Thread: A Lather Observation

The other night I made my lather as usual. Applied it to my face. Grabbed a straight razor (beautiful Udahl - thanks again Al). Took razor to face and... SCREEECH!!!! Hmmm, something was amiss. The razor did NOT want to move along my face. I altered the angle of attack and tried again. No go. Stuck like I was coated in honey. I thought to myself, 'self, you're probably doing this all wrong. Maybe you should go back, rewatch some videos and try again another day. Before you hurt yourself.' Great idea. I'm rather fond of my face covered in skin and my neck on my head. I grabbed my DE and about halfway through the first pass it hit me. I figured it out.

See, I don't always make my lather super wet. I don't need to. My DE brings some water to the party and I hadn't noticed, but I'd been using that in my equation for a proper lather. Interesting.

Fast foward to tonight and... problem solved. Extra water in my lather and viola! Nice first pass. Still awkward for me, but I'm getting better. It's only been a week on and off. The hardest things for me are seeing what I'm doing and knowing where the heel of the razor is so I don't hack my goatee off and cry like a little child.

All that is my long-winded way of saying... I learned something tonight. Something valuable. Don't be afraid to learn. Don't be afraid to hydrate.

Keep it classy, SRP.

Sage advice. My first lather was somewhat dry, and halfway through my shave I was watching tiny patches of lather flake off my face like baby powder. A little more water and all was well

Just don't hydrate your razor!

Agreed, and I'd like to share the results of a recent experiment.

I've been whipping up cream the same way for the last six years; soak the brush in the mug for a minute, pull it out, let it drain, then return it to the mug and whip it up until it was thick.

Well, recently, I realized that I didn't need nearly that much soap in the brush (as evidenced by the globs and globs that came out when rinsing the bristles). So, I figured I'd try picking up a little bit of soap and then infusing with the water already present in the brush. So, I'll soak, drain and then do about 12-15 rounds with the tip of the brush on the soap puck, picking up soap. then slightly pick up the brush so that bristles are no longer touching the soap, turn the mug 45 degrees, and whip up a cream just on the sides of the mug. In other words, lots of water, little bit of soap, and whip it up. I do this until the cream produced is thick enough so that it will not run out if the mug is inverted. This way I get a think, yet sopping wet cream that makes the blade glide, but stays on the face. Anyway, I feel it is an improvement on what I used to do.
And this is using cheap Williams, btw.

I've found that the amount of cream needed will vary by maker. Some I can get away with hardly anything while some require quite a bit more. On the whole almond end of things.