William's Mugg Soap sucks

bought a cake of it for about $1.50 at CVS, thought I'd give it a whirl and at that price, what did I have to lose?

Well, I lost $1.50 because my face feels like it's on fire.

It's in the trash can right now.

 

Exactly where it belongs.

 

so this review of Williams on the B&B site. happy102happy102:happy102
Now I wanna try to use William's again (but I'm not):

http://content.ytmnd.com/content/d/2/c/d2c2a7d8d6fb9a11aa55135191d06e35.jpg

"Now listen up, you mamby-pamby whiners! It seems that some of you are having problems with Williams Mug Shaving Soap. This isn't surprising.

Williams is not for the weak and worthless! Don't look around, numb brush! I'm talking to you!

You with your soft creams and your Euro-soaps...You are a disgusting soapbody! Williams has been delivering great shaves to great Americans since 1840. It has been to the Halls of Montezuma and to the Shores of Tripoli. For one hundred and sixty nine everloving years, this piece of history has been doing it's job. You can't even be bothered to swirl a brush for a few extra minutes!

I hear your sniveling..."It's hard to lather. It dries too quickly". Well, see here, private Crybaby. You have to work to make Williams do it's magic! You have add plenty of water and lather like you got a pair! Now, grab your puck and sing out:

"This is my Williams, this is brush
It'll lather just fine if I get off my duff!"

Now, let's review.

Price: Out-freaking-standing! You could buy a deuce and a half full of this stuff and still have beer money!

Quality: It's been around so long because It's quality! There is more to quality than fancy-pants scents and oh-so-soft creams. Will a tube of Proraso in your pocket stop a bullet like Williams? I thought not!

Scent: It smells like soap, not some cheap short time house! It's soap, not foo-foo juice!

Lather: It lathers just fine, girls, if you want it to! You have to work to lather my beloved Williams. If everybody could lather Williams, it wouldn't BE Williams. As to that lather drying out, stop lollygagging and shave!

Efficacy and Moisturizing: Are you trying to be cute? What the Efficacy does that fancy "Efficacy" word even mean? And Williams doesn't moisturize because the men who settled this country wanted tight skin while they squinted down the sights of their weapons, not to be all soft like maggots!

So you non-hacking creamworms can go home to Mama and cry about your poor little wrists getting all limp and tired from trying to lather Williams. The real shavers will proudly pound that puck in to sudsy submission! Get out of my sight!

Now, excuse me for a few hours, I have to go and make this Williams lather..."

 

Be careful about bad-mouthing Williams... Fuzzy will have a conniption fit. :happy102

In my experience, it works a lot better with a few drops of added glycerin.

 

I tried to use Williams for a week; I had bad results with it as a newbie, and thought maybe it was my lack of technique. Nope, it just doesn't produce a cushioning lather, and the lather it produces dries out super fast. Worthless as a shaving soap, and it smells like citronella. Yuck!!

VDH is .20 cents more, and a far far superior product.

Williams has clearly been reformulated at some point.

 

Once you figure out how to use it, it works fine.

The only problem is shaving fast enough before the lather collapses on itself and dries.

 

Seems like Williams and MWF are the Dallas Cowboys of the soap world - either you love 'em or you hate 'em.

I hate 'em.

Don't like Williams or MWF, either.

 

Williams works great. And no, the lather isn't self collapsing if done
correctly. Wiliams takes more water than other soaps.

I have had skin burning sensations with MWF and Williams but that was when I tried to apply it directly to my skin and face lather - I just can't do that with these soaps. When properly lathered before applying to my face it isn't an issue.;

Here are some suggestions:

1) mill the puck into something with a greater surface area like a soup mug instead of a coffee mug. You could use a 1 cup Anchor Hawking dish (which I use for a lot of my soaps); however, this soap works better with higher walls - see below

2) don't use a flopsy wopsy brush... you need something with some backbone

3) try using Zach's method - it works well with Williams http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIsj58fqVjY

Zach's method works much better with a mug with higher walls than short walls like the AH bowl. This is why I use something like this for Williams and MWF:

 

I get Williams shaving soap at Kerr Drugs for $.99 and always keep a puck or two around. I have no problem getting a good lather, it shaves well enough, and I think it smell just fine. Is it a top performer? No. Is it a good bang-for-the-buck soap ? Yes. And it is tallow-based which, for some, is a good thing, although that, of and in itself, does not predict the quality of a soap.

There are also some who think Williams is a lesser soap, quality-wise, than years ago. That I don't know because I haven't used it all that long.

 

I shaved with Williams' for almost forty years with no complaints. I no longer use it because I've finally reached a point where I can afford to experiment with the more expensive stuff. The fancier soaps I now use may smell better or lather more easily, but they don't do any better than Williams' when it comes to the basic job: cutting whiskers!

 

Williams as a shaving soap is crap, IMHO, but it works good as a shower soap.

 

I used Williams for around 40 years till it was no longer available locally. Never knew anything else other than colgate. Then I found TSD and never looked back. Found two pucks the other day at .99 ea and grabbed them. I never had problems with Williams.

 

Damn, I am an idiot---I own quite a few from the TSD soaps, and I love them so much, but I use them only rarely. I must to start again more regularly with them, these soaps are fantastic. I have another one in transit to me.

 

I used Williams soap for many years once I could no longer find Old Spice. I stopped using it when I could obtain other soaps via the internet. I used it with a drugstore boar brush.

It always seemed to work fine for me. But back then most of us using brush and soap probably just didn't know better. We used what was available and it worked.

I'll stick with Tabac, Proraso and TSD now, though.

 

I couldn't have said it any better. Seems we've walked the same path.

 

Hey, guys--wait a minute! I have found that moths don't like Williams, either. Placing a couple of pucks in the drawer with the woolen sweaters has proven to be quite protective. Very efficacious. Don't know about cushion or glide, though. Moisturizing is nil.

Vance

 

Can't bad mouth my beloved Williams too much. Just had a great shave with it this morning. BUT...compared even to VDH Deluxe it is fairly finicky and takes some work to get decent lather. Due to its price, availability and status as a wet shaving icon, I'll always have a puck or two of this about and will use it on a fairly regular basis. All of that said, there are many, many better soaps available

 

I use Williams regularly and its fine. Etoyoc has it correctly.

I usually mill two pucks of Williams in a large barbershop shaving mug and soak it for a half an hour initially in very hot water.

The Omega Professional Barbershop shaving brush works well with Williams , you have to aggressively load your brush and badgers don't do it.

Before you use Williams in a shave, soak the soap in hot water.

As stated, 2 drops of glycerin on the surface of the soap helps the soap performance tremendously .

Williams makes excellent superlather, especially with Ingrams.

One poster had a good trick and melts a puck of VDH deluxe or glycerin around a puck of Williams in their shave cup , so your brush hits two soaps at once. This works well .

In the spirit of the hilarious BB review, I think we should upgrade the Williams image and just call it 1840.

 

Perhaps if Williams was $18.40 it would get great reviews.

Been using Williams since for about 40 years and always keep it around today. Yep, there are better soaps out there, but Williams in my book is a very good soap. Tallow based soaps always seems to take a little more work and a boar brush does work better.

If you don't like it, don't use it. That is all.

Will N.

 

pretty much, except I would add "you can pass your unused pucks of Williams on to me."

I like Williams, but to each his own.