All things Grooming Dept

Mohammad - I read a recent IG post of yours where you touched on the virtues of using distilled water for building lather. I was wondering if you might be able to expand on your thoughts here, especially as it relates to Grooming Dept bases (and more generally). Thanks very much for your insights.

I think there is a benefit to try and avoid using hard taper if possible. It isn't the worst thing in the world but I think there are man benefits in shaving to minimize your gear with hard water mineral buildup. Try and use some filtered water whenever possible to soak your natural hair brush and make your lather with "softer" water. I also prefer to rinse as well with the filtered water from the mug instead of using faucet water. I still might use the tap water here and there but it is pretty scaly so the mineral buildup on everything is evident after a fresh cleaning.

Mohammad - I read a recent IG post of yours where you touched on the virtues of using distilled water for building lather. I was wondering if you might be able to expand on your thoughts here, especially as it relates to Grooming Dept bases (and more generally). Thanks very much for your insights.

I am not Mohammad, but I will try to provide some insight.

Soaps are esters (organic salts) of fatty acids. The fatty acids are reacted with strong alkali such as sodium and potassium hydroxide to form soap.

Hard water contains salts of calcium, magnesium, iron, etc. When hard water is added to a soap, these salts react with the soap to form calcium, magnesium and iron salts of the fatty acids. Unlike the sodium and potassium salts, these other salts are insoluble in water. Thus, they precipitate out, coating your razor, brush, sink, piping, etc. It ruins the properties of the lather the soapmaker has tried so hard to achieve. The harder your water, the more problems there will be.  

If your water is relatively soft, do not worry, you will be fine. If you have hard water like I do, there are several things you can do.

1. Install an ion exchange water softener that removes the calcium, magnesium and iron and recharges with sodium or potassium chloride. i have very hard water and use a water softener to soften my water. Although expensive, this is better for clothes washing and bathing and protects your shower, tuib, washer, sink, piping, etc.

2. Use some type of purified water. Thus can be water distilled by distillation, reverse osmosis, or ion exchange. I have a reverse osmosis unit that provides my drinking water.
A lot of bottled waters today contain tap water purified by reverse osmosis. Distilled water is inexpensive.

3. Add a chelating agent to remove the hard water ions from solution. A chelating agent works by reacting with the hard water ions and precipitating them out of solution before they have a chance to react with the soap. The most common chelating agent is EDTA. Another is citric acid which is found in lemon juice, but can be found in powered form in the canning section of your local grocery store. Some shaving soaps have one of these chelating agents added to make them more hard water friendly. You can also add a pinch of citric acid or a few drops of lemon juice to the water you are using for lathering.

If you find hard water to be an issue, any of these solutions can work, but the least expensive solution may be to keep a bottle of distilled water near your sink to use for lathering. A gallon of distilled water costs less than $1.00 and should last six months or longer.

Otium. It is necessary to try.
Magical soap ... for magical people 

I’ve read a lot about how good the products at Grooming Dept. is, website looks to be out of everything. Where’s the best place to purchase if it’s not the website? Thanks.


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WCS for one

Thank you


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Thank you


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They sell quickly.

I'm getting low on my GD Preshave

It might be my most indispensable shaving product, hopefully we get a restock soon.

I'm getting low on my GD Preshave

It might be my most indispensable shaving product, hopefully we get a restock soon.

I hope so as well..
I've been using mine more often lately. 
At first, I treated it as if it was a soap performance enhancer, and didn't really notice much of a difference, so I stopped using it for a while. 
After picking it back up again, I've come to realize that it's a fantastic product for protecting and nourishing the skin. 
When I do use it, the post shave effects are significantly noticeable. 
I may get the odd weeper without it, and my skin doesn't feel as.......TLC'd. When using it, my skin feels much better after the shave. 
Great product!