I've been shaving my head for 4-5 years now. Early on, I settled on using a foaming gel by "edge". Since I use an electric razor for my face, I don't have much experience in shaving creams, but this worked pretty well for me.
One annoying bit is traveling with shaving cream. Obviously, it's way cheaper to buy the larger cans - but you're not allowed to take 7oz containers on an airplane. This means also buying a supply of smaller (under 3oz) cans to take on the road. Somewhat annoying is that those cans take up significant space in the 1 quart clear baggies you're allowed to take through security. But most importantly is that you can't see how much product remains in the can!
I was in Boulder early this week for a couple days for work, and when I went to shave one morning I found the travel can only had a single squirt left... Not nearly enough to shave with. Ugh!
I could just go "fuzzy" for the rest of the trip, but that wasn't ideal. So I immediately searched online for shaving cream alternatives. There are some downright silly suggestions (peanut butter!!), but near the top of the list is hair conditioner. I obviously don't travel with this stuff, but the Hampton Inn provides little tubes of Neutrogena products - lotion, shampoo and conditioner. So why not try it?
I was pleasantly surprised! Maybe even amazed at the results. Here's my summary:
1) It doesn't foam up like traditional creams and foaming gels. This was a little disconcerting at first, but I'm happy I pushed through. By the end of the 4-5 minutes it takes to shave, it was difficult to see any conditioner on my head at all. The only real issue here is tracking areas that you've already hit or not. But in a well lit bathroom, it's easy enough to see the stubble (although, maybe an issue for light skinned folks with light hair). The lack of foam actually seems like a positive since there aren't huge gobs of foam all over the razor.
2) You need remarkably little. To comfortably foam up my whole head, it would take a silver-dollar sized blob of gel in my palm to cover everything. With the conditioner, I used something close to a nickel-sized blob. Significantly less.
3) The razor rinses more cleanly. Conditioner is a greasy substance - at least it feels that way to my hands. Rinsing the blade between passes was very satisfying since pretty much all you see in the sink is hair stubble rather than lots of foam. I'd usually have to rinse the blade with a hard stream of water along with some banging against the sink to free it up. With the conditioner, rinsing was much faster and required far less sink banging.
4) After-feel is also very good. My regular gel contains vitamin E and my scalp isn't dry, so I've never noticed a real issue with this. But after shaving and a quick head rinse, my dome felt noticeably soft and smooth. Which means both that the shave was nice and close (even with a blade that wasn't close to new) and my skin felt soft in a healthy way.
I'm impressed. No idea how well this works on a face, for anyone with thicker hair follicles or on other body parts (since I've never shaved my legs!), but for my thin Caucasian hair, I'm really liking this option and may stop buying shaving cream and opt instead for a decent conditioner.
BTW, for aftershave, I highly recommend straight witch hazel. I've tried a couple fancier things made specifically for your head, but witch hazel is very cheap and gives me a nice crisp clean feeling. It travels well with a little 2oz bottle too. Further, before heading out on the town for an evening, a splash of witch hazel freshens you up nicely.
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