What is more important: Brush / soap or razor / blade?

[DrAwkward]

If you had to chose to sacrifice your brush & soap for canned goo OR your razor & blade for a cart, for an entire year, which would you choose? To clarify, what I really want to know is which choice will result in the best shave?
I'm half way through this experiment myself. Today I shaved with one of my last M3 carts. Early next week, I will get some Gillette gel that someone left in my house and load a DE with an Astra SP.

Until then, which do you think is more important?

 

[Mike H]

Brush and soap with a cartridge any day, over my razor and canned go.

Canned shave gel or foam does not provide the slickness/cushion I need when using a straight or DE razor.
Plus, I love using a soap and brush.

 

[Niles]

I agree with Mike. Brush and soap is my answer.

 

[SmoovD]

Voted "other". IMHO, proper technique is more important than any of the products used in wet shaving. With proper technique, one can shave with just about anything. Without it, the razor/blade/brush/soap/cream are wasted.

 

[inspiringK]

Well, I wouldn't want to use a cartridge, but I can say that there is more difference in my shaves between different types of lather than there is between using a straight and a DE. If I have a bad shave, it is usually because of the lather more than anything else.

 

[Howl1nWolf]

I answered both equally under most normal conditions but I would have to say in an extreme case you could shave without soap or a brush but you can't shave without some sort of functioning razor.

 

[Ashley Rosser]

I voted blade, without a good blade the others are meaningless. There is no such thing as a good dull knife.

 

[Heron]

I was going to ask this same question. I don't know which is more important, but I'd keep my brush and soaps and use a cartridge before I used canned gel with my DE.

 

[dcc]

Razor/blade! On the other hand I can shave well with water only,by keeping without pressure.

 

[InHotWater]

I chose brush/soap since I like making my own lather. I still use a cartridge razor sometimes. ​

 

[Coler]

I could happily use a Gilette Mach 3 Fusion thing - its a good razor.

I would not be willing to use the canned goop though.

 

[Chaloney]

I hadn't used canned goo for 15+ years before switching to brush/soap and a straight razor a month ago. If I had to pick one part of it to give up for my old setup (cream in a tube applied by hand with a fusion) I'd keep the razor. If it means going to fusion plus canned goo, it's a toss up.

 

[cryhavoc]

Brush and soap are most important for me.

 

[Viseguy]

I voted "equally" -- because try shaving without one or the other. (Assuming that "soap" includes cream, etc.)

 

[Rohrbach]

I think I would give up wetshaving if I would have to give up either of them. Back to using the beard trimmer to clip my hair on my cheeks and neck.

 

[DrAwkward]

The poll may not have been sufficiently clear, but it presupposes that you get to substitute the mass market equivalent for whichever combo you give up (i.e., canned goo for brush+soap or cartridge for DE+blade).

 

[Mick]

The person holding the tools.

The tools themselves make little difference in the final shave quality as long as the person using them knows how to shave

 

[Jeff_H]

I would give up creme and brush before DE razor and blade. I have found that I can get a very decent shave with brushless cremes like Cremo Creme, but even it I had to use canned goo I could add copious amounts of water and additional goo to achieve adequate slickness.....I think.

As long as I had unlimited funds to replace cartridges, I may be able to get by with my best creme and a brand new Sensor Excel blade every day. That would just get expensive very quickly.

 

[Viseguy]

The poll may not have been sufficiently clear, but it presupposes that you get to substitute the mass market equivalent for whichever combo you give up (i.e., canned goo for brush+soap or cartridge for DE+blade).

D'oh! Now I get it! A very tough call, so I'm still happy with my vote for "equally".

 

[Link1]

I like all of wet shaving.... none being more important than the other. Excluding technique of course, which is the single most important part.