiny. But it performs perfectly fine. Were it the only soap available to me, that would be fine. It's more suited to straight shaving than Cella IMO, with its greater glide. It treats my skin better than VDH which dries my face out something fierce. And it lathers more easily than MWF, which performs very similarly when shaving.
If it only had the sexy smell of AOS sandalwood.
