Shaving “Down Under” (Not THAT Down Under, New Zealand!)

About every five to seven years I get faced with a shaving conundrum. Specifically, I get the opportunity to live overseas for a six month stint. The question is what, and how much of my shaving den to take?

Previous Solutions

I have been at this long enough to have tried various solutions:

– Use my travel setup for the duration: a cartridge razor (Gilette Fusion) and a brushless shave cream (Acqua di Parma). I know, AdP is rather pricey, but it is the only brushless cream I’ve tried that doesn’t dry out on me and need re-hydrating. Also, since a small amount goes a long way, each tube seemingly lasts forever; hence, its cost/shave is not as crazy as one might think. Cremo isn’t bad and now enjoys much wider availability. Kiehls is on my “to try” list since one can find Kiehl stores throughout Europe and in many international airports.

– Take a six month supply of everything I use/need: scuttle, razor (Feather AS-D2), blades (Personna Med Prep), shave soap (Cella), shave cream (Taconic or Neumann’s), homemade post-shave moisturizer, and aftershave (Burke Ave. 3-in-1 Moisturizer, or Village Barber).

– Go native; just bring my brush, razor, and travel kit and purchase locally available hardware and software. My last overseas stint was to Bologna, Italy; hence, going native was a joy. It was during a previous stint in Bologna that I learned the pleasures of Cella, particularly as the soap half when super-lathering. Long-time Sharpologist readers may recall that my last time in Bologna was cut short by Covid. I did get to try some creams/soaps developed by local barbers (Antica Barberia, Barbieri Italiani) but missed out on the barbershop shave – many Italian creams/soaps were initially developed in a barbershop for their barbers’ exclusive use.

This Trip – Christchurch, New Zealand

I recently arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand for a six month stint. (I know, tough work, but someone has to do it.) My last stint in New Zealand (Auckland) is when I brought a six month supply of everything I would need/use. New Zealand is really far away from, well, everywhere. Australia (which has a very robust artisan shave market), its closest neighbor is a 4 hour flight! Everything not manufactured on island(s) [New Zealand consists primarily of two islands, conveniently named “north” and “south” island, respectively.] has to be shipped in – i.e. not cheap! This is one reason Kiwis (as New Zealanders are affectionately called) are known for their ingenuity. To a Kiwi, if something breaks, and you can’t fix it with No. 8 bailing wire (ubiquitous on farms throughout the country) it probably wasn’t worth having in the first place.

This time around, I will be doing more traveling than in the past. So my first thought was to just use my travel setup for the duration. However, a quick google search informs that there are now a number of locally made shaving creams and soaps – who knew? So, for this trip, my plan is to go native.

Availability

I quickly learned that local availability of specialty items, as in the United States, is challenging. Even though Christchurch is the country’s second largest city, finding non-mass market shaving goods in brick-n-mortar stores wasn’t easy. Local drug stores (or Chemists in Kiwi-speak) stock the usual Gillete/Schick/Nivea assortments. Since Bulldog is now part of the Schick family, their products are also widely available. There is also an Aussie-based chain of mall stores promisingly named The Shave Shack. In addition to the Gillete/Schick lines, they also stock everything Proraso (for when all else fails) along with a shave cream made by Wahl. Yes, Wahl, the folks who bring us hair-clippers also produce a shave cream in Australia for distribution down under. Finally, I discovered that some upscale department stores stock NZ made shave creams.

Before getting to my experiences with my first local shave cream, Triumph & Disaster Old Fashioned Shave Cream, allow me to digress a bit. I am a shave snob; and maybe you are too. I am highly skeptical of any producer who thinks it’s easy to produce a top-quality shave cream/soap. We’ve all been to local farmers’ market stalls with small batch goat’s milk soap and a shave soap too – yah right. I hold the same cynicism for companies that produce a full range of face, hair, beard and body products that also include a shave cream. Triumph & Disaster, an Auckland-based company that has a presence in the UK, Europe and the USA falls into this category: hundreds of products that also includes one shave cream.

T&D’s shave cream’s ingredient list (from their web page): Aqua (Water), Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate, Decyl Glucoside, Cetearyl Alcohol, Cetearyl Glucoside, Glyceryl Stearate, Parfum (Spearmint, Grapefruit, Mint, Peru, Marjoram, Orange & Patchouli), Lanolin, Citric Acid, d-Limonene, Magnesium Aluminum Silicate, Dehydroacetic Acid, Benzyl Alcohol, Linalool, Salicylic Acid, Citral, Benzyl Benzoate. 

T&D claims to be brush-friendly, however, I did not find it so. In my opinion, T&D, like many mass-market shave creams, is a brushless product designed for the cartridge shaver. Sometimes, these products can support the needs for DE shaving and sometimes not. In the case of T&D; good enough for a fine cartridge shave, but not for a DE shave. In particular T&D provided sufficient glide, but insufficient cushioning; just what one needs for cartridge shaving. Finally, T&D’s most outstanding quality was the excellent post-shave feeling – soft, well, moisturized skin – thank you lanolin.

Summing Up

Ok, so my first experiment was not so successful, I still have high hopes. New Zealand is the land of sheep (only 5 million people, but 25 million sheep), and sheep means wool, and wool means lanolin, and lanolin is a great cream/soap ingredient. Lanolin, which has been an important shave cream/soap ingredient for over 2000 years (at least according to Wikipedia) is a great emollient/moisturizer that also protects (forms a non-occlusive barrier on the skin) and aids with razor glide. Wool fat, as in Mitchell’s Wool Fat Shaving soap, is another name for lanolin. So hopefully, I’ll discover some amazing, lanolin-rich shaving creams, soaps and aftershaves.

Stay tuned for my next report!