Calling all Indian wetshavers

There are dozens of us! Dozens!

But to be serious -- I got into traditional wetshaving a little over a year ago and was rapidly bitten by the bug. Unfortunately, most of the products talked about here aren't available in India and have to be ordered from the UK or the US, which can get ridiculously expensive. And many of them can't be imported because of various customs regulations. If there are any fellow Indian aficionados here, I'd love to chat with you, perhaps figure out ways and means.

Which is not to say everyone else isn't welcome, of course. I know Indian shaving creams are well thought of here, for one. If any curious souls want to know more about them, pipe up.

I am not going to be over that part of the planet soon, but love to hear about other places and cultures. So would love to hear about native products from the area.

I use to have a tube of Palmolive Lemon shaving cream and I really liked it. If I remember correctly it was made in India. I will restock it someday soon. Good stuff. The Parker 94 razor is also made in India.

Saan, I'm not from India, but I was curious about your current set-up. What are your favorites available locally to you?

Glad to hear from all of you. To give some idea of what it's like here -- pretty much the entire country wetshaves. Electric shavers are stocked everywhere but they aren't really used very often. But it tends to be very utilitarian; disposable razors or Gillette's multi-bladed monstrosities, synthetic brushes, canned foam and so on. Quite similar to shaving habits in the US from what I've seen, really; the difference is that the lack of variety of products on offer.

Gillette's synthetic brushes, for instance, are the ones you'll see in most stores. They're uncomfortable/ineffective enough that I switched to canned foam way back when I started shaving just so I wouldn't have to use them. I've seen Omega boar brushes around less frequently. The ones I tried were certainly a step up from the synthetics, but from what I know now, I'd say they were at the lower end of what Omega makes. DE razors -- you're as liable to get a strange look as not if you ask for one of these given that they're rarely used, but I've seen Parkers around. Shaving creams, now. You get a variety of those, and good ones. I've used Old Spice (the new version), Body Shop's Maca Root and Godrej, and found them all good. Tried Biotique Palmyra too, but despite how highly it's regarded on these boards, it just didn't work for me. There are a bunch of others than I mean to work my way through: Yardley, Park Avenue, Vi-John, Gatsby, Dettol, Palmolive, Denim, Axe. Or maybe not Axe, just on principle.

You might find this interesting. And amusing, given that a government department came up with this: http://consumeraffairs.nic.in/consumer/writereaddata/Shaving_Creams.pdf

I actually haven't seen shaving soaps around at all. I'm sure they're used in more rural areas; I should dig around a little, see if I can find some. And Truefitt & Hill recently launched in both cities that I live in/travel to, so that's been great. My current setup: EJ's DE89 and best badger brush, my starter's tools and still doing well although I'm looking into upgrading the latter. T&H Trafalgar cream and 1805 soap (latter's been a disappointment), Old Spice, Godrej, all available locally. Trumper coconut and ToBS Mr. Taylor shaving creams, both ordered with the brush and razor from the English Shaving Company. The ToBS has been very disappointing; it was extremely runny when it reached me and doesn't provide very protective lather. Wonder if it was affected by the shipping.

Aftershaves: T&H Trafalgar splash and Nivea splash and balm, available locally. Pre de Provence balm and Captain's Choice Bay Rum, neither of which you get here. The other aftershaves you tend to see commonly stocked are Old Spice, Axe, Brut, Denim, Neutrogena. You'll get Body Shop and a few others like L'Occitane if you look around and are willing to spend a little more.

Hope that answers your questions.

Well, Saan, it sounds like you have a pretty decent set-up. I hope you are able to find the variety you are looking for!

Saan said:

There are dozens of us! Dozens!

But to be serious -- I got into traditional wetshaving a little over a year ago and was rapidly bitten by the bug. Unfortunately, most of the products talked about here aren't available in India and have to be ordered from the UK or the US, which can get ridiculously expensive. And many of them can't be imported because of various customs regulations. If there are any fellow Indian aficionados here, I'd love to chat with you, perhaps figure out ways and means.

Which is not to say everyone else isn't welcome, of course. I know Indian shaving creams are well thought of here, for one. If any curious souls want to know more about them, pipe up.

Click to expand...

I'm not from India but I do love some of the Indian shave products. I currently have Godrej ( regular, lime, and Menthol) shave creams, Godrej Shave rounds, Axe shave cream, Dettol Cool, Vicco Turmeric shave cream, Yardley Gold, and Indian Old Spice ( regular and lime).

I would like to try the Bio Palmyra shave cream, I just haven't got around to buying some yet. What other Indian shave products would you recommend?

There are some excellent products made in India that are well regarded in wet shaving community.

7 o' clock sharp edge(yellow) and Gillette Wilkinson blades
Gillette Sterling tech DE razor
Gillette Guard single blade cartridge razor

I have tried all these products and like them very much.

I'm still using my Gillette 7'oclock DE blades I picked up in India. Got a pack of 50 blades for a very good price there. I also loved the Palmolive Lemon when I was living there.

Indian wet shavers *high five* !

