Day 28: Conclusion
28 days ago I joined the 2nd annual Williams Mug challenge. I cheese grated my puck and added Brut aftershave to scent the puck. I then compressed it into a bowl and loaded over top of the puck, which is a method of lathering i normally would never do. I’m an avid bowl latherer. But I kept an open mind. The only thing left was to shave with it until it was gone, or as close to it as possible. I knew Williams wasn’t easy to lather but I was interested in the challenge. Little did we know that Williams Mug had been discontinued, making this likely the last Williams challenge. It’s a bitter sweet moment that it has come to an end for me. Bitter because Williams Mug is no more, and this will likely be the last time I use it. Sweet because of the fact that the shaving hobby and the shaving industry has evolved to the point that people aren’t using Williams anymore, which is why it is going extinct.
There are a few important things I learned this last month:
1. Don’t give up! If you’re finding that a shaving soap is hard to lather, keep trying. Eventually repetition and muscle memory will prevail.
2. Consistency isn’t as bad as you think. I actually enjoyed having very limited variation in my daily shaves. My soap was always the same, and the aftershaves were (often) the same or very similar. The task of selecting a completely new combination from a massive collection everyday was a lot more daunting than I ever realized. I think I’ll appreciate binging on the same combo for a week ore more at a time. Certainly a lot more than I used to.
3. Don’t be a soap snob. We are spoiled with high performance, easy to lather, and robust shaving soaps. It actually took a fair bit of skill to lather the Williams puck anywhere close to a consistency that I’m used to. Eventually I realized that it didn’t need to be that way, and just because a soap doesn’t LOOK slick, that doesn’t mean it’s not. This soap was impressively slick and easy to shave with even when it looked like a substandard load. It didn’t matter. So I guess what I’m trying to say is, keep an open mind.
And this is where my place in this challenge comes to a close. My tiny little disk of soap in the bottom of the bowl has gotten small enough that it is no longer generating much of a lather even by its own standards. The last couple shaves were very difficult and time consuming to get a workable lather. The last couple shaves particularly have been more trouble than they’re worth. So this is where it ends. The final week or so of shaves included the RazoRock BBS with Gillette Silver Blue blades and some Mennen Skin Bracer. The brush was a 26mm Silvertip Badger from West Coast Shaving. I’m glad I joined this challenge, I learned a lot, and I hope we can do something like this again in the future. And I wouldn’t want a soap challenge with anyone else but you fine people here on The Shaving Cadre.
Folks, it’s been a pleasure.
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