The past few days I've been using B&M Reserve Waves. The shaves have been great but since I'm coming off this minor bout with the 'rona my sense of smell is still not quite back yet. I could smell the Waves but it wasn't very strong and after a couple whiffs, I couldn't really smell it anymore. The Waves AS smelled a bit off to me too. Sort of vinegary. So I went through the cabinet and it seems citrus scents are what I'm able to smell best and while I'm still no huge fan of the Williams scent, I'm glad to be able to smell anything at this point. Shaved with the Williams today and got a really excellent shave. Followed it up with Aqua Velva which I can smell a bit. The shave was good enough that I think I'm just going to keep going with the Williams for a week or so and see how it compares to a top shelf B&M shave. So far Williams is holding its own.
It's modern Williams. I have a couple pucks of Vintage in my stash and of course I prefer that. But I had this puck of the modern stuff already in a tub, partially used. So I went with that.
Update from the afternoon following my morning shave. I'd say my face feels a little drier than it has the past week or so shaving with B&M. It's not bad, just barely noticeable. We'll see if that gets worse as the week goes on.
I'm going to use up this puck of modern Williams first. Maybe not all at once though. 2nd shave this morning was pretty good. I got some very slight alum feedback so I'm tossing the Wizamet SI after its 4th shave, which is about how many shaves I usually get from one of them. The Futur, as always, gave me a nice close shave though. I'll have to decide what razor / blade combo to go with tomorrow. Maybe an injector. It's been a couple weeks since I used one.
I have used Williams on and off since the early 70s, but for the past 7 or 8 years I've consistently used it at least a couple times a week. I probably have 30 or more vintage pucks, including a package of 12 still in the manufacturers' packaging. Some are pre WWII vintage. I also use the contemporary stuff. To be honest I personally don't see a vast difference between 1970s-80s Williams and what is sold today. It is a very good soap. This affection for Williams isn't because I don't know the difference- my other regular soaps include Speick, Haslinger's, Mitchell's, DR Harris, Cella & Proraso, Palmolive & Wilkinson sticks, and several posh British creams. With the exception of leaving me smelling like a dandy after shaving, Williams fits right in.
3rd shave with modern Williams, a Schick L injector and Personna Platinum Chrome blade went off without a hitch. 3 passes, BBS, and no feedback from the alum block. I'll admit that early in my wet shaving days I tried Williams and didn't like it. I got the light, airy, dissipating lather that some people associate with modern Williams. But after going back to it later, I found it's no different from any other hard soap. It works better when the puck is hydrated. You don't need to soak it in a mug overnight or anything. Just wet the puck, drop it in your container of choice and let it sit overnight to soak up a little water. Then use it fairly regularly and it'll be hydrated enough. If you pop a new puck out of the box and try to lather it, you will likely get the light, airy, dissipating lather but again, that's no different from any other hard soap. It's just hard to load enough soap before the puck has soaked up a little water and softened up a bit. I keep my Williams in a Proraso soap tub. The bottom is about the right size to hold the puck and the larger top of the tub gives you enough room to swirl. The lid seals well enough to keep the puck hydrated between uses. It works really well. You hear people say, Williams likes a lot of water sometimes. To me that seems off. Too much water gives you exactly what you get with a brand new puck - not enough soap in the soap / water ratio. Williams has pretty good slickness even with too much water but the protection isn't there. I like protection to go with my slickness, so I just lather it the same way I'd lather up any soap. Swirl until there's some drag on the puck and the lather in the brush is a little on the thick side, then face lather adding a few drops of water as needed. And easy as that, I've got enough lather for my shave. It doesn't dissipate at all and leaves me wanting for very little. The residual slickness is very good so I can take a couple swipes at a spot if I need to without getting razor burn. Most of my shaves with it end up irritation free as long as my blade is in good shape. A couple things I sometimes miss when I shave with Williams. First is scent. I wish they'd use a better one. The citronella scent of a new puck does eventually settle down to a less harsh lemony scent but it's still not a really pleasing scent to me. It could be better but I don't know if it could be better at the same cost. For $1.20 at my local WinCo grocery store it's hard to beat the performace / price ratio. The second thing I miss a little is the post-shave you'd get from a high-end soap with lots of oils, butters, and lanolin added. The B&M Reserve I was using before this is a great example. It leaves my face feeling great all day. I could probably get away without even using an after shave but I never actually do that. Not so with Williams. It leaves my face feeling a bit drier, maybe even itchy without an after shave or balm. I usually use Aqua Velva after a Williams shave. It's very moisturizing and usually does the trick. Lets face it, I'm always going to use an after shave anyway so having to use one isn't really that big a problem. Sometimes even Aqua Velva isn't quite enough though. Adding a balm pretty much always takes care of any issues. Add all that up and I'd say modern Williams is a good value and can give you more than acceptable shaves. Sure there's better stuff out there, but not at anywhere near the same cost per shave. Most artisan soaps are going to cost somewhere around 25-50 cents per shave. Williams is going to come in around 1/10th that cost. I can afford 50 cents a day for really great shaving soap but I still get some satisfaction from getting 90% of that shave for 10% of the cost.
5th shave and all's well. Got a little feedback from the alum today which is pretty normal on my 3rd or 4th shave on a blade. I'll switch to a new razor/blade combo tomorrow.
6th shave was with a Gillette FatBoy and Wizamet SI blade. Gillette TTOs in general aren't my favorite razors. I never get the kind of close, comfortable shave with them that I do with lots of other razors. They're a good test of how good a soap is for me though. If I can get a comfortable shave, I know it was all thanks to the soap. Today's shave was pretty close but I got some slight alum feedback. The Williams did a lot better then some soaps can do though.
Final shave of my Week of Williams is in the books. I used the FatBoy again and it was a decent shave. About as good as I ever get with a Gillette TTO. My puck of Williams probably has at least a couple more weeks of shaves in it so I'll put it away for a while and come back to it later. Back to my question at the beginning, how does it compare to a top-shelf soap? Not that bad actually. Scent and post-shave feel are the only minor complaints I've got. The scent isn't that bad once it mellows a bit and the post-shave dryness isn't so bad that a balm can't take care of it. The quality of the shave itself isn't far off at all. Good protection and excellent slickness. I've used my share of more expensive soaps that were worse.
