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Soaps for Hard Water

Proraso and VDH seem to be good latherers for me with my hard water. What are some other soaps/creams that work well with hard water? Which ones don't?
 
TOBS works well for my Cali lame hard water and I just got The Body Shop shaving cream, actually works really well too!
 
I have a pretty even split between soaps and creams, which all perform well in my extremely hard water. I just end up using about double the amount of product and putting in a bit more elbow grease.
 
I've only been at this a few months or so ...so please dont take my advice as gospel but I think the hard water thing is a bit over blown. I've tried a number of hard soaps and all of them lathered pretty well with the one exception of Stirling's sharp dressed man

the one that lathered easiest for me though was col. conk's pucks...
 
Synergy soaps from HTGAM are formulated to work with both hard and soft water. I haven't tried their soaps yet, but I have a tin on the way.
 
My water comes from Lake Mead (185 ppm) so if I can get something to work, I think just about anyone else can too. Arko, Tabac, and Proraso seem better for hard water than most others I've tried. But I think I sort of agree, most issues can be overcome with more product. Williams is the one thing I haven't been able to get to work with hard water. I suspect if I could load enough product it would work too but I just don't care for the citronella scent so I gave up on it. I think the case of Arko I got for $7 had been sitting somewhere for a while because it just smells like Ivory soap and I like it.
 
Our water has caused us to go through 2 coffee machines and 1 baby steriliser. Soap-wise; I have failed with MWF :mad3:, what has worked for me though are:

Tabac / Irisch Moos,
Panna Crema,
Valobra puck (Favourite)
Klar Kabinnet,
La Toja,
Tiki Bar Soap,
Palmolive EU stick,
Cella,
Haslinger,

I always load for 30 seconds, adding water to the brush on the top of the puck every 10 seconds or so, this seems to help get more product onto the bristles. Then finish up face lathering after some final hydrating of the lather.
 
Just start hoarding rain water. Put an electric teakettle in the bathroom to pamper yourself, or just shave at room temperature. I do both, foregoing the kettle half of the time. Any soap I've tried has done well in rain water; I'm not overloaded on soap varieties, though. I get better mileage on my rinse water usage with creams than with soaps, and Texas has been experiencing drought conditions since before I pulled my classic / traditional shave gear and supplies out of the far back parts of the bathroom drawers.
 
I have good luck and easy lathers with Arko and VDH deluxe. Less luck with Williams, but with practice can get good lather even with my hard water.
 
As stated, most creams do just fine along with Tabac, Cella, and Arko which will pretty much lather themselves.

Some other soaps that I personally prefer in my HARD water are Stirling, Maggard, Los Angeles Shaving Soap, RazoRock Argan Oil Soaps, and the Proraso White Tub (Green Tea & Oat).

FYI-You can add 1 TBS of Baking Soda to your sink water too.

My water:

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I have vary hard water at my summer house, as a result I have been able to do some considerable soap testing. Here are my results as always due to technique, load-up and many other variables YMMV:

Worked excellently!:
-Tabac (not much to say about this classic that hasn't been said, very good performance under even hard water)
-Cella (perhaps one of the best hard water soaps? works like a dream for me, I've read that coconut oil is excellent for combating hard water)
-Haslinger (absolutely amazing soaps, lather like a dream, deserve even more publicity than they receive)
-Proraso (not quite as good as the above soaps in terms of hard water performance, but still great)
-DRH (heavy loading required, decent performance)

Worked ok:
-MWF (a major pain to produce lather with, took too long for a mediocre lather, quite nice otherwise)
-Palmolive stick (one of my favorite soaps with soft water, lather just good with hard water and took a while to make)

Poor performance or wouldn't lather:
-Erasmic tub (I love this soap with distilled or very soft water, absolutely will not lather with hard water, is imo judged as a poor soap as a result of its sensitivity to water hardness)
-Wilkinson tub (terrible lather with any hint of hardness in water, ok/good lather with very soft or distilled water, another soap I feel gets a bad reputation from its high sensitivity to water hardness. that said even with good water it is an ok performer imo)

These are the soaps I have had a chance to use under hard water, that said my time with each of them was somewhat limited to perhaps performance could be improved slightly (Palmolive and MWF). Hope that helps.

Regards,
Eigen
 
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I have hard water, not sure how hard but I get mineral deposits in my kettle. You should be able to lather up any soap. It's just a question of product : water ratio. Too many of us rotate between too many soaps and therefore never master them. Stick with 1 soap for a week. Also test lathers are underrated. Take 30 minutes and try several test lathers until you see what ratio works best. Some soaps (like HTGAM, B&M, Wickham) have a wide sweet spot. Some (SCS, MWF) have a narrow sweet spot. With the latter your test lathers will really help you figure out the right proportions.

Watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXVxXvv_8yk

As you are only test lathering you really can really find the sweet spot by starting dry, keep adding a few drops of water, eventually you'll find the start of the sweet spot where you have built ok lather, keep going, glide getting better, keep going, and keep going until you find the end of the sweet spot where the lather is too wet. You'll now know the size of the sweet spot that soap has. With this technique you'll be able to master all your soaps.
 
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MDC works great with our 9g water. However, I've never had problems with any soap. Some require more loading than others. As indicated above, hard water just requires more product.
 
For me my easiest lathers with my hard water have been:

Wilkonson Stick
EU Palmolive stick
Arko
La Toja
The Razorock Argan Oil soaps
Tabac
Prorasso
Irish Moos

I'm sure there are others but that's a pretty solid list.
 
I believe vegan soaps are better with hard water. In an email exchange with Will at Barrister & Mann, he mentioned his Tre Citta (vegan) soaps are more resistant to hard water than tallow soaps. I'm not sure why that is but Will makes great soaps and his vegan soaps have been a breeze to use.
 
As indicated above, hard water just requires more product.

This. Just load longer. My water is very hard. I load for at least 45 seconds, and though I seldom get lather porn, I always have enough for three passes (except with some of the older Stirling soaps and Spencer-Devon sagebrush cream, which despite it's reputation I can barely get to work).
 
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