Distilled Water?

billyboy · Post by **billyboy** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 5:25 pm

Does anybody find that using distilled water while shaving creates a better lather?

GA Russell · Post by **GA Russell** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 7:16 pm

I found that true where I used to live, where I had well water. It was Gordon who recommended distilled water to me, and he was right!

jss · Post by **jss** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 7:29 pm

Because of high mineral content water, distilled is all I use..It made soaps that wouldn't lather, outstanding..Those that know lots more than yours truly, say it doesn't matter much with creams...

Best regards,
Julian

m3m0ryleak · Post by **m3m0ryleak** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 9:53 pm

I say yes as well. I live on a well and my water is treated with both water softener and acid neutralizer, still prefer the $0.99 gallon of DW.

EL Alamein · Post by **EL Alamein** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 11:54 pm

I'll chime in here as well. I used it for years then stopped when our house water got more acceptable. I don't know what the Water Co did but for about a year there our water seemed a lot softer and things lathered quite well. I primarily use soaps so this was greatly appreciated. Well sometime last year towards the fall I felt the Water Co mucked with the water again. It seemed to have gotten significantly harder. Top quality soaps still made a decent lather but sometimes it was not so good. Recently I went back to using distilled when I started traveling for work again and was reminded of the luxury of soft water for making lather. The change was tremendous. Just wave the wet brush at the cake of soap and you get mounds of moist slick, thick and efficacious lather. I use the Moss scuttle to hold the distilled water and keep it warm.

I'll agree with Julian that it makes mediocre soaps lather quite well.

Chris

billyboy · Post by **billyboy** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 4:02 am

Thanks for the feedback. I will try the distilled water and see what kind of difference it makes. Half of the fun of this is the experimentation isn't it

Bargepole · Post by **Bargepole** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 7:46 am

I think I must be whatever's the opposite of a connoisseur. I have water so hard it comes out of the spout in chunks, but I shave with it anyway and it seems to work fine. I'm worried that if I try the distilled water, it'll spoil me for the ordinary stuff and lead to awful stumbling-around in the early hours with kettles and jugs.

But I think I'll give it a go. What the hell. Except I have no idea where you'd go to get the stuff. Any clues?

brothers · Post by **brothers** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 10:21 am

billyboy wrote:Does anybody find that using distilled water while shaving creates a better lather?

For sure, it does. Our house has hard water and it works just fine with creams, but soaps do not respond with the kind of lather they're engineered to create. It took me a long time to discover that I must use distilled water on the days I am using soaps, and the lather is far far better than it used to be with the hard tap water.

SmallTank · Post by **SmallTank** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 11:09 am

Well..all I can comment is..using the water at at my parents house in lovely Beverly Hills, Ca..water is much softer than across the border in Los Angeles, Ca

ST

EL Alamein · Post by **EL Alamein** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 12:49 pm

Bargepole wrote:
But I think I'll give it a go. What the hell. Except I have no idea where you'd go to get the stuff. Any clues?

Michael, I am not sure in Britain if it's the same as here in the States but our grocery stores/super markets sell it by the gallon for anywhere between 79 cents to a dollar. It's main use is for clothes ironing with an electric steam iron. It avoids deposits in the steam jets etc.

Hope that helps.

Chris

billyboy · Post by **billyboy** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 6:39 pm

Well, after three shaves with distilled (heated) water and three shaving soaps (QED Special Edition 218, Prairie Creations Rose and Queen Charlotte Celestial Woods) there is no doubt that distilled water yields a more bountiful lather. This was particularly true with the QED 218. I literally had enough lather for a 5-6 pass shave. No kidding. I used a silvertip Persian Jar brush and found a much easier lathering experience.

bernards66 · Post by **bernards66** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 11:36 pm

Michael, Yeah, I'm pretty much in the same boat. My water's not super bad, but it ain't good, and as you can see from the above I've recommended distilled water to others here for years. But, I've never used it myself. Like you, I get by pretty well with my crappy water and the extra hassle of bumbling about with kettles and all the rest has prevented me from even trying it....and also, as you say, the fear of getting spoiled and then HAVING to have the special water. An added stumbling block with me is that I use running water for my shave...have for decades, and so, switching to using standing water in a bowl would throw off my whole shaving routine. If you go ahead and give it a try, do post your results/impressions.
Regards,
Gordon

brothers · Post by **brothers** » Wed Apr 06, 2011 5:55 am

It may be a tiny bit of extra effort for me to warm my distilled water in the scuttle for a few seconds, but the payoff is priceless when the soap explodes into that superb lather we all hope for. It's a price I'm happy to pay.

changabang · Post by **changabang** » Wed Apr 06, 2011 7:21 am

Gentlemen, very interesting. Like Michael (Bargepole), I may just have to try this. It's not like I have to hurry to get to work anymore... .

jbc · Post by **jbc** » Thu Apr 07, 2011 5:49 am

Tried it made little difference.

vegaskid74 · Post by **vegaskid74** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 6:26 am

jbc wrote:Tried it made little difference.

Your water must not be that hard to begin with. My water is 27 grains hard, so distilled water makes a huge difference. And it's not much of a hassle. I simply heat a pint or so of water in one of those $10 Rival hotpots for 60-90 seconds, then use that water to soak my brush and make lather. I use regular tap water to rinse my razor, face, etc. I pour the unused water back in the jug and reuse it. A $0.79 gallon of distilled water lasts 4-6 weeks this way.

billyboy · Post by **billyboy** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 7:17 am

My thoughts too. Ur water must not be that hard to begin with. Really do find a significant qualitative difference with distilled water.

shavetheline · Post by **shavetheline** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 10:57 am

so, do you guys keep a percolator or hot pot in the bathroom to heat your distilled water in?

RetroGrouch · Post by **RetroGrouch** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 9:51 pm

Bear in mind that it depends on where you live, and the softness of your water supply.

Here in Vancouver, we have very soft water. No problem with lather, and buying distilled water here would just be silly. (In fact, I'm amazed that anyone buys bottled water of any kind in Vancouver, but that's another rant...)

Mike

bernards66 · Post by **bernards66** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 10:32 pm

Mike, Well, I hear you and when we visit the northeast there's no need for bottled water, even to make my morning tea. But in Tampa, while one can drink the tap water, it isn't very good and one absolutely can NOT make a good pot of tea with it. So, I buy jugs of water from the Carolinas or Tenn. for the tea. But distilled water for shaving on those days when I use hard soaps and having to heat it up and all...I dunno. I'll probably try it at some point but I get along pretty well with what I've got; I've had lots of practice.
Regards,
Gordon

SMF

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