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Dirty Jobs

Blade-meister

Blade-meister

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I just happened to catch a Dirty Job's episode (re-run) and it caught my eye because a barber was going to do a SR shave on one of his camera men then let Mike Rowe shave him as well. I was kinda excited to see what he was going to use soap wise and then he takes out a can of Barbersol and slaps it on there. Having shaved a few times with a SR, I would think the Barbersol would not be slick enough at all for SR shaving. Anyone try it here? I can't see @BarberDave giving a can of that a shake and slapping it on his customers for a SR shave :oops:

This also got me to thinking and wondering just what soaps you've all used that surprised you as being slick enough for a SR shave. I once tried WTP Barber Shop and it wasn't slick enough for my rank SR skills.
 
Can't say I remember trying any that surprised me with adequate slickness. I haven't personally used any that weren't usable as long as there was lather, but several that I would never go back over an area I just shaved without reapplying more lather.

I don't think I've used barbersol since I first started shaving. Before wet shaving I always used the canned gels. Never want to use that stuff on my face again lol.
 
In NY, due to health regs, barbers have been shaving customers with warm ‘machine cream lather’ and shavettes for decades.
 
Blade-meister said:
I just happened to catch a Dirty Job's episode (re-run) and it caught my eye because a barber was going to do a SR shave on one of his camera men then let Mike Rowe shave him as well. I was kinda excited to see what he was going to use soap wise and then he takes out a can of Barbersol and slaps it on there. Having shaved a few times with a SR, I would think the Barbersol would not be slick enough at all for SR shaving. Anyone try it here? I can't see @BarberDave giving a can of that a shake and slapping it on his customers for a SR shave :oops:

This also got me to thinking and wondering just what soaps you've all used that surprised you as being slick enough for a SR shave. I once tried WTP Barber Shop and it wasn't slick enough for my rank SR skills.
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Actually I’ll use CBL obviously the hombres for most of my clients shaves with a brush and we can still use a straight razor are in Arizona however sometimes I use a Feather DX other times I will use hot lather on my basic Shave because the lather king Lather is fantastic and it’s nice and hot and very very slick I would put it as slick as Proraso cream and then for my elite Shave service are use the Saponificio Varesino but yeah I never Barbasol ever never never never never never that’s a barber that should be slapped in the face
 
I’m obviously not a barber...but for the everyday man, with mediocre skills (such as myself), there’s no soap that can’t be used with an SR. You can shave with just water and SR alone if you wanted.
 
Actually with the addition of a brush and some added warm water Barbasol performs quite well IME. Faced with no shaving soap and having to buy locally, I would take it over VDH.
 
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@BarberDave has conveniently forgotten to tell everyone about a shaving challenge (was it a challenge or a test?) a few of us did a while back where we each used and compared the different types of gear (SE, DE, Straight and cart) after having developed "better technique and skills" over the years. A few of us even included Barbasol or other canned foam in the mix. I recall using a dollar store 5 blade cartridge and canned foam. The generic canned foam was just this side of deadly but ONE of the 3 cartridge razors in the pack was able to give me a number of good shaves. When I switched to canned Barbasol with a bit of additional water to break it down and thin it some, it was a very nice shave indeed. I hesitate to say it but the yellow can Barbasol with some added water applied with a simple synthetic brush was at least as good as any run of the mill soap if not better. The key was adding water, without the water the foam was not at all useful for straight shaving (I don't recall it being wonderful for DE either).

While we are discussing Mike Rowe...If you haven't found his podcast "the way I heard it" I suggest you check it out. There are almost 200 episodes available now but they are all very short and make excellent drive time listening.
 
Interesting comments everyone! A guy that works in my building shaves with barbersol and a SR. He even says he use his SR dry and carefully.

BarberDave said:
I never Barbasol ever never never never never never that’s a barber that should be slapped in the face
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That's about what I figured you'd say :LOL: I only used gel canned stuff when I was using carts like @GearNoir said. I was just so shocked to see what is was billed as a luxury shave with a SR and see him pull out canned barbersol!
 
Well Chris did mention that you can use any soap for a straight but for a straight razor you want the maximum slickness the maximum glide and the maximum wetness and if you don’t have that you risk cutting your clients stalling the blade literally you want the soap to be so slick that if you touch it with your hand you’ll drop the straight razor as weird as that sounds so although I would agree that you can use anything it’s just not smart. But more importantly than that, is Barbasol and the canned goods are so loaded with synthetic chemicals and it’s terrible for your face and we’re doing a straight shave or even a regular do you shave that matter you’re assaulting the skin so you wanna have the best most natural emollients going back into the skin no matter what and the canned goods and anything with an aerosol it’s just gonna have nothing but nasty chemicals
 
That all makes good sense @BarberDave . My thinking would be that a customer coming in for a nice hot towel SR shave is doing so as a treat and would want to walk away feeling like a million dollars. I know I'd be quite disappointed if I was paying a barber for a nice SR shave and he pulled out Barbersol. I think there's always the thought of "can it be done?", but the important question is "should it be done?". To that I would say no.

The other thing that I would think would be difficult as a barber is that it seems like a different process when you are shaving someone else vs. shaving yourself with a SR. When I've used one I can feel when I'm about to get cut and stop but you don't have that when you are shaving someone else. I'd be afraid I'd shave off some guy's mole or a skin tag or something and have this bloodfest going on.
 
Actually that’s a very good point but you get to feel with the razors that I use I use mostly thin hollow grounds or my feather DX and you get to feel that is weird as it sounds you get to feel the vibratory or the vibration of the razor to measure of touch and I always opt for a very very light touch I can always do another pass and so you get used to and you get to map the persons face each and every shave and then a lot of prep work is done to make sure that it’s the smooth as possible shave and I do that between each pass. And it’s funny that you mention yes it is a treat for most people however I’m doing people now that once a week that just got used to me doing it and they don’t wanna mess with it during the week so they do it so there’s both type there’s a treat type to do it once a month and then there’s the type to do it once a year and then of course there’s a type of want it done every single week and I’ve got a couple of different shapes I’ve got a basic straight Shave which is three passes with a Lather King Lather and then I’ve got the elite Shave which uses the higher end Soaps and Aftershave’s and colognes so just depends on what they want. In my price range the basic straight three pair shave with hot towels is $20 and that includes the facial massage the remoisturize ation Aftershave powder and then I’ve got my elite shares which go between 50 and 70
 
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