Overrated! or Things that never worked for you that others deem necessary.

In our collective re-discovery of traditional wet shaving, we've doubtless circulated and amplified a number of poorly-substantiated practices, and some outright superstitions. It's on us, we who pay so much attention to this daily task, to sort out what really works versus what is merely unquestioned affectation.

Perfectly stated! Could not agree more!

This is a cool thread. When I started wetshaving/DE shaving at the early age of nineteen, I used my grandpa setup.

Super Speed (still have)
Old Spice puck
Rubberset brush

I used that setup for the longest time. The only thing I switched? The soap, to Williams. Just because I couldn't find Old Spice.

What products or techniques have you found to be highly touted by the community at large that just don't work for you? As a guideline, this would be something that you read about as being mandatory, or necessary for a good shave, by a large percentage of this forum(or any other), yet you yourself find to be unnecessary or simply overrated.

Products and techniques both are welcome here.

Wow,  OK … without naming names …

1. I agree with the pre-shave oils. The ones I tried were just a gooey mess. However, there were two products, NOT oils, that I do use and work for me.

2. Some (not all) “name” soaps/cream, widely used, and considered golden.

You can shave with about anything, but some products are repeated endlessly as if they are written in stone as “MUST BUYS”. Yeah – no.

3. Some (not all) “name”, low end after shave splashes

Ditto. I thought  “meh” about them 40 years ago. Nothing has changed – meh. Yeah – no. It as if a new generation has "discovered" something.

4. “Some” (not all) Shaving Cream Reviews.

Yeah, reviews. And here is why.

1. There is no standard for reviews of creams/soaps so each reviewer can say whatever they want. Since there is no standard, one person’s trash is another’s gold.

    a. There are no objective measures. There is no absolute scale for say “slickness”.

   b. Scent is a personal thing but rarely is “how long the scent remains” reviewed. Yet it would seem that might be something important to many people. This might be part of the lack of any standard.

   c. Some reviewers discuss aftershave feel, other don’t. Again, there is no standard. Yet clearly some shave soaps have much better aftershave feel than others.

2. Some reviewers value packaging as much as slickness. IMO, that’s ridiculous. The package ends in the trash and I cannot even begin to imagine it’s as important as say “slickness” or “glide”. I understand some people collect soaps/creams and that’s fine. Some people collect all kinds of stuff but when evaluating them on the same level of importance as the consumable product, I’ll reject the review on the surface. I’ve found some of the best food in a restaurant at what look like a dive and some of the worst in fancy storefronts.

3. In general, we don’t really know the depth and breath of the reviewer’s experience. For depth, if the most luxurious product a reviewer has tried is say a $25 product, then their depth of experience is not in the same league as another reviewer who has used a $75 product. For breath, if the reviewer has tried 20 different products and another reviewed 200, that magnitude difference is significant. It’s a magnitude in difference.  Depth and breath of experience matters.  

4. The cost of the product is a poor indicator of total cost of ownership. The standard should be cost per shave. If one soap cost $15 and you get 30 shaves from it while another costs $60 and you get 150 shaves from it, then the $60 product is more cost effective. But, rarely do I see this mentioned. Many times people get hung up on initial cost without taking into consideration cost/shave.

5. The lack of discussing refills vs a complete bowl purchase.

Czeake & Speake cost $160. A refill is $32.  
I Coloniali Mango costs about $36.  But a refill?  $19.

And so forth. Why is this never mentioned? Take the refill from C&S and put it in another bowl but please don’t say that C&S cost $160 because it doesn’t. The actual consumable product cost $32 or however many dollars/shave that works out too.

Please do not take that as a criticism of those who review soaps/creams  because its not. Rather,  it is a result that most of these things are subjective, not objective. You can't measure, for example, how many miles per gallon  you get. You can't say you got 30,000 miles from a tire. There are no independent testing places, like Consumer Reports, etc,

grim For what it's worth, discussion of packaging is almost always about the tub, tin, or container the soap itself is in, not the box or whatnot it comes wrapped in. You don't throw the tub away; you use it every time you use the soap! So discussing whether the tub or container is high-quality, wide enough for loading the brush, etc., is perfectly valid, and useful.

Reading this thread made me want to revisit pre-shave oil. Yep, it's still a messy extra step that I don't need.

Great points grim! The comments on reviews are very helpful. I'll try to incorporate or comment on some of these in my own review series. It's always helpful to read posts like this.

I love the feel of that brush on my face; sometimes soft sometimes backbone- that warm water and lather build, face to brush, is where it's at for me personally; I'm not going to let that bowl or scuttle get the satisfaction

High end brushes for me.

What is a high end brush?  

Can let you get away with such a simple statement

My thater for example. It's nice, but not worth the $$$ to me.

It is interesting to me how many who don't like pre-shave oils say it is a mess and, for them, perhaps it is.  I have never found it so.  Could it be that, in some cases, way too much is being applied?  For me, who uses them to start my daily shave, the oil should be light, just the smallest amount should be used to put a thin coating on the beard, and when that is done then just a quick light soap and water wash will clean the hands leaving them ready for the shave.  At least that has been my experience.  I can understand if someone doesn't want to bother with an extra step or has particularly oily skin, etc. but for me a pre-shave oil almost invariably helps smooth out my shave.

It is interesting to me how many who don't like pre-shave oils say it is a mess and, for them, perhaps it is.  I have never found it so.  Could it be that, in some cases, way too much is being applied?  For me, who uses them to start my daily shave, the oil should be light, just the smallest amount should be used to put a thin coating on the beard, and when that is done then just a quick light soap and water wash will clean the hands leaving them ready for the shave.  At least that has been my experience.  I can understand if someone doesn't want to bother with an extra step or has particularly oily skin, etc. but for me a pre-shave oil almost invariably helps smooth out my shave.

Mess was never an issue for me, I just found the difference between with and without to be negligible in terms of closeness and comfort of the shave.

I have to wonder what the ingredients are for these oils that are found to be sticky and overly messy...

I never actually purchased a separate "pre-shave oil". I figured the idea was to soften the beard hair to prep it for shaving, and provide a bit of extra slickness, so I used beard oil, whose purpose was to soften the beard hair, and whose carrier oils are known to be slick...