Worst Wet Shaving Product You’ve Ever Bought?

[lancre]

Strange. People don't
I use Derby half blades in my Shavette. I love them can't understand why people don't like them.

Obviously, they're people lacking in skill and taste!

 

[Yukonmark]

Obviously, they're people lacking in skill and taste!

Lol. I guess so, blades are a personal thing though. People rave about feather blades, I hate them.

 

[Swedish Steel]

I understand them all. I too like Derbys in a shavette, but not so much in a Tech. And the other way around with the Feathers.

Blade and razor must complement each other.

 

[Tedolph]

Every synthetic brush I have ever bought.

 

[Rehabilitated Shaver]

Derby blades with Merkur blades a not so distant second place. Hated them both in my shavette, continue to hate them in my DE razors. I have a fair amount of Arko soap sticks as well, I don't mind the smell but have a hard time making a lather that doesn't have a bunch of air bubbles in it. I don't find it to provide as smooth a shave as my TOBS and Proraso soaps but I may just need to work on getting a proper lather with it.

 

[Tomo]

Probably a block of alum. Alum does not agree with me.

 

[Shaving like a boss]

The Gillette Techmatic easily is the worst shaving product that I ever bought. It had a cartridge with one continuous roll of blade which you advanced by turning a knob when the section you were using became too dull. I think I bought it in the late 1960s when I was a college student. The Techmatic gave you a awful shave, not very close, but with lots of nicks. It was comparable to shaving with the lid from a can of veggies. Never tried shaving with a can lid, but I'm guessing the Techmatic gave about the same experience. Strangely enough, you still can buy used Techmatics (they weren't sold new for long) on eBay.

The Techmatic is a real love hate razor. I still have one and use it off and on. I have several replacement carts for the thing. To tell the truth I actually really like the darned thing. I get a DFS with it BUT...there are two tricks with this razor. One is to never EVER use soap. It clogs up everything when you do. One is much better advised to use canned goo with this thing. The second, and I cannot stress this enough, is pay attention to the angle. A little to steep and you cant cut anything. A little too shallow and you will take the hide off your face. One last note, the adjustable carts are much better than the one size fits all carts.

 

[Whilliam]

The Gillette Techmatic easily is the worst shaving product that I ever bought. It had a cartridge with one continuous roll of blade which you advanced by turning a knob when the section you were using became too dull. I think I bought it in the late 1960s when I was a college student. The Techmatic gave you a awful shave, not very close, but with lots of nicks. It was comparable to shaving with the lid from a can of veggies. Never tried shaving with a can lid, but I'm guessing the Techmatic gave about the same experience. Strangely enough, you still can buy used Techmatics (they weren't sold new for long) on eBay.

Well put. One year, everybody in the fraternity house had one. A year later, they were all trashed. Never quite trusted Gillette after that.

 

[MPruett]

It's a tie between the Badger Navigator Class shaving soap and the White Rock Soap Gallery shaving soap (from a local soap company). Both are vegan/vegetarian soaps, and neither can lather worth a flip, and make for a godawful shave. Worse than when I tried lathering up Dial soap for a shave. I suspect liquid hand soap might have actually been better. I've run across plenty of stuff that didn't agree with my face, which is neither here nor there, but these are the only two that flat out didn't perform even close to adequately for shaving.

They both smell terrific though.

 

[Mike M]

For me anything from L'occitane that they think is good for shaving. Cade soap? Will not lather, actually it will lather like a beast but airy puffy lather that smells kidna nice and it burned my skin. Their after shave balm was no better...nice scent and pleasant texture but it burned so much I had to rinse it off if my have was anything but perfect. If I felt slightest tingle from alum on my face it was better for me to just skip that balm. Offtopic but only product from them that I didn?t get a reaction is their deodorant stick go figure.

I also made a mistake with Wilkinson soap in blue dish and their synthetic brush, both plain awful and should be made illegal

I did chew my face up with Erbe TTO razor, I found it in Müller, could be just user error because this thing has MASSIVE blade gap

I could not stand scent of Williams

Dr. Harris Marlborough cream would lather only if I took 10 min, didn't work my brush too fast or hard and first I needed like 5 min to make dry paste and then work DROP BY DROP of water in it

TOBS Rose cream would make only thin lather

Bottega Verde shave soap (italian cosmetics brand) smells nice but I suspect olive oil is keeping it from developing lather, I could not even wash my hands with it it was so hydrophobic, their synth brush OTOH is superb

I have the WS blue soap, thin watery lather, but at least the scent is better than Arko, it is on my 3017 list along with Palmolive stick, Arko and EJ pomegranate and lime.
Finally is it just me that thinks TOBS sandalwood smells like a chemical toilet pitched under a sandalwood tree.
Finally Feather blades most blades give me 5 good shaves (yes even Derby Extra) the first shave tries to remove my skin, the second is OK but during the third it becomes tight and uncomfortable and needs to be binned

Wow it feels good to get that off my chest

 

[Chandu]

Shave oil. No thanks, I'll use soap.

 

[Owen Bawn]

I've had pretty good luck, actually. Not many lousy products have darkened my doorway. One that I remember was Master Wellcomb Vanishing Menthol Shaving Cream, advertised to be used either as a brushless or as a lather cream. It wasn't a lather cream, and as a brushless it was barely adequate. I like brushless creams on occasion, and I've had several good ones over the years. But not this stuff. Lousy scent as well. If I absolutely had to use it I could, but I don't and I won't. Of course, it's still around here somewhere.

 

[Chef455]

An off brand razor from Burlington... Wow, those bite hard. I fear we have lost some potential brethren/sisters to these atrocities.

 

[Chandu]

The Techmatic is a real love hate razor. I still have one and use it off and on. I have several replacement carts for the thing. To tell the truth I actually really like the darned thing. I get a DFS with it BUT...there are two tricks with this razor. One is to never EVER use soap. It clogs up everything when you do. One is much better advised to use canned goo with this thing. The second, and I cannot stress this enough, is pay attention to the angle. A little to steep and you cant cut anything. A little too shallow and you will take the hide off your face. One last note, the adjustable carts are much better than the one size fits all carts.

The folks that get all giddy about stuff used by astronauts seem to be the techmatic enthusiasts today.

 

[Smooth and Sharp]

Brushless shaving cream

 

[hcoop112]

A frank shaving brush when i first started....all it did was lose hair constantly...the first day i kept swirling it until it stopped losing hair..well it never did stop...threw that sucker in the trash lol

 

[Fred D]

Arko shave soap, (burns my face)
VDH shave soap, (poor protection)
Cremo brushless shave cream tube, (clogged my pores and caused huge pimples.
MWF (no explanation needed)

This is just the short list.

 

[iShave415]

Cremo Coconut and Mango.
To many people the smell is normal and even good.
I get sick of it and the shave ended up not being any fun.

 

[Chef455]

Arko shave soap, (burns my face)

WHAT? I am sorry to hear that. Sounds awful. I hope this experience is one of a kind. Arko $ spent = great value typically.

 

[Fred D]

WHAT? I am sorry to hear that. Sounds awful. I hope this experience is one of a kind. Arko $ spent = great value typically.

Unfortunately not one of a kind, others have reported the same results, although rare. Happy it works for you.