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A month ago I moved to a ski resort for the winter and I've noticed that the water here is quite soft unlike any water I've seen before and the quality of the shaves I get are just on a whole new level and I still can't believe it.

While I've noticed some improvements when I've been to a couple of other places in the past where the water was either slightly hard or soft, the differences were noticeable, but nothing out of this world. Here however the water feels like magical compared to everything else.

For instance, my beard gets ready for shaving within a few minutes of preparation, while it usually takes me a lot more time and I also have to put a lot of effort as well. In some cases even after taking a shower my beard doesn't feel mych softer at all.

The other thing that I've noticed is that the building lather is super easy and I kid you not, but even after a full 3 pass shave, the brush still has tons of lather on it that could easly be used for at least one more or perhaps even two more.

All in all I'm really impresded of how easy and effortless the shaving is and it's like I have shaved the wrong way the whole time. Also, the overall quality of the shaves is much better and I think this water might help me improve my straight razor shaving as well.

The only downside is that I get at least one ingrown hair from each shaving, which isn't very pleasant, but I guess that's the price I have to pay.
 
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Star_Wahl_Clipper_Treker

Likes a fat handle in his hand
A month ago I moved to a ski resort for the winter and I've noticed that the water here is quite soft unlike any water I've seen before and the quality of the shaves I get are just on a whole new level and I still can't believe it.

While I've noticed some improvements when I've been to a couple of other places in the past where the water was either slightly hard or soft, the differences were noticeable, but nothing out of this world. Here however the water feels like magical compared to everything else.

I live in a city that gets its water supply, from a well. While the city does indeed filter the water, and make sure its clean and safe by the time it gets to us, it is however HARD water, and as such, its loaded in calcium deposits. I've heard that hard water makes it difficult to work up a lather. I go an extra step to try and filter the water some more, by using a Britta jug. Unfortunately however, I am not using the higher quality blue filters, that filters more contaminant, because they just cost too much money, I'm just using the standard white filters.

While I am still able to work up a lather, I still feel like, if I were to use reverse osmosis water, I'd probably get a better performance shave then I do. But I don't own a reverse osmosis machine, those are heavily costly to buy. I suppose I could do well to get a water softener installed in my home, but those come with maintenance involved, gotta replace the salt brine and all that business. At the end of the day, I do what I can with what I have, and thats just the best that I can ask for I suppose. I wish I had access to fresh soft mountain water, that comes fresh off the stream, instead of sitting in a deep water channel called a well lol.
 
I live in a city that gets its water supply, from a well. While the city does indeed filter the water, and make sure its clean and safe by the time it gets to us, it is however HARD water, and as such, its loaded in calcium deposits. I've heard that hard water makes it difficult to work up a lather. I go an extra step to try and filter the water some more, by using a Britta jug. Unfortunately however, I am not using the higher quality blue filters, that filters more contaminant, because they just cost too much money, I'm just using the standard white filters.

While I am still able to work up a lather, I still feel like, if I were to use reverse osmosis water, I'd probably get a better performance shave then I do. But I don't own a reverse osmosis machine, those are heavily costly to buy. I suppose I could do well to get a water softener installed in my home, but those come with maintenance involved, gotta replace the salt brine and all that business. At the end of the day, I do what I can with what I have, and thats just the best that I can ask for I suppose. I wish I had access to fresh soft mountain water, that comes fresh off the stream, instead of sitting in a deep water channel called a well lol.
Have you tried to get a gallon of distilled water from the grocery store and use that to dunk your brush / build lather ? I dunno sounds like an interesting step to try
 

thombrogan

Lounging On The Isle Of Tugsley.
Have you tried to get a gallon of distilled water from the grocery store and use that to dunk your brush / build lather ?

I’m not Chris — who is, really? Inimitable! — but I tried that. Made it so easy to whip air into my lather that it ruined the benefits of not using water chock full of manganese, iron, and calcium. Smarter people use it and love it, but it wasn’t for me.
 
A month ago I moved to a ski resort for the winter and I've noticed that the water here is quite soft unlike any water I've seen before and the quality of the shaves I get are just on a whole new level and I still can't believe it.

While I've noticed some improvements when I've been to a couple of other places in the past where the water was either slightly hard or soft, the differences were noticeable, but nothing out of this world. Here however the water feels like magical compared to everything else.

For instance, my beard gets ready for shaving within a few minutes of preparation, while it usually takes me a lot more time and I also have to put a lot of effort as well. In some cases even after taking a shower my beard doesn't feel mych softer at all.

The other thing that I've noticed is that the building lather is super easy and I kid you not, but even after a full 3 pass shave, the brush still has tons of lather on it that could easly be used for at least one more or perhaps even two more.

All in all I'm really impresded of how easy and effortless the shaving is and it's like I have shaved the wrong way the whole time. Also, the overall quality of the shaves is much better and I think this water might help me improve my straight razor shaving as well.

The only downside is that I get at least one ingrown hair from each shaving, which isn't very pleasant, but I guess that's the price I have to pay.
I have also found this to be the case. I live in London where the water is hard so I'm always impressed whenever I visit family in Dorset (where the water is soft) because face lathering takes about half the time it does at home...
 
I've moved from living with soft, to hard, to soft, to even softer water in my time wetshaving, and it truly is amazing the difference water hardness has on your leather. Could I lather with hard water? Sure, but you don't realize how much effort you put into it until you live with soft water again.
 
