The Biology of shaving, Part 4 of 4
4. Bringing It All Together.
Soap has an interesting story to tell. That bar in the shower or tub? It’s not soap; it’s a detergent. How did that happen? World War II.
A by-product in the production of soap is glycerin, which is a key ingredient in nitroglycerin, a very effective explosive. Prior to World War II soap with glycerin was about the only cleansing agent you could find for domestic use, but the war effort consumed practically all the glycerin made in soap production. And because soap without glycerin is very harsh, soap makers turned to detergents as a substitute for home use. We’ve never gone back.
About the only domestic soap use that remained was shaving soap in the form of bars that had to be vigorously stirred with a brush to produce lather. But shortly after World War II, in 1949, a scientist at MIT developed shaving foam, and shaving soap quickly lost most of its market share. Shaving purists continued to use hard puck shaving soap, but everyone else turned to foam. It was cheap, fast, and easy to use. And if you had kiddos, a lot of fun. And there was one nagging characteristic about soap that helped spur its demise. Soap is harsh and irritating to the skin.
Soap can be categorized in two different ways; made from animal fat or plant oils, and solid or liquid. The solid or liquid characteristic depends on what type of lye is used. For shaving purposes, the objective is the creation of rich lather. That lather comes either from the animal fat (tallow) or from coconut oil. Both sources contribute to harshness, and additional ingredients must be used to reduce the harshness. Note that harshness gets reduced, but not eliminated.
A Radically Different Approach
Not much innovation has taken place in soap making for personal use over the last 100 years. Detergents have largely taken over the personal hygiene market, and rich-lather shaving soaps have settled into a niche with traditionalists. But we changed things.
We focused on creating a shaving soap that delivered mildness, skin nourishment, and lubrication. In the pursuit of those three goals, we ended up having to forego lather. To our surprise we discovered that we didn’t need it after all. And giving up lather allowed us to greatly increase lubricity and mildness. So much so that we’ve completely eliminated the harshness. The skin nourishment part was easy; we just used carefully selected oils based upon their fatty acid content. Giving up lather allowed us to achieve all three goals beyond of our expectations, and it added a completely new dimension to shaving.
When you shave with lather, you’re putting a barrier between your skin and the blade. The whiskers that stick through get cut off. The rich dense lather works best with straight edge and safety razors.
When you shave with Old Post Road Oils Shaving Soap, instead of a lather barrier there is an oily film of soap and water that lays on the skin to protect it and provide superior lubrication. That film provides better protection than a barrier, and works extremely well with cartridge razors, and also with wet electric shavers. Not only is there no harshness, but the formula is highly nourishing and enriching to the skin. The film is so oily that many of our customers believe they're shaving with oil rather than soap.
Innovations in shaving technology over the last 100 years have focused exclusively on blades and electric razors. The achievements have been remarkable. We’ve got great technology to work with,
But nothing happened on the skin side. Until now. Old Post Road Oils Shaving Soap is a game changer. It delivers what it promises – a close, comfortable shave that is simple and satisfying. We believe it is the mildest soap in the world.