Newbie Number Nine Hundred Checking In

[WouldHeBearIt]

My name is Woody. Although I have been shaving for many years (both wet shaving and electric shave), I've been shaving with soap and brush for only 2 years. It was about that time that I stumbled on Defender razors and decided that I had gone through enough face-gouging with cheap Walmart products.
I started out with homemade shaving creams which didn't work very well, then progressed to Defender's non-lathering tube cream underneath a layer of Edge for Sensitive Skin which I would lather up before application with my synthetic brush - that was the best shave I've ever had. Unfortunately, my wife has developed an allergy to every shaving cream or shaving soap that I can find. I thought it might be the fragrance but a bar of Van Du Hagen Unscented also set her allergies off. I have lately stumbled on a combination of brush applied Noxzema underlayer with an Ivory Soap lather overlayer that seems to do the trick without giving me a lot of shave burn and I'll probably stick with that since the wife routinely uses those products without issue. My daughter also happily shaves with just the Noxzema. Although she complains about the occasional snagging, she says it's the closest shave she's ever had.
I'm very happy to find a website where I can talk about this sort of stuff. Thanks.

 

[Dave himself]

Hi and welcome to B&B. Glad to hear your finally getting things sorted out.

 

[Lightcs1776]

Welcome to the forums.

 

[cajunrph]

Welcome.

 

[Ohjay]

Hi and welcome to B&B

 

[Hms123]

Welcome. You can talk about most anything as long as you are having fun.

 

[NickCutlip]

Welcome to the forum, Woody !!

 

[blethenstrom]

Welcome to B&B the friendliest place on the internet! Sounds like you have been through some rounds of issues with sensitivity to shave soap. Have you tried some other soaps than VDH? VDH is actually detergent based and I do not know if that is the issue or maybe some other ingredient. Is your wife sensitive to normal bars of soap as well?

 

[dmshaver]

Welcome to B & B, enjoy!

 

[Submariner]

Welcome to B&B

 

[flask28]

Hey Woody! Welcome!!

Great first post

 

[Eric_75]

Hello and welcome to B & B!

 

[BigJ]

Welcome aboard!

 

[pellidon]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[Invicta]

Welcome to B&B.

 

[WouldHeBearIt]

Welcome to B&B the friendliest place on the internet! Sounds like you have been through some rounds of issues with sensitivity to shave soap. Have you tried some other soaps than VDH? VDH is actually detergent based and I do not know if that is the issue or maybe some other ingredient. Is your wife sensitive to normal bars of soap as well?

My wife has gone through many soaps and shampoos in her life and has, pretty much, been reduced to Ivory for everything. We have learned that you can use Ivory Soap as a shampoo as long as you follow it up with a dilute acid rinse such as vinegar or lemon juice (she likes the vinegar, I use the lemon juice). We are fortunate to live in a place with soft water or else we'd be in trouble since, as you probably know, soap does not work as well as detergent in hard water.
She is so sensitive to things that the kids and I must go through a contamination procedure just going to the store and back. It's been pretty rough so finding something that works in any given situation is difficult.

 

[blethenstrom]

My wife has gone through many soaps and shampoos in her life and has, pretty much, been reduced to Ivory for everything. We have learned that you can use Ivory Soap as a shampoo as long as you follow it up with a dilute acid rinse such as vinegar or lemon juice (she likes the vinegar, I use the lemon juice). We are fortunate to live in a place with soft water or else we'd be in trouble since, as you probably know, soap does not work as well as detergent in hard water.
She is so sensitive to things that the kids and I must go through a contamination procedure just going to the store and back. It's been pretty rough so finding something that works in any given situation is difficult.

That does not sound a lot of fun. I am a hobby soap maker. I make my own shave soap and bath soap this is the reason why I asked what I did. Below are the ingredients in an Ivory bar of soap

Sodium Tallowate, Sodium Palmate, Water/Eau, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Sodium Cocoate, Sodium Chloride, Glycerin, Coconut Acid*, Palm Kernel Acid, Fragrance/Parfum, Tallow Acid, Palm Acid, Citric Acid, Sodium Citrate, Tetrasodium EDTA

Let me translate:
This is a regular lye based soap with the following ingredients: Tallow, Palm Oil, Coconut Oil as the main oils/fats. It does have salt, citric acid and then fragrance. The lye used is sodium hydroxide (NaOH). The salt and citric acid is not that pertinent.

