Hotel soap: a passable shave

Kyle76 · Post by **Kyle76** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 4:32 am

We're in the mountains this weekend. I packed my brush but forgot my shaving soap. I used the hotel facial soap with my brush and got a decent lather. Of course, it faded quickly, so I had to shave faster than usual, but I got a decent result. Any hints for getting a longer-lasting lather out of regular soap -- tallow-free, I'm sure!

jww · Post by **jww** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 5:30 am

Don't shave?????

Sorry -- guess that's not an option. I have never had any luck with body or facial soap for shaving -- can't get the lather thick enough. Perhaps more soap, less water, and more scrubbing to the face?

ShadowsDad · Post by **ShadowsDad** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 12:39 pm

I try this every once in a while.

Irish Spring is probably about like what you tried from the sound of it.

SBS super-fatted bar hand soap (discontinued) is about the same shave as Williams, maybe slightly less "good", but better for the skin.

The other night I tried to lather a bar of glycerine soap, Clearly Natural brand, and got a surprisingly good lather, but I haven't shaved with it yet. I was actually surprised at the density, amount, and slickness of the lather.

For fat based soap you might try adding a few drops of glycerine. BTW, I just tried the glycerine with the SBS soap. It made that soap worse, not better.

If I was going to bring something along to make hand soap better, I'd probably bring some shave soap to add to it.

Shave4Fun · Post by **Shave4Fun** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 1:29 pm

Actually I got started shaving with soap in a hotel when I had nothing but a razor and hotel bath soap. Just hand lathered it. And I do recall having to move faster and make more passes; but it did work. I wonder if Dove would work?
Roger

Kyle76 · Post by **Kyle76** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 3:04 pm

Wendell, I'm sitting on the hotel veranda drinking a martini and gazing at a herd of sheep on the property about a half mile away. Hmmmm ...

brothers · Post by **brothers** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 3:14 pm

I'm pretty sure almost anything would do. It'd just be a bit of a fun challenge to take the time to work with the soap to adapt one's technique to the circumstances at hand.

fallingwickets · Post by **fallingwickets** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 4:00 am

veranda drinking a martini and gazing at a herd of sheep

13 thumbs up to that!

clive

jww · Post by **jww** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 5:45 am

Kyle76 wrote:Wendell, I'm sitting on the hotel veranda drinking a martini and gazing at a herd of sheep on the property about a half mile away. Hmmmm ...

And are you thinking what I am thinking????

A rack of lamb with mint sauce????

Ooops -- er, I mean, a cake of MWF?

ShadowsDad · Post by **ShadowsDad** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 8:31 am

Today I revisited the Clearly Natural glycerine bar soap, and frankly I was surprised at how good it was.

I loaded the heck out of my brush with the bar held in my hand. Then face lathered as I normally do. The lather was more or less stable and there was plenty for my 2 1/3 passes and even had some lather left over to wash my face.

The quality of the lather was actually quite good, plenty dense and slick and compared to the other bars soaps I've tried this with, didn't have thinking, "bar soap" throughout the shave in the back of my mind. Of course there's nothing in it for moisturizers, and the CN soap I buy is scentless. So moisturizing the skin must be handled separately.

If I was traveling and space was at a premium I could easily take a bar of this soap for washing and shaving and call it good.

BTW, Clearly Natural is also the least expensive glycerine soap in the Supermarket. I like that too.

Oh, I almost forgot! There was no soap scum in the basin, and looking at the brush after the shave, I'm pretty certain that it cleaned the soap residue out of the bristles. So shave and clean the brush at the same time. I like that twofer. I'll know for certain after the brush dries fully. If I don't edit this, you'll know that it did clean it.

FWIW, I have extremely soft water, so it might not work this way in hard water.

Kyle76 · Post by **Kyle76** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 8:36 am

Two good options, Wendell!

Steve-o · Post by **Steve-o** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 7:12 pm

On a trip to Europe a couple of years ago, I decided to travel superlight and take a cake of Dr. Bronner's to use as shower soap, shaving soap (with a brush), and shampoo. I shaved with it for 4-5 days and couldn't take it any more. I bought a travel can of Noxzema in Naples and was much happier for the rest of the trip using the Bronner's for my hair and body. A glycerine soap would be a different story, but Dr. Bronner's didn't make the grade.

Kyle76 · Post by **Kyle76** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 6:23 am

When I realized I had forgotten my soap, I was hoping the hotel would have glycerine facial bars, but no such luck. I could actually work the cleansing soap into a pretty thick lather. It just wouldn't hold its body. The worst thing was it was so thin it would slide down my razor handle and make my DE slippery. But, for two days, I made it work fine. Even shaved twice on Friday.

Squire · Post by **Squire** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 7:15 am

The hotel soap/bic shave can work but works best in the shower.

ShadowsDad · Post by **ShadowsDad** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 9:33 pm

OK, so I had a light go off in my head and realized that VDH is a glycerine soap. Just by shaving and using VDH I've been cleaning my brushes of soap residue.

Lather, shave, rinse and the brush is clean. Gotta love it. Yeah, I know there are better soaps, but as I already wrote, I like the twofer.