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Forge & Fade
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East Austin · since 2014

Sharp by habit

Beard oils, shave soaps, clays and balms, mixed in small batches behind a working barbershop on East Cesar Chavez. Made for the chair first, then for your bathroom shelf.

Shop the shaveBuild a kit
  • Chair-tested
  • Plant oils, no fillers
  • Refill, don’t rebuy
Heavyweight safety razor standing on a chequered barbershop floor

No. 01Departments

Pick your chair

Every department

No. 02On the bench

What the barbers reach for

Every one of these is used on paying customers in our own chairs before it goes on sale. Filter by skin type or scent in any department.

No. 03The routine

Three steps. Nine minutes.

The same order our barbers follow in the chair. Do it slowly the first week; by the second it takes less time than a cartridge razor and a can of foam.

  1. 2 min

    Step 01: Prep

    Wash with warm water and the charcoal wash to lift oil and soften the beard. Leave the face damp - a dry face is the start of every bad shave.

  2. 6 min

    Step 02: Shave

    Load the brush for fifteen seconds, build the lather on the face, then let the razor’s weight do the work at thirty degrees. With the grain first; never press.

  3. 1 min

    Step 03: Finish

    Rinse cold to close the skin, press a capful of splash where the blade went, and finish with two pumps of moisturiser if your skin runs dry.

No. 04What’s in the tin

Four ingredients doing the heavy lifting

No. 7 Beard Oil - detail view 2
  1. 1

    Jojoba oil

    Cold-pressed, Sonoran Desert

    The plant oil closest to the skin’s own sebum. Softens wiry growth and stops beard itch without a shine.

    Found inNo. 7 Beard OilBeard Balm

  2. 2

    Bentonite clay

    Volcanic ash clay, Wyoming

    Pulls oil out of pores and off the scalp. In the clay it gives matte grip; in the wash it lifts the day off your face.

    Found inFibre ClayCharcoal Face Wash

  3. 3

    Shea butter

    Unrefined, fair-trade, Ghana

    Gives the shave soap its cushion and the balm its body. Leaves a barrier that keeps razor burn down.

    Found inHard-Milled Shave SoapBeard Balm

  4. 4

    Witch hazel

    Distilled bark, New England

    A natural astringent that tightens and cools after the blade - the sting of old aftershave without the alcohol.

    Found inBay Rum Aftershave Splash

No. 05Refill club

Refill it. Don’t rebuy it.

Every tin, jar and amber bottle we sell can come back to us. Join the refill club and we send a fresh fill on your schedule at 15% off - every four, six or eight weeks - in a paper pouch you decant at home. Skip a month from the email, stop whenever. The packaging you already own stays on the shelf.

Off every refill
15%Off every refill
Weeks, your call
4-8Weeks, your call
Tins thrown out
0Tins thrown out
Ask about refills
A balm tin and a paper refill pouch side by side on the counterRefill club−15%

No. 06Fresh off the bench

New Arrivals

Shop new
The mixing bench behind the barbershop, lined with labelled tins
Fig. 01The mixing bench behind the barbershop, lined with labelled tins

No. 07The back room

A barbershop that started mixing its own

Forge & Fade opened as a two-chair barbershop on East Cesar Chavez in 2014. The shelf behind the chairs held the same imported pomades as every other shop in town, and most of them left a film on the comb by noon.

So we started mixing our own on a hot plate in the back room - first a beard oil, then a balm, then a shave soap that lathered in Austin’s hard water. Customers asked to take them home. Twelve years on there are six chairs, a steel bench, and a shelf that is entirely ours.

There are six chairs out front and a steel bench in the back. Every batch is poured on that bench, then used on paying customers for two weeks before a single tin goes on sale. If the barbers won’t reach for it, it doesn’t ship.

First chair on East Cesar Chavez
2014First chair on East Cesar Chavez
Chairs testing every batch
6Chairs testing every batch
Tins refilled, not thrown out
41kTins refilled, not thrown out
Read our story

No. 08Price board

Chair favourites

  1. 01No. 7 Beard Oil by Forge & FadeNo. 7 Beard OilRated 4.9 out of 5 from 1284 reviews$28
  2. 02Heavyweight Safety Razor by Forge & FadeHeavyweight Safety RazorRated 4.9 out of 5 from 812 reviewsSale price $65
  3. 03The Full Service Kit by Forge & FadeThe Full Service KitRated 4.9 out of 5 from 274 reviewsSale price $145
  4. 04Fibre Clay by Forge & FadeFibre ClayRated 4.8 out of 5 from 736 reviews$24
  5. 05Beard Balm by Forge & FadeBeard BalmRated 4.8 out of 5 from 642 reviews$24

No. 09Customers

Overheard in the chair

TicketNo. 01042
Switched to the heavyweight razor and the bay rum soap last winter. First time in fifteen years my neck hasn’t looked like a crime scene by Wednesday.
Marcus DelgadoRefill club, since 2023
TicketNo. 01359
The fibre clay holds through a ten-hour shift on a job site and still washes out with plain water. I have stopped buying anything else.
Darnell OkaforElectrician, Round Rock
TicketNo. 01676
Bought the kit as a gift for my dad. He now drives across town to get his beard trimmed at their shop.
Elena RuizCustomer since 2021

The back room

Word from the chair

One letter a month: new batches before they sell out, refill reminders you can switch off, and one honest grooming tip from the barbers.

One letter a month. Unsubscribe from any of them.