Williams again --- Oh my!

I'm not planning on restarting the 'love Williams - hate Williams' debate, but because of recent pro-Williams threads, I bought a puck from CVS and gave it a try.

I'd tried it a couple of years ago with horrible results, but man! My recent results have been amazing!

Bowl lathering has been hit or miss, but face lathering has given me excellent shaves. My skin feels great and the shaves were close and comfortable.

Is this the best soap I've used - no! Still, it's good enough for me (lately) that I would consider it to be among the better performers I have.

-----

Here's my prep sequence:

- Put a few drops of water on the soap and spread it around with the fingers. There is no 'extra' water - the soap is just damp.
- Soak the Semogue SOC in hot water
- Take hot shower
- Squeeze the brush and load up for a minute or so
- Build lather on the face, as preferred
- Shave WTG and XTG with a Hoshi Tombo asymmetrically ground straight (with some ATG thrown in)

-> RESULT: Smooth, comfortable shave.

I've been using this prep for a while now, and I'll continue to see how it works out as long as the puck lasts. By then I'll have a real nice idea of how it performs as a daily user soap.

My water is not particularly soft. My mother-in-law has soft water and when I shower, it always feels like my skin stays soapy. I don't have this issue at my home. There are no deposits on the sink either, so it's not spectacularly hard water either.

-------

Anyway, that's my Williams two cents.

In before Seraphim and Michigan lover.

Yep, it's a fine performer when face lathered but, a terrible performer using a bowl or scuttle.

DFSDAILY said:

Yep, it's a fine performer when face lathered but, a terrible performer using a bowl or scuttle.

Click to expand...

That is why it is called a mug shaving soap; try it and be amazed!

In before the bashers too!!

non-vintage Williams sucks. That is all.

The more products I try, the more convinced I am that Williams is the slickest lather in current production (when made properly, of course). I'm not surprised to hear it works well with a straight razor. If I ever try one of those cut-throats, I know what soap I'll be using: Slick Willie.

IF you like the lemon-verbena scent, and IF your skin doesn't react badly to plain soap, and IF you can figure it out, Williams is a grade-A product with a peerless cost+convenience factor (in the US, anyway).

Unfortunately, those are big IFs for a very special subset of our members!

Bring on the primal scream therapy!

It still works !

Yup, Williams works if you let it.

man00ver said:

The more products I try, the more convinced I am that Williams is the slickest lather in current production (when made properly, of course). I'm not surprised to hear it works well with a straight razor. If I ever try one of those cut-throats, I know what soap I'll be using: Slick Willie.

IF you like the lemon-verbena scent, and IF your skin doesn't react badly to plain soap, and IF you can figure it out, Williams is a grade-A product with a peerless cost+convenience factor (in the US, anyway).

Unfortunately, those are big IFs for a very special subset of our members!

Bring on the primal scream therapy!

Click to expand...

Even Williams is not bad enough to be called "Slick Willie". That title is reserved for Slick Willie Clinton and his wife Slicker Hillary.

Seriously, Williams isn't that bad except for it seems to eat blades (or at least their sharp edge). It does have to be soaked for 12 hours before it will lather (a dry puck will not lather to save its life, even with a soaking wet brush) and I seemed to get a lot less use out of each DE blade (it went dull faster) than I do with VDH or Palmolive EU.

mharris127 said:

Even Williams is not bad enough to be called "Slick Willie". That title is reserved for Slick Willie Clinton and his wife Slicker Hillary.

Click to expand...

I hereby reclaim the moniker "Slick Willie" from the dustbin of 20th-century political history. I've restored it to practical and relevant daily use (using Scrubbing Bubbles and Barbicide, of course) for the many of us that appreciate the chief benefit of a nice wet Williams lather. Please, no need for thanks, cards or flowers. It's my humble service to Wet-shave Nation.

mharris127 said:

Seriously, Williams isn't that bad except for it seems to eat blades (or at least their sharp edge). It does have to be soaked for 12 hours before it will lather (a dry puck will not lather to save its life, even with a soaking wet brush) and I seemed to get a lot less use out of each DE blade (it went dull faster) than I do with VDH or Palmolive EU.

Click to expand...

I find 12 minutes in warm water with my brush (while showering) is more than sufficient to prime the puck, even when it's new from the box. I really can't imagine how any soap could make a blade dull faster (although insufficient beard prep seems like it could do that). I get six shaves per blade in my Merkur HD when using Williams.

It doesn't seem to have much effect on the edge on my straight razor, but the sample size is small.

I don't soak the puck, as such. I just dampen the top of it with a thin layer of water (it won't flow). However, the bathroom does get a bit foggy, so perhaps the puck is softened by the steam.

kingfisher said:

In before Seraphim and Michigan lover.

