And does it work? This was today's shave:
Williams Mug Shaving Soap
a small Delong boar brush, made in China, bought online
no pre-shave oil or lotion
hard El Paso water
Weishi razor, made in China, bought online
Merkur blade, made in Germany, bought online
In other words, an all-American shave.
I managed to create a nice, slick lather with the Williams, which doesn't happen every time (last time I impatiently added too much water). Still, if you've been reading this blog (and the wetshaving boards), you'll know that I had all the odds against me in creating a good lather today: a soap instead of a cream (and not a luxury soap, either), boar brush instead of badger, and hard water. And yet it worked.
I still recommend the Weishi razor. I used, this afternoon, a new Merkur blade. The Merkur blades aren't as low-cost as some -- I have and could have used Personnas -- but I recently spent a week shaving with Personnas in one of my Super Speeds, and the Weishi characteristics make it very similar to the Super Speeds I use, so I think the results would have been similar. Even there, DE blades aren't expensive, anyway.
First pass was nice and smooth, no cutting, no nicking, no scarring. No irritation. I wasn't pleased with how long or how well the Williams lather lasted, so I added a touch of Kiss My Face mint cream to the lather (you'll recall, I hope, that I did recommend the Kiss My Face creams in the previous post. Less than five bucks a tube, and good stuff). I rewet my face, but not the brush, and I didn't add water to the lathering mug. It whipped up nicely with the remains of the Williams lather and I applied it to my face for the second pass. This one also went well, and I left the shave at that, as it's Saturday and I like to give my neck a break.
Rinsed everything, including my face. Slid an ice cube all over my face and neck, and then, since I'm doing a theme of all-American and budget-conscious, I selected Aqua Velva for my aftershave. Bit of a sting here and there, so okay, there was some slight bit of irritation, but basically it was nicely bracing and felt great.
Evaluation: I shaved with low-budget ingredients. No luxury touches. Two passes in about ten minutes.
Some guys like the aroma of the Williams, and I'm one of them. I wish it lathered a bit easier and lasted a bit longer, but that's partly a matter of the hard water and the boar brush. It does its job, and for a buck a puck (97 cents at Wal-Mart, $1.19 at a local grocery store) it does so in acceptably low-cost fashion.
I'd say the same for the Delong brush: although there are boar brushes I like better, and I prefer badger, it did its job.
Game MVP status probably goes to the Kiss My Face mint.
I like the Weishi, and I like the Merkur blades, and I've now used the Merkurs in the Weishi. Satisfied there, too.
The acid test, in one sense (after I saw that the lather had lasted) was the Aqua Velva. I actually forgot to splash on my usual witch hazel this time, so I went straight from the ice cubes to the Aqua Velva. No screeching pain from applying alcohol to freshly-shaved neck. No baboon-ass redness. No worries.
So a low-cost safety razor was used to shave a tough beard through a lather created with low-cost soap and a low-cost brush, and the shave was good.
I'd say a beginner could have done about as well as I did, with some caveats: patience in creating the lather, for one, would have been needed. Or the beginner could have used a water softener, or moved out of a hard water area. Or just cut immediately to use of the cream, and forget about the soap. But I convinced myself, with little trouble and no pain or irritation, and no rationalizations, that these are good products, that they work well together, and that, therefore, that my recommendations are sound: wetshaving on a budget is indeed possible.