I live in a city that gets its water supply, from a well. While the city does indeed filter the water, and make sure its clean and safe by the time it gets to us, it is however HARD water, and as such, its loaded in calcium deposits. I've heard that hard water makes it difficult to work up a lather. I go an extra step to try and filter the water some more, by using a Britta jug. Unfortunately however, I am not using the higher quality blue filters, that filters more contaminant, because they just cost too much money, I'm just using the standard white filters.

While I am still able to work up a lather, I still feel like, if I were to use reverse osmosis water, I'd probably get a better performance shave then I do. But I don't own a reverse osmosis machine, those are heavily costly to buy. I suppose I could do well to get a water softener installed in my home, but those come with maintenance involved, gotta replace the salt brine and all that business. At the end of the day, I do what I can with what I have, and thats just the best that I can ask for I suppose. I wish I had access to fresh soft mountain water, that comes fresh off the stream, instead of sitting in a deep water channel called a well lol.

A water softener would get you about halfway to where the RO unit would get you, but for less cost (usually). And they both require maintenance, hehe. Just comes down to which you like more, playing with salt bags or buying new membranes and/or descaling old membranes. Also, the Brita Elite filters might reduce hardness a little bit, but not significantly.

I also live in a town with very hard well water, and short of buying the above treatment equipment, bottled water is the best bet. I wouldn't bother with distilled or RO, unless it happens to be cheaper. Just look for something less than 60 ppm or mg/L.
 

steveclarkus

Goose Poop Connoisseur
A month ago I moved to a ski resort for the winter and I've noticed that the water here is quite soft unlike any water I've seen before and the quality of the shaves I get are just on a whole new level and I still can't believe it.

While I've noticed some improvements when I've been to a couple of other places in the past where the water was either slightly hard or soft, the differences were noticeable, but nothing out of this world. Here however the water feels like magical compared to everything else.

For instance, my beard gets ready for shaving within a few minutes of preparation, while it usually takes me a lot more time and I also have to put a lot of effort as well. In some cases even after taking a shower my beard doesn't feel mych softer at all.

The other thing that I've noticed is that the building lather is super easy and I kid you not, but even after a full 3 pass shave, the brush still has tons of lather on it that could easly be used for at least one more or perhaps even two more.

All in all I'm really impresded of how easy and effortless the shaving is and it's like I have shaved the wrong way the whole time. Also, the overall quality of the shaves is much better and I think this water might help me improve my straight razor shaving as well.

The only downside is that I get at least one ingrown hair from each shaving, which isn't very pleasant, but I guess that's the price I have to pay.
Might think about taking a few gallons home with you. Soft water makes a significant difference. I tested the water hardness here and it was zero. I could probably. later a tin of shoe polish.
 

Old Hippie

Somewhere between 61 and dead
We have a well because the community water system draws from the river, and we've pretty much been living under a boil-water advisory since 2005. They come and go, but the times between advisories isn't long. The river has lots of ag runoff, and the old intake got silted in by a sand bar. So they pushed a pipe farther out and said it would last at least 25 years. That was three years ago; it's silted in. Now they've drilled a well at the other end of the village and are working at connecting it to the system so they can shut down the other plant.

The well is a bit hard and has added iron. All we do to it is a 5-micron filter to take out the flocs of iron. Even with iron it makes stellar English-style ales and stouts. Little hard to lather shaving soap but I manage. You'll never see a post with a massive head of lather on a brush from me, though!

O.H.
 
I just had another amazing shave. That water is making things so easy to the point that even razors with blade chatter don't matter that much. My face feels soft and smoothly during the whole day and it's because of the water. Now I understand why some folks have it so easy and shave without trying at all and the results are always 10/10.
 
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Iridian

Cool and slimy
I never thought about that! But I don't travel that much, so would probably never have noticed.

You might find this useful, it also confirms your observations!

Ion exchange filters seem to be an inexpensive and viable solution. Unless you plan to move to a ski resort.
Ski resorts seem to do weird things to people. One of my trailrunning buddies started with trailrunning while on a ski vacation with his family. :huh:
 

Iridian

Cool and slimy
I always use RO water (around 20 PPM) to make my lather.
Brings the best out of any soap!
Now it would be helpful for people to give some pointers how you get RO water. First, I had to google that it is for "Reverse Osmosis" / RO. I just use faucet water, living in a low mountain/highland type area I can just use what we have.

Maybe you can throw our poor magician Medivh who doesn't seem to have memorized any water purification spells a pointer where to get or how to make RO water.
 
I just had another amazing shave. That water is making things so easy to the point that even razors with blade chatter don't matter that much. My face feels soft and smoothly during the whole day and it's because of the water. Now I understand why some folks have it so easy and shave without trying at all and the results are always 10/10.
The water in Warsaw, where I live now, is insanely hard. UK water is hard but nothing like this. We have to use a saucepan to boil water for hot drinks because using an electric kettle just once leaves thick deposits of limescale. Our clothes wear out extremely fast using the washing machine with this water too.

I can’t really compare shaving here versus UK (quite hard water) or Singapore (very soft water) because I wasn’t as much into soaps and DE shaving then, but from my more recent experience on visits I didn’t really notice much difference to my shaves. I don’t feel I have any difficulties making a good lather or shaving with the ultra hard water in Warsaw but I will try and pay more attention to it next time I travel, and see if I can detect a difference using softer water. My assumption right now is that I just adapt the lather I make to compensate for it. But it’s possible that softer water might improve the pre-shave soaking of stubble and make the beard softer - I don’t know but if it was the case that would certainly make close-shaving easier and more comfortable.
 
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