Shaving foam and DE razor

Hey all ,

I found some shaving foam and was going to use it up and start with proper shaving cream . Has,anyone tried shaving with foam and a double edged razor ? Should I just bin it and start afresh with a brush and shaving cream ?

Many thanks,

Martin
Personally I’d lay off the the canned goo (foam). I did use it with safety razor a while back and, in my opinion, it is a bad idea. The foam was sticking to the blade too much - harder to wash off … then had to run my finger good few times per side of edge to remove the foam + hair residue. Not much fun of an experience. If I remember correctly I have used blackland blackbird razor and Gillette fusion foam
 
If you're looking for a decent, inexpensive shave soap to try out grab some Arko.

A good shaving soap will feel very slick. This helps the blade edge to glide over the skin without nicks & cuts.

You could shave just by rubbing the soap on your face and wetting it but it would dry out quite quickly. Whipping the soap up into a creamy lather stops it drying out while you shave.

Slickness & ability to hold a lather are what makes shaving soap shaving soap.
 
I actually gave up on canned goo long before i started back into DE shaving - you get better results with all the same convenience if you switch to a decent shaving gel or cream in a squeezy tube. Anything from an aerosol foams up impressively at first, but then it collapses quite quickly and you realise there isnt much substance behind the gas.

I switched from canned goo to using Real Shave Co cream from a tube with my cartridge razor, then switched to King of Shaves gel, both of which are actually half-way decent to use with a DE as well.

Nowadays i use Palmolive shave cream from a tube (£2 at Supermarket) and just blob a pea sized amount onto a wet brush and lather it up on my face.
 
Not all shaving foams and gel created the same.
Foam from Noxzema and Barbasol works well with some DE razors/blades combo in my experience. My Flat bottom 4 piece Gillette from 1945 loaded with a modern Russian blade gives enjoyable shaves. The Nivea aerosoled gel is also fairly slick. The tubed gel from Kings or RSC is too gloopy and sticky for DE imho.
 
A tube of Palmolive cream in my local Morrisons is about £1.80. Should give you a good start- easy to lather, nice and slick.
My experiments in face lathering have led me to the successful combo of a tiny (pea sized) blob of Palmolive cream onto my Yaqi 24mm Purple Haze, which will whip up to produce enough creamy thick lather for a 2 pass shave.

My best guess is a good 20+ shaves out of each tube of Palmolive .
 
I have on occasions used Lea and La Toja shaving foam with a DE razor. It’s never going to be as good as a soap or cream. In my opinion.

That said, the results have been ok. Given the choice then I’d use a soap or cream. But if circumstances dictated it, for example I had canned goo to use up / no access to soaps and or creams then why not.
 
When I was using Mach 3 cartridges I really thought King of Shaves alphagel was the best shave gel ever. It really works well with carts. I bought a refillable metal can and 2 refill bags of it. Tried it with DE and straight razors, BIG difference.

There may be exceptions but in my limited experience you want a proper stick/soap/cream/croap for DE, and definitely for straight razors. Forget the gels and foam aerosols, they cause too much sticking. It's not purism, they just perform differently and whilst gel is ok with carts it's not good with trad cutlery IMO.
 
When I was using Mach 3 cartridges I really thought King of Shaves alphagel was the best shave gel ever. It really works well with carts. I bought a refillable metal can and 2 refill bags of it. Tried it with DE and straight razors, BIG difference.
I used to use KoS Alpha gel with carts and it is much better than anything out of an aerosol, but is not as good as traditional soaps and creams.

I tried DE shaving with KoS alpha gel once and it wasn't so bad, but it really wasn't great. It's quite slippery, but there is no cushioning to speak of.
 
Back
Top Bottom