Member
Utah
About 16 years ago I worked for an industrial water purification company. We set up water purification systems for offices and manufacturing. I lived then and also now live in a part of the country with really hard water (25 Grains per gallon is the average of my tests!)
Hard water has a negative effect on soap, it affects the lather, the glide, slickness and dries it out.
If you have extremely hard water, you know what I'm talking about, perhaps if your water is very hard, you have even seen the dry looking foam (crust) that can float in your sink water with some soaps. But more frequently is the slow build up of deposits on your sink. I'm talking about soap scum. Even soft water has this to some degree. Calcium and magnesium ions react with soap killing it's suds and making your soap all around less awesome.
So, weather you have extremely hard water or not, that lather that sits in your tub of soap is just slowly forming soap scum in your tub. Rinse it out, this will clear out any lather that has started to to form soap scum. Set the tub upside down for a 1/2 or so let the excess water drain out, then cap it up. The gains from doing this are likely not HUGE if you have soft water, but for many every bit counts.
Corporate owned cosmetic companies combat hard water issues by using detergents along with or instead of soap. It's cheaper and frankly it works pretty darn good, but people often have skin issues with detergent they will never be as nourishing or luxurious as true soap. About three years ago when I first started developing my soap formula, I wanted to do something unique. So I pulled from my knowledge of dealing with highly mineralized water to create a soap that actively disrupted the
formulation of soap scum. What happens is a part of one of the ingredients has an even higher affinity to calcium and magnesium ions than does soap, So the majority of these hard water ions are dropped out of the equation leaving the more of the soap to just be soap instead of sud killing scum.
While for the fun of it I've created a "suicide puck" of soap by repeatedly pouring off my bloom water into dish letting it thoroughly dry, between each soap, this is not an ideal situation for soap. Each time the soap gets wet, you are adding more minerals to your soap.
Maybe another day. I'll talk about the TWO big benefits of a traditional water softener for shaving. The first benefit is removing most of the calcium and magnesium, the second huge benefit is less obvious and more interesting.
Let me know if you have had issues with soap scum or hard water and what you've done to deal with it. What soaps work best for you in hard water.
Hard water has a negative effect on soap, it affects the lather, the glide, slickness and dries it out.
If you have extremely hard water, you know what I'm talking about, perhaps if your water is very hard, you have even seen the dry looking foam (crust) that can float in your sink water with some soaps. But more frequently is the slow build up of deposits on your sink. I'm talking about soap scum. Even soft water has this to some degree. Calcium and magnesium ions react with soap killing it's suds and making your soap all around less awesome.
So, weather you have extremely hard water or not, that lather that sits in your tub of soap is just slowly forming soap scum in your tub. Rinse it out, this will clear out any lather that has started to to form soap scum. Set the tub upside down for a 1/2 or so let the excess water drain out, then cap it up. The gains from doing this are likely not HUGE if you have soft water, but for many every bit counts.
Corporate owned cosmetic companies combat hard water issues by using detergents along with or instead of soap. It's cheaper and frankly it works pretty darn good, but people often have skin issues with detergent they will never be as nourishing or luxurious as true soap. About three years ago when I first started developing my soap formula, I wanted to do something unique. So I pulled from my knowledge of dealing with highly mineralized water to create a soap that actively disrupted the
formulation of soap scum. What happens is a part of one of the ingredients has an even higher affinity to calcium and magnesium ions than does soap, So the majority of these hard water ions are dropped out of the equation leaving the more of the soap to just be soap instead of sud killing scum.
While for the fun of it I've created a "suicide puck" of soap by repeatedly pouring off my bloom water into dish letting it thoroughly dry, between each soap, this is not an ideal situation for soap. Each time the soap gets wet, you are adding more minerals to your soap.
Maybe another day. I'll talk about the TWO big benefits of a traditional water softener for shaving. The first benefit is removing most of the calcium and magnesium, the second huge benefit is less obvious and more interesting.
Let me know if you have had issues with soap scum or hard water and what you've done to deal with it. What soaps work best for you in hard water.
The Boston shaves are great but the water softener Vermont shaves are magical. Can’t recommend water softeners enough unless one is moving next door to Celestino. 