Click to expand...

talibeard said:

That is why it is called a mug shaving soap; try it and be amazed!

In before the bashers too!!

Click to expand...

michiganlover said:

non-vintage Williams sucks. That is all.

Click to expand...

Darn! Got beat again.

mharris127 said:

Even Williams is not bad enough to be called "Slick Willie". That title is reserved for Slick Willie Clinton and his wife Slicker Hillary.

Seriously, Williams isn't that bad except for it seems to eat blades (or at least their sharp edge). It does have to be soaked for 12 hours before it will lather (a dry puck will not lather to save its life, even with a soaking wet brush) and I seemed to get a lot less use out of each DE blade (it went dull faster) than I do with VDH or Palmolive EU.

Click to expand...

I have been using Williams since I was a kid in the 60"s. I have never soaked a puck, never. I've just opened the box, dropped in my mug and lathered. Now I'm not by any means saying that is all I 've ever used. I stop using it when I went in the service. But I can't really say I haven't had it around since. But I've always been cheap. Barbasal is about all I've used from a can........
Speaking of blades.........You guys with a normal beard [not thick or thin] How many shaves would you say you get out of a DE blade?

The modern version works just fine for me, and I don't soak the puck at all. Grated a couple pucks into a Ziploc container and just load a damp brush and make the lather in a bowl, I never face lather.

I believe the combination of grating it and my ultrasoft water is why I get such great results.

I like using vintage Williams and modern Williams.
It's good stuff.. I get fantastic lather and shaves when I use them.

I swear there was another reformulation since 1999 or 2000. Back than I bought 14 pucks at once, and used them all up in four and half to five years. Really couldn't complain about its lather.

Last year I got myself another puck if William's MUG, and its lather dries too fast. Its color was kind of "off-white", bordering to dirty-yellowish, not really snow-white as it used to be. Perhaps it was a bad batch ? I don't know. But that one was a disaster, no matter what I did to make a lather.

man00ver said:

. . . I find 12 minutes in warm water with my brush (while showering) is more than sufficient to prime the puck, even when it's new from the box. I really can't imagine how any soap could make a blade dull faster (although insufficient beard prep seems like it could do that). I get six shaves per blade in my Merkur HD when using Williams.

Click to expand...

I find that Williams does not prep the beard hair as well as other shaving soaps. I just wet the beard with warm water, soap up, let it sit a minute then shave. I suppose if I wanted to wrap my face in a wet towel for five minutes like the barbers do I could extend the life of my blades. For twenty cents a week in savings, I don't see the logic in hassling myself wrapping a soaking wet towel around my face and sitting there. I am also not an aftershave person, so that is also out of the equation.

HoosierTrooper said:

The modern version works just fine for me, and I don't soak the puck at all. Grated a couple pucks into a Ziploc container and just load a damp brush and make the lather in a bowl, I never face lather.

I believe the combination of grating it and my ultrasoft water is why I get such great results.

Click to expand...

I agree that if the puck were grated that it would not need a soaking. I haven't tried it as I prefer other brands of shaving soap anyway. I have average water out of a well, I have heard that water quality can make the difference with softer water being easier to work with.

Also, I am a bit fussy about my lather, I want it to stay on my face long enough for me to finish a face pass(about a minute and a half). The lather I could get out of a non-soaked Williams puck disappeared faster than Houdini and I had to relather my face at least three times per face pass. Soaking allowed me to get a better lather that did not do the disappearing act on me. I don't know why.

mharris127 said:

I find that Williams does not prep the beard hair as well as other shaving soaps. I just wet the beard with warm water, soap up, let it sit a minute then shave. I suppose if I wanted to wrap my face in a wet towel for five minutes like the barbers do I could extend the life of my blades. For twenty cents a week in savings, I don't see the logic in hassling myself wrapping a soaking wet towel around my face and sitting there. I am also not an aftershave person, so that is also out of the equation.

Click to expand...

How do you feel about adding a minute to your routine? Gillette (and others) claim that beard hair continues to hydrate for two full minutes, and then plateaus.

mharris127 said:

I find that Williams does not prep the beard hair as well as other shaving soaps. I just wet the beard with warm water, soap up, let it sit a minute then shave. I suppose if I wanted to wrap my face in a wet towel for five minutes like the barbers do I could extend the life of my blades. For twenty cents a week in savings, I don't see the logic in hassling myself wrapping a soaking wet towel around my face and sitting there. I am also not an aftershave person, so that is also out of the equation.

Click to expand...

I only do the towel for about a minute. I also can't get a week from a blade no matter what I do. For me the prep is the difference between 1 shave or 2 from a blade and comfortable or uncomfortable.