Distilled water: not the be-all-and-end-all

Hard water at home (well water) no issues soft water in hotels while on business no issues.... I think this is another aspect that is given way too much thought and is past it's prime. Perhaps 10 years ago when there were like 3 makers of shave soap and the soap frankly wasn't that good water may have had an impact. Today's soap is SO well MADE that you could probably get a really good later using Pepsi or battery acid if you so chose....

Side note tried the cold water shaves.... not for me... Hated it with a passion..... to me a warm towel at the end and then aftershave is the way to go.... cold water when it's well below zero out isn't a way I want to start my day..... but I respect those of you that love it.....

Well put steeleshaves . It is amazing how much better things have gotten over the last decade. In the not so distant past everybody raved about MWF or Tabac and other mainstays as there weren't any real alternatives to consider.

Today, the artisans are just as good and very often better than some of the legacy products.

What a difference a day makes.

I have also tried the cold water splash to finish but still not tried CW shave from start to finish. I do get a lot of satisfaction out of starting the day in a scalding shower and then a hot water shave to finish though.

Perhaps this summer I will change my mind with the blistering heat but for now I'll stick to the hot shaves.

Agreed. I also live in an area with hard water and have found no problem lathering even soaps with finicky reputations.

Load [more than you think] and hydrate- pretty easy equation with few variables and you unlock the key to great shaves.

Your experiment across a number of community provided "problem" waters really put this to rest celestino in a scientific way.

Thanks, Kevin, and I may just post my latest results with 'hard' water and Mystic Water soap, here, at some point.

Agreed. I also live in an area with hard water and have found no problem lathering even soaps with finicky reputations.

Load [more than you think] and hydrate- pretty easy equation with few variables and you unlock the key to great shaves.

Your experiment across a number of community provided "problem" waters really put this to rest celestino in a scientific way.

Thanks, Kevin, and I may just post my latest results with 'hard' water and Mystic Water soap, here, at some point.  

I actually think that is both very interesting and perhaps more importantly would help many newer members of the wetshaving community- hope you do celestino !

Thanks, Kevin and I'll see what I can do.

For me the one thing that helped lathering certain soaps was my acquisition of a water softener. Despite many months of practice and adjustments to my technique, this was the only thing that worked for me.

That said, I sent celestino a couple of bottles of my hard water, and (SPOILER ALERT) he reported no difference. Must be a YMMV thing, but to me it has been the only thing that made a massive difference in both feel and performance. Newbies or folks who are having difficulty should take note of both of our comments (if/when Celestino posts his experience) because I suspect that for some an adjustment to technique will make more of a difference than a change in their water, and vice versa. Once Celestino, posts, I'll jump in with my experience and the experience of a friend who has also tried lathering under both types of water conditions (hard and soft).

Calcium, magnesium, the main culprits in hard water, disrupt the ability of soap to act as a surfactant by bonding with the soap. The soap should be bonding with oils in your skin - this is is why your skin feels slicker in soft water. So problem 1 is less lather, but problem two is this bond now forms soap scum which is not great for shaving. But a water softener has a second benefit, not only does it remove positively charged Ions in hard water than tie up the soap, but in the ion exchange process that takes place in your water softer (assuming a salt based softener here) the bi product of the ion exchange is sodium bicarbonate. Now the nice thing about sodium bicarbonate is that it is slippery. So you get a double dose of slippery, So by using a water softener you are potentially getting better water than if you had soft water to begin with.

So I'd argue that there is no doubt that soft water has a benefit over hard water, and properly softened water has a benefit over naturally soft water. But after all that you should be able to get a decent lather out of a good soap even in very hard water. But I can certainly tell a difference when my softener is due for a cycle, So I know that soft water helps.

This info comes from having worked as a business to business water softener salesman 11 years ago. I've also had played around with the idea of making soap for a few years. I maybe a bit cloudy on the details, but the basic information is true.

Here are some links for further research. I didn't have time to read them myself so feel free to correct me where I'm wrong.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_softening
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_water
http://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofs...water-mix/


Remember you heard it here on DFS first!

If special water is needed to lather a soap properly....it's time to find a different soap.

Calcium, magnesium, the main culprits in hard water, disrupt the ability of soap to act as a surfactant by bonding with the soap. The soap should be bonding with oils in your skin - this is is why your skin feels slicker in soft water. So problem 1 is less lather, but problem two is this bond now forms soap scum which is not great for shaving. But a water softener has a second benefit, not only does it remove positively charged Ions in hard water than tie up the soap, but in the ion exchange process that takes place in your water softer (assuming a salt based softener here) the bi product of the ion exchange is sodium bicarbonate. Now the nice thing about sodium bicarbonate is that it is slippery. So you get a double dose of slippery, So by using a water softener you are potentially getting better water than if you had soft water to begin with.

So I'd argue that there is no doubt that soft water has a benefit over hard water, and properly softened water has a benefit over naturally soft water. But after all that you should be able to get a decent lather out of a good soap even in very hard water. But I can certainly tell a difference when my softener is due for a cycle, So I know that soft water helps.

This info comes from having worked as a business to business water softener salesman 11 years ago. I've also had played around with the idea of making soap for a few years. I maybe a bit cloudy on the details, but the basic information is true.

Here are some links for further research. I didn't have time to read them myself so feel free to correct me where I'm wrong.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_softening
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_water
http://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofs...water-mix/


Remember you heard it here on DFS first!

Fascinating post envyshave, thank you very much! I noticed a big difference when I got my water softener. Some soaps which gave me trouble before were no trouble at all after.