Stop right there, don't buy that! or Shave goods best avoided...

Discussion in 'Shave School' started by Dridecker, Feb 25, 2010.

  1. mbastings

    mbastings Active Member

    BIC razor blades. Came with my first sampler, tried one a year later with similarly terrible results.
     
  2. BigCabDaddy

    BigCabDaddy Well-Known Member

    3 tries, huh? I'm on my fifth with Lord Super Stainless and Kiss My Face Lavendar Shea and I still haven't completely written them off. I must be a masochist.

    I'm not taking it as gospel at all. But with so many choices out there, as another newb, I'm letting what's said here thin the forest a little so I have some hope of reaching decisions on what to try first.

    How many wet shave products do you suppose are out there? I'm guessing many thousands. I just value my initial purchases to be guided somewhat by this list. Perhaps what might be equally as helpful if not more would be a similar "white list?"


    I'm new so I look forward to better but I shaved with Williams for the most part for well over two years and was quite satisfied. Like I say, if it's bad, I'm really looking forward to sampling better ones.
     
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  3. Engblom

    Engblom Well-Known Member

    That one truly does not work. It neither got enough fats containing stearic acid nor pure stearic acid added.

    Stearic acid makes the lather more dense, which is needed for a good soap. Also, stearic acid makes the most alkali soap, weakening the beard most.
     
  4. SHAVEWIZARD420

    SHAVEWIZARD420 Well-Known Member

    modern C&E soap. it is just terrible, no lather at all. the older stuff works just fine but the modern version I had to turn into a hand soap.
     
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  5. Capri142

    Capri142 New Member

    Huh! You must have received a lemon. I have had a Parker 22r for years and use it almost daily. Works just fine for me.
     
  6. Jasman

    Jasman Well-Known Member

    My best, go-to blades. YMMV.
     
    BigMike likes this.
  7. m54daboll

    m54daboll Well-Known Member

    Captain's Choice Shaving Soap--Smells nothing like their aftershaves, super drying, finicky, and not worth $15 at all.
    Art of Shaving Pure Badger Brush--way too floppy can't even make a lather.
    Cheap Merkur Razor Head knockoffs--sold by tons of different vendors but blade gap is atrocious and will hack your face
     
  8. Tallships

    Tallships Well-Known Member

    My first VDH badger brush, far too many hairs fell out and so did the Boar brush after a number of shaves after break in. wrote to VDH and complained and they sent me 2 new brushes the Badger brush seemed to be much better but on the second shave the knot fell out, glued it back in and is now working just as well if not better than my EJ Badger, no hair lose. The replacement for the Boar was another Badger with a wood handle (not sold anymore) with a high 60mm loft that has a zero backbone, sort of like lathering with a mop, trimmed it down to about a 52 loft and it better for a travel brush.
    As far as the Williams soap, I used it back in the 60-70's and it wasn't too bad but I tried one recently and it was really bad, they must have changed the way they make it.
     
  9. crackstar

    crackstar Israeli Ambassador to TSD

    Dorco blades are lousy - never again.
     
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  10. jacksonole

    jacksonole New Member

    I have the L'Occitane CADE Shaving Soap puck. Not bad for $12. Love the smell but its performance is second string however it gets in the game sometimes and does a good job.

    The Badger brush that comes with the AOS shave kit is a POS IMO.
     
  11. Jasman

    Jasman Well-Known Member

    Dorco-301 work just fine for me, and better than many other brands. So do Sputniks, which were authoritatively listed earlier in the thread as 'the only brand of blade that deserves to be in here.' For that matter, Rise shave cream was listed as worthy on this list, yet appears as a current forumite's favorite with some regularity.

    I wonder: how many dissenting opinions disqualify a product from being worthy of this particular thread and its original intent?
     
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  12. HolyRollah

    HolyRollah BaconLord

    A regular part of my morning shaves. L'Occitane Cade has decent performance, great fragrance and good skin feel post-shave—and priced at a level many would find reasonable.
    It's far from a shave soap to be 'best avoided,' IMO, as there are some truly stinko soaps out there.

    Well, that IS a good question. Three? Five? One...? ;)
    I'm not a big fan of Stirling soaps in general, but I'm probably in the minority in these threads so I would not include it in this 'Shave Good Best Avoided' listing. The value of this thread is IF a product's name is oft-repeated throughout then you'd have a pretty good sense that this particular product is best avoided ('Herban Cowboy', for example, which has been listed by numerous posters over the span of this six year old thread).
     
  13. Omaney

    Omaney Well-Known Member

    Gotta agree with @HolyRollah, good, not great, definitely not worthy of this thread. And we're surely in the minority re: Stirling Soaps.
     
  14. Trigger

    Trigger Double Jedi Knight

    Years ago, when I went to an old Italian barber, he used LV after the neck shave. I liked it. Maybe the product changed since, and now has an unpleasant scent. One day when my aftershaves run out, I will buy LV and see if I still like it. By the way, I don't do barbers because I head shave and don't keep a beard.
     
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  15. brit

    brit in a box

    the new ones aren t bad at all..
     
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  16. Enrico

    Enrico Popcorn

    This hobby is an interesting one ... what works for you may not for me and vice versa; but in truth neither are wrong.

    I find the most coveted razors meh or rubbish, but the simplest / common razors pure gold. That's ok ... I'm happy! :happy108:
     
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  17. MR41

    MR41 Well-Known Member

    I bought a cheap Burma shave brush thinking it’d be fun to play with, but it was just lame. However, I bought a Van Der Hagan brush with the same thought and it is one of my favorites.
     
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  18. brit

    brit in a box

    don t buy a tweezerman brush.. junk..handle cracked first use, and shed hairs..
     
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  19. Enrico

    Enrico Popcorn

    Even when the Van Der Hagen's do give up the ghost they're great to restore. I like to add some weight and install a nice knot. :D

    IMG_0977.JPG
     
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  20. Paul Turner

    Paul Turner outside the quote(s) now

    I had a Burma Shave brush...kinda liked it, actually.
     
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