A distilled water miracle!

[DamnFineBob]

I've been toying with the idea of using distilled water for my shaves, since my city's water is so hard with minerals that stalactites form on our faucets. Hard water is not your friend if you are trying to build lather.

Today I went into the bath with a gallon of room-temperature distilled water, and moistened my badger brush in a small amount. I then loaded a soap which hadn't been giving me the best results, just to see how it would behave... Holy smokes! I got easily enough lather for 6 passes! Not only that, but it was thick, dense lather... very luxurious! Despite the lather being a little cold, it was easily the best shave I've had in months! :thumbup:

[drews50]

Thanks for passing on your results using distilled water. A gallon costs about $2 and should last a week or longer. Congrats on your foamy shave!

[Slash McCoy]

And I might point out that distilled water is far superior to spring or artesian water, generally, for making a lather. Spring water sometimes contains a lot of minerals. That's why some spring water tastes so good. Teakettles tend to concentrate minerals, too. A large pyrex measuring cup (you probably got one in the kitchen) in the microwave works great for heating a little shave water.

An old trick for getting hard water to make a good shaving lather is to squeeze a little lime juice in it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. At any rate, the smell is refreshing.

[HoosierTrooper]

I have a water softener and a reverse osmosis system which gives me very soft water. I believe this is why I have such good results with even the most controversial soap known to mankind, the dreaded Williams. Congratulations on finding an easy solution to your hard water problem.

[gearchow]

glad I don't have that issue here in Portland. I guess snow melt doesn't have enough time to collect minerals. Bird poop, yes, minerals, not so much.

Would using one of those pitcher style filters work for making mineral free water?

-jim

[Deltaboy]

Nope they only filter out Clorine.

[DamnFineBob]

. . . ...Would using one of those pitcher style filters work for making mineral free water?... . . .
Probably not... I know most filters available to the regular guy do absolutely nothing to improve the flavor of our water. A water softener combined with a filter might get things to an acceptable level, though.

@ HoosierTrooper: I have a few pucks of Williams laying around somewhere... I had tried them as hand soap, but the darn things wouldn't lather enough for that!

[Pkrankow]

Thanks for passing on your results using distilled water. A gallon costs about $2 and should last a week or longer. Congrats on your foamy shave!

A week?! There are 16 cups in a gallon, and a cup of water is a lot for making lather, but a nice amount for soaking a brush. Microwave the cup of water, but use tap water for the scuttle and face washing.

Phil

[DamnFineBob]

I used about 2 ounces total, since I'm such a cheap ba:hand:rd.

[mftoms59]

Thanks for passing on your results using distilled water. A gallon costs about $2 and should last a week or longer. Congrats on your foamy shave!

I live in Vegas, Very Hard Water, I keep ~30 ozs in two cups under the sink, and use it to soak my brush and build the initial lather. on subsequent lathers I re-wet my face with the sink water, I've noticed no degradation of the re- lathers. I recycle any unused water and don't have to replenish my water for ~3 weeks, I figure a gallon should last ~8-9 weeks with judicious use, shaving 6 days per week.

[EL Alamein]

I've used distilled off and on for years. I was off for the last two but our water hardness has changed back to being too hard for my tastes so I'm back on.

I use a Moss scuttle in the following manner: fill the pot with hot tap water then pour a suitable amount of distilled in the bowl for dipping one's brush. I dip my brush in to soak it, shake out the excess and begin loading the brush on the cake of soap. I face lather and this is excellent for it. When I need to relather for a second pass or the like I dip the tips ever so slightly into the distilled water and do just a light quick swirl on the cake of soap. This is all I need to continue to build a thick dense lather again; very economical too.

Hope that helps.

Chris

[bew47]

Been using distilled for the past 6 months or so since living in the city and it's the only way to get a decent lather here! I always put the water in a mug in the microwave for a couple of minutes and then soak while i shower. I then use the left over water to wet my face, works great.

[shrubble]

I need to try this, just to see if the difference would be worth it here in good ole' Baltimore.