Wellness Review: Total Shaving Solution

Stars: 5 out of 5
Pros: Gives a good comfortable shave with little irritation

Cons: Seems to require high humidity to work right

The Bottom Line:

This shaving oil

Gives a comfortable shave

I'm not going back

You'll Never Shave Any Other Way Again

About ten years ago, I started looking at information on shaving.  I was ready to try shaving with a safety razor for a while instead of with my dying electric razor.  Thanks to the magic of Google, I found Total Shaving Solution.  I was intrigued and eventually ordered a bottle.  I haven't even thought about shaving any other way sense.

Total Shaving Solution is a shaving oil.  I had never heard of anything like that before.  According to their website, you can use it before you shave with a traditional razor of an electric razor.  I've never tried it with an electric, but I do like how my face feels when I am done.  They have separate varieties for men and women.  Quite obviously, I have never used the women's, so I will only be speaking about the men's.

The general idea is to use it the same way you would shaving cream, as a lubricant to help you shave.  I had tried using shaving cream, but I found it left my skin dry and irritable.  That's not the case here.  While I still can irritate my skin, I find it much easier most of the time to avoid that.

Because it is an oil, it works best when wet.  In fact, the official instructions tell you to wet your face, put some on, and then wet it again before you start shaving.  If your skin does begin to dry out, rewet it and you are good to go.

I have discovered I like shaving in the shower.  And I tend to like hot showers.  The combination of the two is perfect to use this.  The steam helps my skin soften and this oil stays slick, doing the rest.

And I truly get very little irritation.  I can shave with this stuff six days a week with little to no problem.  With my electric, every other day irritated my skin.  The oil acts as an after shave as well.  In fact, they recommend spreading a couple drops on your face afterward if it gets irritated.

As an oil, it doesn't foam, so you don't have that to guide you as you run the blade over your face.  I had done a little shaving with shaving cream, and I liked having a visual guide to where I had and hadn't shaved.  But I have found that if you actually focus on what you are doing as you shave, you get everything.  And this has an added bonus.  I can shave around my goatee and sideburns without shaving too much or not enough thanks to shaving cream hiding the edges.

For what you get, this stuff is pricey.  A 1.25 oz bottle costs $15.00 (plus 4.33 shipping since this is only available over the web).  Yeah, that's what I said at first, too.  But the site does offer free samples, so I tried one of those.  The sample tubes (which they continue to send you whenever you order) are only good for about two shaves.  But that was enough to convince me.

And when you start using it, you'll see that the price isn't as bad as it appears at first.  They recommend you use two to three drops per shave.  I use three.  Plus, the once or twice a year when I get the urge to shave my head, I'll use three for my head as well.  That's truly all I need.  So I get just about the year they promise out of one bottle.  Now when you figure what you would spend on traditional shaving cream during that year, this really is very economical.

The downside, at least for me, is the times I can't shave in the shower or surrounded by steam.  This stuff really works best with lots of moisture.  When I don't have it, I don't get the lubrication I need.  So if you can't or don't like to shave in the shower, this won't help you.

But I know it does something.  I tried out of curiosity to see what shaving in the shower without this stuff would feel like.  It wasn't a pretty picture.

If you've found a shaving routine that works well for you, great.  Stick with it.  But if you are still trying to find a smooth comfortable shave, check out Total Shaving Solution.