6 ms·

Bringing my own shampoo is a hassle, because I buy shampoo in normal-sized many-use bottles that are quite large and might leak. Bringing my own soap is even w

by igf 10y ago

Bringing my own shampoo is a hassle, because I buy shampoo in normal-sized many-use bottles that are quite large and might leak. Bringing my own soap is even worse, because nobody wants to carry around a slimy wet cake of soap. Bringing my own toothpaste is easy, because it's small, and I get the brand whose taste I'm accustomed to. Also, I've got to bring my toothbrush with me anyway, so the toothpaste as well isn't a big problem. Now, shaving cream, on the other hand, is an item that's a bit of a hassle to cart around with me.

DonHopkins 10y ago
Maybe shaving cream isn't standard because in the mid 19th century when the tradition got started, it was traditional for travelers to carry their own beard.
- zdkl 10y ago
  and what a hassle that is!
icebraining 10y ago
Shampoo: get a small bottle. Then just fill it up before travel from your large bottle. Upon returning, return remaining shampoo to large bottle and wash it.
- igf 10y ago
  Oh sure, I could do that. Or I could stay in a normal hotel, where they provide it. (Or if I'm roughing it in the wilderness or something then I probably don't care that much about clean hair.)
  - icebraining 10y ago
    Sorry, my camping days are showing :)
richardfontana 10y ago
Since switching from a cartridge razor to a safety razor a few years ago, I've also switched from using shaving cream to using shaving soap (the use of which seems to go hand in hand with use of safety razors, if only for retro-cultural reasons). While I do not travel with the safety razor because TSA, I do bring the shaving soap (and a boar's hair shaving brush) along with a cartridge razor, in part because it's more convenient (it takes up less space than a travel-sized can of shaving cream). I've found the standard units of Col. Conk shaving soap, e.g. http://www.westcoastshaving.com/Col-Conk-Shaving-Soap-Lime-Small-225-oz_p_34.html http://www.westcoastshaving.com/Col-Conk-Shaving-Soap-Lime-S... to be good for travel. The plastic container the soap is embedded in can be resealed for travel and you don't have the 'slimy wet cake' problem that I have yet to solve for other forms of soap. Shaving soap is also more economical than shaving cream; much less of it is used per shave, and so a single small unit of shaving soap can last for many months.
- silencio 10y ago
  I mentioned this in another thread, but another option is using (hair) conditioner. I can't personally speak to how well it works on faces seeing as how I have no facial hair, but it's my go-to at home for shaving my legs and things. I've even tried body lotion in a pinch, at a hotel that didn't have conditioner unless you asked for it... not the worst. But way better than shaving cream from hotels still, especially when they give you those practically empty plastic packets.
nullc 10y ago
> Bringing my own toothpaste is easy You don't fly anywhere where TSA 'protects' the skies then?
- ghaff 10y ago
  Yes, it's easy. You just buy a travel-sized tube at pretty much any chain drugstore in the US. (Or, as is the case with many people, use the trial sizes your dentist gives you when you're in for a cleaning.)
- igf 10y ago
  I thought toothpaste was fine because it's a paste, not a liquid, gel or aerosol. Unless of course you buy the "gel" type.
  - ghaff 10y ago
    "You are allowed to bring a quart-sized bag of liquids, aerosols, gels, creams and pastes in your carry-on bag and through the checkpoint. " YMMV of course as to how strenuously this is enforced in practice. My observation is that in Europe (at least in the UK) the separate quart baggie taken out of luggage is actually more routinely and more strictly enforced than in the US. And I somewhat doubt that a squeezed down tube of toothpaste in that baggie is typically going to cause an issue. (But in the US, I use travel-sized toothpaste and have TSA Pre so I don't have a lot of recent data.)
- henrikschroder 10y ago
  For most liquid toiletries, it's actually difficult to buy "travel size", i.e. less that 4 fl oz. But for toothpaste, this is a standard size that you normally buy, so it doesn't add much of a burden.
tomjen3 10y ago
By shaving cream do you mean the stuff that comes in a tube? Because I don't think that is such an issue, and the stuff that requires a brush is something that only very few men would use today.

by igf 10y ago

DonHopkins 10y ago

Maybe shaving cream isn't standard because in the mid 19th century when the tradition got started, it was traditional for travelers to carry their own beard.

zdkl 10y ago
and what a hassle that is!

icebraining 10y ago

Shampoo: get a small bottle. Then just fill it up before travel from your large bottle. Upon returning, return remaining shampoo to large bottle and wash it.

igf 10y ago
Oh sure, I could do that. Or I could stay in a normal hotel, where they provide it. (Or if I'm roughing it in the wilderness or something then I probably don't care that much about clean hair.)
- icebraining 10y ago
  Sorry, my camping days are showing :)

richardfontana 10y ago

Since switching from a cartridge razor to a safety razor a few years ago, I've also switched from using shaving cream to using shaving soap (the use of which seems to go hand in hand with use of safety razors, if only for retro-cultural reasons). While I do not travel with the safety razor because TSA, I do bring the shaving soap (and a boar's hair shaving brush) along with a cartridge razor, in part because it's more convenient (it takes up less space than a travel-sized can of shaving cream). I've found the standard units of Col. Conk shaving soap, e.g. http://www.westcoastshaving.com/Col-Conk-Shaving-Soap-Lime-Small-225-oz_p_34.html http://www.westcoastshaving.com/Col-Conk-Shaving-Soap-Lime-S... to be good for travel. The plastic container the soap is embedded in can be resealed for travel and you don't have the 'slimy wet cake' problem that I have yet to solve for other forms of soap. Shaving soap is also more economical than shaving cream; much less of it is used per shave, and so a single small unit of shaving soap can last for many months.

silencio 10y ago
I mentioned this in another thread, but another option is using (hair) conditioner. I can't personally speak to how well it works on faces seeing as how I have no facial hair, but it's my go-to at home for shaving my legs and things. I've even tried body lotion in a pinch, at a hotel that didn't have conditioner unless you asked for it... not the worst. But way better than shaving cream from hotels still, especially when they give you those practically empty plastic packets.

nullc 10y ago

> Bringing my own toothpaste is easy You don't fly anywhere where TSA 'protects' the skies then?

ghaff 10y ago
Yes, it's easy. You just buy a travel-sized tube at pretty much any chain drugstore in the US. (Or, as is the case with many people, use the trial sizes your dentist gives you when you're in for a cleaning.)
igf 10y ago
I thought toothpaste was fine because it's a paste, not a liquid, gel or aerosol. Unless of course you buy the "gel" type.
- ghaff 10y ago
  "You are allowed to bring a quart-sized bag of liquids, aerosols, gels, creams and pastes in your carry-on bag and through the checkpoint. " YMMV of course as to how strenuously this is enforced in practice. My observation is that in Europe (at least in the UK) the separate quart baggie taken out of luggage is actually more routinely and more strictly enforced than in the US. And I somewhat doubt that a squeezed down tube of toothpaste in that baggie is typically going to cause an issue. (But in the US, I use travel-sized toothpaste and have TSA Pre so I don't have a lot of recent data.)
henrikschroder 10y ago
For most liquid toiletries, it's actually difficult to buy "travel size", i.e. less that 4 fl oz. But for toothpaste, this is a standard size that you normally buy, so it doesn't add much of a burden.

tomjen3 10y ago

By shaving cream do you mean the stuff that comes in a tube? Because I don't think that is such an issue, and the stuff that requires a brush is something that only very few men would use today.