Cheap DE Entertainment While On The Road

[Clay S]

I like my VDH long handles TTO razor (made by Weishi, I believe). It is mild, but with a very sharp blade it is a decent razor for clean-up passes to get BBS without irritation. I like more aggressive razors for initial passes, but can use the VDH as long as I shave every day.

I cannot say my VDH Luxury scented soap is anywhere close to my elite artisan soaps in performance, but for the price, it gives a decent shave.

For me the VDH blades do not cut it, literally. I have a tough beard and VDH ice-tempered blades, along with Merkur, Shark and Derby Extra blades, are not sharp enough to shave my beard without painful tugging. However, for someone with a beard that is not so tough, they might work. Fortunately, a lot of local stores sell house branded DE blades which appear to be Personna Israeli Reds that work well for me.

VDH products are available at a lot of local stores, so they are a potential source if you are traveling and need to replace something without resorting to the ubiquitous cartridge razors and canned foams and gels.

Your experience with VDH products match my own. The soap, I would like to add, doesn't dry the skin and lathers quite easily.

 

[psychoman1128]

I started with VDH razor, then picked up a VDH brush, mug, soap and stand set. Eventually gave the razor to a neighbor friend, the brush to my nephew. Still have the apothecary mug and the little acrylic razor and brush stand. And have two pucks of the VDH “luxury” soap. As you say doesn’t have the best scent, but it’s a decent performer. Good score!


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[ajkel64]

Thanks for sharing, I enjoyed reading it.

 

[DEPenguin]

Thanks for sharing, I enjoyed reading it.

Thanks for reading and commenting, Andrew! I always appreciate that

Psychoman . . this morning will be my first shave with the brush and soap. I toyed with it a bit yesterday and the brush took very little time to get a decent lather built. Wasn't super yogurt-y but had some nice slickness to it. Very curious to see how it performs.

 

[DEPenguin]

Okay, so since arriving back home yesterday--a story I shall refrain from telling--I have felt the call of the boar twice. Took it out yesterday and set the puck in the bowl then let the world disappear while playing with the brush and soap. Got some decent lather from it--nothing luscious or so good it was semi-erotic, but just for fun palm lathered as well to get a 'feel' for the soap's attributes. I was surprised by how slick it felt. Not classic banana-peel-on-the-floor kind of slippery but certainly discernable . . .

[My apologies for being slightly, umm, retentive about this . . . but I wrote discernible and it just looks so dang funky, it bugged me. Discernible is the more commonly accepted spelling, but using an 'a' is also acceptable, and my fingers seem to automagically type the 'a', so for you fellow sticklers there's my Declaration of Reasoning ]

Used the boar brush and soap this morning. Got the brush loaded pretty good (I thought) then tried building more lather in a separate bowl. Got some lather, but it was a touch thinner than I typically like--most soaps I use are tallow based and are designed to create great lather. Using this ‘shave soap’ is what I imagine shaving with typical bar soap would be like. No fragrance, just a typical clean soap scent. Had enough decent lather for the first pass and had to work quite a while to get acceptable lather for the second pass.

Got an okay shave with the VDH soap but no real post-shave feel to speak of. I’m thinking the VDH soap is something better relegated to the shower than as part of daily shaving—certainly would work if you had nothing else while traveling, but wouldn’t ever be something I would look forward to using. Too many other good soaps in my rotation that I can create true lather porn with . . . and who doesn't like good lather porn?

 

[Steinmetzify]

Good story man....this is the 2nd I've read of yours and I imagine a little dude on your left chanting "buy it buy it buy it buy it" until you give in.

I have one of those dudes too, I almost always listen.

 

[DEPenguin]

Ain't he a rotten little bugger? Although lately I've let him know I'm still the boss of him. I got an email about Italian Barber releasing another batch of Wunderbar slants. I'm itching to try one but I didn't let him buffalo me that time. Got an email that RazoRock is releasing a limited adjustable today and I didn't bite on that one either.

But I'm pretty much his ***** when it comes to soaps.

 

[Twelvefret]

Van Der Hagan Luxury has glycerin and that's all I'm after. Makes great hydrated lather for using a straight razor. $3 locally.