This is the third and final installment of my six month experiment of shaving in the wild in New Zealand (post 1 and post 2). Briefly, my work periodically allows me the opportunity to live overseas for six month stints. For this most recent experience I lived in Christchurch, New Zealand. My shaving experiment was to explore the local shaving software scene – shaving supplies that can be purchased locally off the shelf, with a primary focus on shaving cream/soaps.
Motivation
One motivation for this experiment was the observation that Amazon does not operate in New Zealand. (Technically, this is not true since one can place orders through Amazon-Australia; but this is limited to large orders only.) Yes, there are shipping services which operate in NZ, but unless you are shipping from somewhere in NZ, the cost is prohibitive. So, essentially, someone in my shoes either “shaves native” –use what is either produced in-country, shipped in-country from an online retailer, found on a brick-n-mortar shelf–or brings a six month supply of shaving hardware and software with them.
A side note: For the purpose of this experiment, I limited myself to products I could not easily get back home (Ohio). Just in case you decide to travel to NZ, know that one can easily pick up all kinds of mass market shave goods, including everything Proraso, Gillete/Schick/Nivea assortments (which now includes Bulldog), and the three T’s (Trumper, Truefitt & Hill, and Taylor of Old Bond Street).
New Zealand is arguably one of the most beautiful places on Earth; a south-Pacific island with glaciers, spectacular mountain ranges, white and black sand beaches and an uncountable number of waterfalls. Hence, after my work obligation concluded, my wife and I loaded up our rental car and hit the road for six weeks of travel to spend time in as many of NZ’s national parks as possible.
Except for one small side trip to visit friends in Auckland, this travel did not involve airplanes. Hence, I was not limited to my typical air-travel shave kit when not checking a bag: cartridge razor coupled with hand-latherable shaving cream. Alternatively, I did not wish to schlep around my full shave kit. You would be surprised at how small some of the bathroom sinks and counters we encountered in the rustic air B&Bs that are in and around NZ national parks. Finding room for two (electric) toothbrushes was hard enough let alone space for a shaving set up.
In the end I settled on my DE razor (Feather A2) and a brush, both of which traveled in their own travel cases. As my previous two installments describe, I also, more or less, exhausted all the local shave cream/soap options. That left me with one final option: Wahl shaving cream.
Wahl?
I know what you’re thinking, Wahl? The US-based electric trimmer manufacturer? Locally produced shave cream? Well, the answer to all of these questions is yes. Wahl started in 1919 in Sterling, Illinois, in the USA. Unknown to me (you?) Wahl produces a shave cream in Australia which is sold throughout Oceania in an Australian-NZ chain of mall stores called “the Shaver Shop.”
Before picking up a tub, I did what I call shaver’s due diligence: scour the interwebs for reliable reviews. Not surprisingly, this product has not been reviewed on Sharpologist. Sadly, I did not find any meaningful insight. I did discover that Wahl does produce a tube-based shaving cream available for the North American market. However, a quick comparison of ingredients revealed that the Wahl’s tub-based shaving cream available through my local Shaver Shop to be a different beast than what one can get in North America – a product labeled “Shave My Beard”
Ingredient list from the Web: Water, Stearic Acid, Sodium Lauryl Sulphate, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil Sodium Stearate, Glycine Soja (Soybean) Oil, Glycerine, Cyclomethicone, Disodium Cocoamphodiacetate, Methyl Paraben(And)Ethyl Paraben(And)Propyl Paraben(And)Butyl Paraben, Fragrance.
Ok, I guess it was time to fly blind and be the guinea pig.
Before I get to a more formal review of the product, let me elaborate on what I was looking for? First and foremost I was hoping for a good enough, not necessarily great, but a good enough shave experience. As for lather production, I was shooting for a brush-friendly cream that I could face (or hand) lather; I did not pack my lathering bowl. By brush-friendly, I was hoping to justify taking my brush along. I wanted a cream that doesn’t necessarily require a brush (which would be fine), but would provide a superior lather when using a brush over just using my hands.
The Shaves
So how did Wahl’s shave cream perform?
Similar to Henry Ford’s Model T, which was available in any color you might want as long as it was black, the shave cream was available in only one scent: unscented. In this case, unscented had a vaguely medicinal scent, with strong hints of eucalyptus. The scent reminded me of Noxema’s long out of production blue tub-based shave cream. Sadly, the cream’s performance fell shy of what I remember from Noxema. Then again, Noxema became unavailable over 30 years ago, so maybe I have romanticized its performance.
Lather production: My first hint that this might be a brush-friendly cream were the directions on the tub itself; the directions were brush-based. Some cream instructions are brush-based, some indicate that they are brush-friendly, while others make no mention of brushes. Since I did not want to water down the cream in the tub, I used my finger to place a small gob on my hydrated brush and proceeded to face lather. Lather production was quick and voluminous. So far so good.
As an aside I also took this cream when I flew to Auckland and used it to cartridge shave without a brush. Face lathering with my hand produced a cream that was more than adequate for cartridge shaving; a lather that focuses on glide over cushioning. However, like most lathers that are hand produced, I did need to rehydrate for areas that I get to late in my shave – a problem I did not encounter when using a well hydrated brush. Maybe such creams should be labeled as “hand-friendly.” (Then again, maybe there is a better phrase for this.)
So how were my shaves when using my DE razor (Feather A2 with Parker blades) and a brush-produced lather? As I observed above, the lather seemingly emphasizes glide over cushion? Would there be sufficient cushion for a 2-pass DE shave? In my experience, the answer was yes, but just barely.
What this translated to was a slower shave since I needed to be a bit more careful. Many of the top quality shave creams are very forgiving when the shaver` momentarily loses focus; this Wahl shave cream is not one of those. However, by going slow, and staying focused, I did achieve a fine shave.
Post shave feeling was acceptable; my face did not feel dried out, but also it did not feel fully moisturized. A follow-up balm was all I needed.
Summing Up
Was the Wahl shave cream good enough to fill my suitcase and bring home a lifetime supply? No. Would it replace my usual travel shave cream (Cremo or Pacific Shaving – when I need a new tube, I just pick up whichever I see first), No. Did I go through the trouble of bringing home what was unused in the tub? Yes – I will happily use this for travel until it runs out.
Sadly, this latest six month sojourn in the Land of the Long White Cloud (the translation of the Maori name for New Zealand) has come to an end. I left the land of beaches and waterfalls during the middle of summer to return to a snow covered Ohio.
