Organic Shaving Soaps
As with all things Dr. Bronner’s, there is versatility and choice in shaving with our products. The simplest choice is to go with Dr. Bronner’s Organic Shaving Soaps. In the timescale of how long the Bronner family has been making soaps, these are relative newbies. Ingredient-wise, the shaving soaps are closely related to Organic Pump Soaps. Their high concentration of Shikakai powder makes them effective yet mild and nourishing, as well as giving them a distinctive dark golden brown color. The shaving soaps lather to a very creamy foam that shaves closely.
Now let’s take things up a notch with Dr. Bronner’s Organic Coconut Oil. Let me just say that I love this stuff. If you need a particularly close shave or if your skin is super dry or your hair is super coarse or if you need to shave more than your norm, coconut oil is the key for not stripping your skin. Unless you like that scaly, ashy, razor-burn dappled not quite fully shaved look.
A few minutes before shaving, massage a thin amount of pure coconut oil on to the areas to be shaved. Now here’s a fork in the road: you might be able to shave straight from this point with just the coconut oil for lubrication and a wet razor, or else you can wash this off and proceed with the shave gel. If you can get by with just the coconut oil, go with that and celebrate the simplicity of it. Otherwise, use your regular soap (hopefully Dr. B’s) to wash this off and then lather up some Shaving Soap (or see below).
Coconut Oil Post-treatment
If you didn’t put the coconut oil on before shaving, you can still enjoy its fabulous feel afterwards. Personally, I usually stumble directly from my bed into the shower (with a very brief stop by the closet) and the idea of taking a moment to apply coconut oil just seems like an insurmountable hurdle. So, I often end up going this route. A little coconut oil massaged in afterwards, especially when the skin is still slightly damp, gives a long-lasting smoothness and softness. For me, it seems to make my shave last longer.
Castile and Sugar Soaps
Honestly, all too often, I don’t have the Shaving Soap at home. Yes, I know. My family runs the company, but still, the cobbler’s children are unshod. So, I combine the coconut oil application with one of the other Dr. Bronner’s soaps. In order of increasingly better shavability, I go with the Castile Liquid, the Castile Bar, or, the best of these three, the Organic Sugar Soaps. Lather them up really well and apply to warm, wet skin to shave.
Let’s look at the benefits here, besides the excellently close shave. These products are all very understandable to our minds as well as to our bodies. Our bodies will be able to deal with whatever they may absorb from any of these products. The ingredients are botanicals, and our bodies speak Botanical. Our bodies don’t speak Triethanolamine or Polyethelene Glycol or Isobutane (common conventional shaving cream ingredients). Also, you do not need to beware of the scents of Dr. B’s; if any scent is added (which it is in all of the above except the coconut oil and the Unscented Baby varieties), it is from pure essential oils. The ingredient “Fragrance” is not your friend.
So go forth, and be shorn, my friend.