Disclaimer: I do know Martin, who owns part of Kapitän Ohlsen, personally and got a sample of this product to take a look at for free.

Kapitän Ohlsen might be best known among outdoorsy people for their Finn Grease (Flossenfett) hand cream aimed at climbers specifically. However they do carry other products for the same audience as well: Think chalk.

So when Martin gave me a block of shaving gel (at the crag of course) to check out I had two thoughts: Is this a hint that I might need a shave? And: Let’s see if this very specific product makes sense for a guy like me.

Even though I am not much of a shaver (more of an unkept three to ten day facial hair person) I did give it a try. The short version is: It does what it is supposed to do and I am not the best person to evaluate if it does it better than other products. However the other features (locally sourced etc.) give it a leg up over the competition. The only additional thing to note is that quite a bit of water is necessary to make it foam up nicely and not gunk up a classic wet shaver.

I am a fan of solid soap that is made from natural ingredients because of its usefulness while traveling: No problems with liquids in planes, little space and weight in a pack or the van and no bad consciousness when flushing it down a drain. The same advantages are true with this product - with the caveat that you must be a user who actually needs a specific shaving gel.

If you are interested the products can be found on their website and in many climbing gyms in Germany.