Does anyone use ordinary bar soap?

I ran out of handy dandy fancy soap so I have been using regular soap and it works fine. I do plan on getting more soap from the store but I just have to wait until my finances get back on track because we are moving to California so money is tight.

 

For shaving? Not me personally, but I have heard of people doing it. There was a leg shaving post around here about soap IIRC.

 

I've used it before with a cartridge razor, but can't imagine being able to shave comfortably with a proper razor. Can't imagine it's possible to get a rich enough lather.

 

I've never tried it.
Wait, I take that back.
I did try Grandpa's Pine Tar Soap. Says you can use it for shaving. Don't.

 

For many years I used Ivory soap and later would just mash the soap left overs into the same shave cup. It will actually work ok in a pinch. Hotel soap is also a way to save money. Good luck

 

Haven't tried it myself, but I understand that Dove actually works passably well as a shave soap.

 

I shaved once with Irish Spring but have not since. I'm more of a cream guy and life is to short to shave with bath soaps.

 

I've used bar soap in the past.

I found the best results by lathering twice. It seems that skin oil causes the lather to break down as it does what it's supposed to do i.e.. surround and carry off oil and dirt. So the second lather is required. I got this technique form an old Ivory soap advert from about 80-90 yrs ago. I guess plan old bar soap was used a lot more as a shaving soap in the past.

 

I can do it with very superfatted soaps, but wouldn't recommend it for coarser beard hair. For budget shave soaps with good performance, VDH & Williams often come up. Williams Mug soap can usually be found for about $1 and will last several months. Glycerin-base VDH is usually $2-3 and won't last quite as long, but is a little easier to lather & appeals to more people scent-wise.

 

My first couple of straight razor shaves were with bar soap. I had been shaving with an electric for years, I had no wet shaving gear.I bought a straight at a junk shop, honed it myself (improperly) lathered with bar soap and a washcloth and proceeded to nick up my face pretty bad. Still, though it was my closest shave to that point.

I bought the VDH starter kit (brush soap and bowl). Much better results. The VDH soap works fine for me and is reasonably priced and easily available.

 

I made a decent lather with Irish spring... and they used to use ivory soap way back when... I havent tried any ivory yet...

 

Given how poor I find something like Proraso - which is intended for shaving - I find it hard to imagine that it's possible to get a comfortable shave with normal soap. Perhaps a passable one, but surely not comfortable!?

 

I've never tried using bath soap for shaving yet as I can lather Williams and don't dislike the smell.... That said just this morning I bought some Dr. Bronner's Pure Castile bath soap for my teenage son to use. Inorder to try and get rid of his acne. It's supposed to be so natural and healthy and all that so we will see how it goes....After reading this post however I'm now going to try and use it as a shave soap and see how that goes also...I'll let everyone know if it works for both beard and acne removal.....

 

I use a 'regular' soap for shaving now and have been for years. Admittedly, the stuff I've got going is hand made and much superior to something like Ivory and is accordingly, more expensive. The soap is fatty, produces a fantastic lather and I find, has superb glide and protective qualities. Perhaps actual shaving soap is more moisturizing, but that is still yet to be seen. I think body soap can work fine, providing you have a quality fatty soap..not Dial or lol Grandpa's Pine Tar...

 

I use the soap that you get when staying in hotels mostly but I did notice per the one post that the initial lather does disappear after you put it on and you need to lather a second time.

 

It's a waste with most bath soaps. They are designed to clean, not to protect. So they make a very slick lather but they tend to make bubbly lather that has little to no cushion. The more expensive the soap is, generally speaking, the better lather you can get from it. A $25 bar of Claus Porto soap would probably make a pretty good shaving lather, but for that price you might as well buy a shaving soap.

The only bath soap I've ever used that I really think could make a good, solid shave lather and that doesn't cost an arm and a leg is Hugo Naturals. Really a nice bath soap, too. But I buy it to use for the shower, not for shaving.

 

Hugo is what I've been using..lol so it's not my imagination that it's pretty good for shaving...

 

WHAT?!

Proraso is an incredible product... if you dont get a good lather out of it, you are doing something very wrong.

 

SlipperyJoe, why didn't you say so?

Yeah, Hugo Naturals actually does make a nice, definitely shavable lather. The scents are great, too.

 

He didn't say he couldn't get it to lather, only that Proraso is a poor product *for him*. We don't know what he's comparing it with. Plenty of veteran wetshavers don't like Proraso. I dig it AND I'm a wierdo (not mutually exclusive )