My guess that what trigger her is one of the fragrances in the other soaps. They do not state here what those are they just bunble them together and list them as fragrances. The reason for me to say this is that most bar soaps (far from all) are lye based what I refer to as "real" soaps and since she is having trouble with most of them it would be my guess it is the fragrance.

If you want to look for a shave soap that you can use you should look for a very straightforward one. One that has Tallow, Stearic acid(most stearic acid is palm oil based), Palm oil, Coconut oil and with no fragrance in it or an essential oil that she can tolerate without reaction. I am not super familiar with where to look for these since I make a lot of my own soap. I am sure that there are those here, especially in the shave soap forum, that could point you in the right direction.

Let me know if you have any questions and hopefully I can help you out. If not at least point you somewhere that can help.

EDIT: I did checkout some potential soaps for you that fulfill those criterion. Note that I have not tried these, but I know they have gotten good reviews here on B&B. One is the "Soap Commander Integrity" and the other is the "Stirling unscented with beeswax". There are many others I am sure, but that was just me quickly looking up some.

 

[timetofly]

A warm welcome from the Peoples Republic of Illinois!

 

[WouldHeBearIt]

That does not sound a lot of fun. I am a hobby soap maker. I make my own shave soap and bath soap this is the reason why I asked what I did. Below are the ingredients in an Ivory bar of soap

Sodium Tallowate, Sodium Palmate, Water/Eau, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Sodium Cocoate, Sodium Chloride, Glycerin, Coconut Acid*, Palm Kernel Acid, Fragrance/Parfum, Tallow Acid, Palm Acid, Citric Acid, Sodium Citrate, Tetrasodium EDTA

Let me translate:
This is a regular lye based soap with the following ingredients: Tallow, Palm Oil, Coconut Oil as the main oils/fats. It does have salt, citric acid and then fragrance. The lye used is sodium hydroxide (NaOH). The salt and citric acid is not that pertinent.

My guess that what trigger her is one of the fragrances in the other soaps. They do not state here what those are they just bunble them together and list them as fragrances. The reason for me to say this is that most bar soaps (far from all) are lye based what I refer to as "real" soaps and since she is having trouble with most of them it would be my guess it is the fragrance.

If you want to look for a shave soap that you can use you should look for a very straightforward one. One that has Tallow, Stearic acid(most stearic acid is palm oil based), Palm oil, Coconut oil and with no fragrance in it or an essential oil that she can tolerate without reaction. I am not super familiar with where to look for these since I make a lot of my own soap. I am sure that there are those here, especially in the shave soap forum, that could point you in the right direction.

Let me know if you have any questions and hopefully I can help you out. If not at least point you somewhere that can help.

EDIT: I did checkout some potential soaps for you that fulfill those criterion. Note that I have not tried these, but I know they have gotten good reviews here on B&B. One is the "Soap Commander Integrity" and the other is the "Stirling unscented with beeswax". There are many others I am sure, but that was just me quickly looking up some.

I knew that Ivory was just a lye soap. I'm just grateful that she can tolerate the fragrance so that the family has something they can wash with.

I have looked around at different unscented shaving soaps, some of which are pretty expensive. As I pointed out, the Van Du Hagen soap was supposed to be unscented but did have a mild mango scent. We really don't know what it was about it that did not agree with her but the one time I shaved with it gave me terrible razor burn - it might have had soy protein in it, to which I'M allergic to. :-/

Soap Commander looks like it might work - it's pretty plain. I had also run across the Stirling soap - it has more ingredients but is more reasonably priced. Noble Otter also makes an unscented soap but it's pretty expensive and has a lot more ingredients which may or may not set my wife off.

It's a matter of playing it safe or trying something new that might work better. I'll need to think about it.

 

[blethenstrom]

I knew that Ivory was just a lye soap. I'm just grateful that she can tolerate the fragrance so that the family has something they can wash with.

I have looked around at different unscented shaving soaps, some of which are pretty expensive. As I pointed out, the Van Du Hagen soap was supposed to be unscented but did have a mild mango scent. We really don't know what it was about it that did not agree with her but the one time I shaved with it gave me terrible razor burn - it might have had soy protein in it, to which I'M allergic to. :-/

Soap Commander looks like it might work - it's pretty plain. I had also run across the Stirling soap - it has more ingredients but is more reasonably priced. Noble Otter also makes an unscented soap but it's pretty expensive and has a lot more ingredients which may or may not set my wife off.

It's a matter of playing it safe or trying something new that might work better. I'll need to think about it.

Good luck in trying to find something that will work well for all of you in the family.