Thread: How to use soap?

Hello Everyone,

I have been shaving with a straight since January to some very satisfying results. I have been using tub creams until today. I got some TGQ shaving soap this weekend and decided to give it a spin. I put it in my "shaving bowl" (8oz Tupperware container) and filled it with hot water and my brush to soak during a shower. When I got around to soaping up I had a tough time with it. The bar kept sliding around and it took a long while to get a good foam. When it was all said and done it did produce a VERY good shave so I am not complaining. I am just curious what procedures people use? Do you soak it? Do you rinse out the mug after you are all done? Does your soap dance around? Do you find that you need more water for soap than you do for cream? Thank you very much.

Originally Posted by yawdeuce

Hello Everyone,

I have been shaving with a straight since January to some very satisfying results. I have been using tub creams until today. I got some TGQ shaving soap this weekend and decided to give it a spin. I put it in my "shaving bowl" (8oz Tupperware container) and filled it with hot water and my brush to soak during a shower. When I got around to soaping up I had a tough time with it. The bar kept sliding around and it took a long while to get a good foam. When it was all said and done it did produce a VERY good shave so I am not complaining. I am just curious what procedures people use? Do you soak it? Do you rinse out the mug after you are all done? Does your soap dance around? Do you find that you need more water for soap than you do for cream? Thank you very much.

The TGQ soap is a cold pour soap and should not be soaked as it melts very quickly vs the triple mill traditional hard english soaps (which also do not need soaking if you start with enough water in your brush).

I put my soaps in small no name branded tupperware like containers but they are small enough that the soaps wedges in place and pretty much stays put.

Soak your brush during the shower, not your soap..... let it drain by itself and then maybe one light flick of the wrist to remove a little bit more water but you do want the brush good and wet, it takes more water to use soaps than creams.

I don't rinse my soap after I'm done, I just leave the lid off and let it dry... why waste soap you've not used yet?!?! I do rinse out my brush very well after shaving.

As mentioned above, my containers are small enough to avoid having to chase the soap around. With the English triple milled soaps, they are shaped to fit the curved bottom of the wooden bowls they also offer, when using them in a flat bottomed bowl, simply invert the soap and let it stick to the bottom when it dries out...

Hope this helps,

Regards

Christian

You can also melt TGQ Soaps witht eh double boiler method. I don't know how that will work with a tupperware container but if you go to walmart and look for sugar bowls you can find some nice ones that it will fit. When I lather my soap this what I do.

First I soak the brush for a bit. This softens it up and allows it to hold more water. Then I pull it out and let it hang in my hand with the bristles down. When the water stops running out I bound it up and down 2 or 3 times gently to get a little more water out. You want it to be moist but not saturated with water. Then I rub the birstles on the soap lightly in a circular motion till I can see the soap on the tips but am not yet building a lather. ThenI use a wooden bowl from Killowatt Kid (thanks again!) to lather in but any low and wide bowl will work especially if it has a little roughness to it. I would encourage you go get a wooden salad bowl or a rough ceramic one. I find this works best. Work it in the bowl untill you get a thick lather. Add a few drops of water at a time until the lather starts to get to the point that touching the brush to it makes the lather that sticks up bend over. I don't know how else to describe this but it will get very dry if you don't have enough water and if you have too much it will be thin so when you touch the brush to the lather and take the brush away it will leave foam that sticks up. I like my lather best when that part no longer stays up rigid when you pull away.

For added lather and lubrication I add 2 or 3 drops of liquid glyscerin and then relather and add some more water. From this I get a very thick and slippery lather that I enjoy alot. Stick with it and it will come to you.

The only thing I would add to Tophers description is to add the "Drops" of hot water to the brush not the bowl, just dribble some at the base of the bristles and keep working the lather...

Keep in mind there are 3 ways to use soap two are described above the other is "on the face" lathering .....

I wet the brush thoroughly then shake out pretty much all the water. Then I swirl the brush on a moistened puck of soap until pasty. I've previously soaked my face with warm/hot water. From there, I simply start swirling the brush on my face to build the lather. This takes a good minute or so. Usually I need to add some water to loosen the lather, so I quickly pass the tips of the brush under slowly running hot water. Continue working the lather and adding water as needed. No muss, no fuss!

Jordan

So people who do not form lather on the face use two bowls? One for the soap and the other to create lather?

Well U can lather on your face or on the palm of your hand. The palm works well because it is rough and flat and can add water easy. Yes I use a bowl just for making a lather. I do this because it is easier to do it there and I can refresh the brush there in the built up lather when it is getting thin. Do you need it? No. But I like the way it works and it makes building a lather easier and faster for me.