Travel Light, Save Space and Replace Your Shaving Cream with Shaving Oil

… or The Incredible Shrinking Shaving Foam Can

When backpacking, every ounce counts, and – just in case you might want to shave from time to time – that 10 oz shaving foam can is not what you’re looking for. And on overnight business trips, you might want to restrict yourself to hand luggage only, when that same can of shaving foam is just another nuisance making this harder to achieve. Worse still, the severe liquid restrictions that apply at airport security checks might get your can confiscated and see you take off with no can at all. So instead of taking a can, why not travel with shaving oil such as the one from Somersets or the Pacific Shaving Company?

Why It’s Clever and Easy

The airport security example is one from personal experience. When leaving on a business trip, the security people confiscated my shaving cream can. It was almost empty, but as they explained to me, it’s not how much liquid is left inside but the total volume of the container that counts. As a result, I had to shave the next morning using the hotel’s “bath and shower gel” as shaving foam, something that I can’t really recommend. That’s when I decided to switch to shaving oil, at least for travel purposes.

Of course, small travel cans of shaving cream do exist, if you can find them. But a can that’s a 10th of a full size can also gives you a 10th of the number of shaving sessions of a full size can.

So I gave shaving oil a try. Owning a tough beard, I was skeptical, but I have to say that it works surprisingly well. The bottle is about one 20th of the volume and weight of a normal can of shaving cream, but you can still get 90 wet shaving sessions out of it. That’s because you only need four to five drops for a full shave. First you wet your skin, then you apply a few drops of shaving oil, and finally wait for about 30 seconds before you get shaving.

Bottom line: Does it replace my shaving cream? No it doesn’t. Do I use it for traveling? Yes, always!

Summary

Shaving oil replaces shaving cream for razor shaving
Version for pre-electric shave also available
For women as well
About one 20th of the volume and weight of a shaving cream can
No problems with airport security liquid restrictions
Ideal for travel.

Tips

Some manufacturers offer variants, e.g., for tough beards, sensitive skin, women.

Since it's a transparent liquid, there’s no foam hiding everything, making it also useful when you need to see what you’re doing; for instance when you don’t want to shave everything.

When you have a tough beard, it works well as long as you shave daily. When you skip a day, shaving foam is still the better alternative, and this Titan razor with integrated cream reservoir might be your thing.

You might want to check out the latest airport security liquid restrictions before packing!

Where to buy

You can check them out at the websites http://www.somersets.com or http://www.pacificshaving.com, or search the Internet for “shaving oil”.

Approx. price: $7 (May 09).