I am woefully uninformed on Indian shaving products. I would like to here from some of you who use the creams and soaps from the subcontinent.

You guys in India are the envy of the wetshaving world. We ought to set up an exchange program:

Any of us traveling to India have to bring some American or European stuff to trade with an Indian guy for some of the everyday stuff there that is difficult for us to come by.

I doubt I'll ever be in India, but I'm increasingly fascinated by the place and its history.

Saan said:

There are dozens of us! Dozens!

Click to expand...

I love some good semi hidden humor.

While not from India I can mention some products that have worked well for me.


Gillette Goal DE razor: A plastic one piece razor with a flip over design to change blades. Very mild but a functional design.

Gillette Goal blades

Supermax blades I assume you already have experience with?


About the Omegas brushes you have used. Are you sure you did not get counterfeit Omegas. Because the budget line Omegas should be of the same quality as he more expensive ones when it comes to boars. I am asking just to be sure really because I would expect them to be a big step up from the Gillette syntetics you described and I know they have been counterfeited. If not maybe boar is not your thing and you might want to try an Omega badger.

There was some poster from New Delhi who dropped in with his pictures from a shopping trip out in the country. It was basic DE stuff including what appeared to be a Gillette 7 O'Clock Sterling razor with the slim black handle. He said it was getting harder to find such things in the city. From what we read here, P&G/Gillette has has success pushing out the Guard. I've ordered and used the Guard as a shower body shaver, but I have no inclination to bring anything but DE to my face.
Sometimes people can e-shop a variety of shaving products out of some country or another, only to discover the products are hard to find if you are actually there. For example, there are a lot of good Turkish shaving soaps, brushes, creams, and aftershaves. However, when I was there I found that the stores were filled with their answer to cartridges/disposables (Derby Samurai et al) and goo. The 1m to 1.5m of shelf space committed to DE usually included only one soap (Arko stick), one brush (Omega), two blades (Perma-Sharp and Bic), one razor (YUMA), and a stack of cheap lather bowls. It is far easier finding the rest of the Turkish selections from eBay at home.

Well, I didn't expect this thread to be resuscitated. Went shopping for DE blades recently (I've found that Gillette 7 o'clock Superplats -- the blacks -- made here in India are as good as any I've tried in samples ordered from WCS) -- and realised that what with ordering English and Italian creams and soaps, I'd only tried 2-3 Indian creams. Criminal. Picked up a whole bunch of creams to rectify that.

My photo taking skills are quite rudimentary, so these are nothing like the shave porn photos you usually get to see here, alas. I'm hoping at least some of them are as good as Godrej Deluxe, which I've found to be among the best I've tried so far.






[MENTION=104913]Snookledon[/MENTION], sign me up!
[MENTION=36204]joost[/MENTION], the funny thing is that I've only been able to find the cheaper Supermax variants here in India which aren't that great. Their better blades seem to be unavailable; my only option is to buy them online from US stores, which I refuse to do because the idea is ridiculous.

Maybe I'll send you some stuff some day..

I have a special connection to my indian people.

I'm curious about the Dettol shave cream. Does it have the classic Dettol scent?
I grew up with that smell. It was and still is comforting to me as a child. If i skinned my knee or whatever my mother would comfort me and clean out the wound with Dettol from the glass bottle we had back in the 1960's.
I know is odd to find a smell of hospital grade antiseptic comforting and desirable but that's the way a mind stores and associates scents.

That Good Morning stuff looks really cool. What's the scent?

Saan said:

Well, I didn't expect this thread to be resuscitated. Went shopping for DE blades recently (I've found that Gillette 7 o'clock Superplats -- the blacks -- made here in India are as good as any I've tried in samples ordered from WCS) -- and realised that what with ordering English and Italian creams and soaps, I'd only tried 2-3 Indian creams. Criminal. Picked up a whole bunch of creams to rectify that.

My photo taking skills are quite rudimentary, so these are nothing like the shave porn photos you usually get to see here, alas. I'm hoping at least some of them are as good as Godrej Deluxe, which I've found to be among the best I've tried so far.

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[MENTION=104913]Snookledon[/MENTION], sign me up!
[MENTION=36204]joost[/MENTION], the funny thing is that I've only been able to find the cheaper Supermax variants here in India which aren't that great. Their better blades seem to be unavailable; my only option is to buy them online from US stores, which I refuse to do because the idea is ridiculous.

Click to expand...

[MENTION=86801]Saan[/MENTION] in case you haven't found it yet, here's a good discussion on India Shaving Creams. It's been going for over a year now.
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/408456-Indian-shaving-creams-reviews

I never knew YARDLEY made shaving cream.

Indians give some of the best shavette shaves on the planet.

I just bought a boat load of shaving items from some Indian grocery stores. I`m feeling a bit lazy but when I get a chance I`ll post some photos of my score. I love the Old Spice after shaves and OS shaving creams and various other shaving creams and AS, blades etc. I`m pretty lucky where I live there is a pretty large Indian and Pakistani community. However buying from them can be a bit of a pot luck hit and miss because for whatever reasons they might not restock for the longest of times which feeds my hoarding desires