Thread: Can't Lather...

Originally Posted by KerryWood34

Thats actually exactly what I do. I follow all the steps Ive seen in many lathering instructional videos including mantic's and jockeys' videos. I dont really know what Im doing wrong...

I'm wondering if it the heat...

Can you try an experiment for me? BOIL some water, then soak your brush in the boiling water, and put a bit on your soap. Squeeze 95% of the water out of the brush, and load up the brush really good. Then swirl it on your cheek for 30seconds, if it is thick, then drizzle a tiny tiny bit of boiling hot water into the base of your brush, and keep swirling...

Let me know what happens...

-Chief

The only thing readily available to me is Williams shaving soap, and I have a cheap wal-mart boar bristle (yes, wal-mart has shaving brushes). I don't use much water, just what I take from the shower and what stays on the brush after a quick shake and go from there. If that doesn't work, I find swearing helps.

Originally Posted by Timothy

The only thing readily available to me is Williams shaving soap, and I have a cheap wal-mart boar bristle (yes, wal-mart has shaving brushes). I don't use much water, just what I take from the shower and what stays on the brush after a quick shake and go from there. If that doesn't work, I find swearing helps.

Well, check out this link and you can get some very good lather for not a lot of money. The Arko shave stick in particular, but the creams are also good. The shave stick doesn't have to be used for face lathering, use a little spatula or the fingernail cleaner on your clippers to shave a few strands of the soap into a bowl and lather up.

Originally Posted by Timothy

yes, wal-mart has shaving brushes

Yes, I saw that last time I was there. A step in the right direction I think, but if Wally world ever starts selling straights they will probably be the ones on the don't buy list, haha. I almost bought the set just for the bowl and to try the soap, but I could'nt pony up the dough at the time. how is the soap?

(sorry, I promise I'm done hijacking)

Originally Posted by papaface29

I almost bought the set just for the bowl and to try the soap, but I could'nt pony up the dough at the time. how is the soap?

I don't remember the name, but the one that I saw at megalomart had a bowl that was dark blue on the outside and sort of lime green on the inside with a matching brush.

If we're talking about the same one, I bought the set when I wore out my previous wal*mart brush because I wanted the bowl.

I'd rate the soap as better than Williams, but not by a big margin.

The brush is set with pretty crumby glue. Get your water too hot, and it just falls apart. Plus, it shed a couple of bristles every shave as it was.

Yeah, the brushes do fall apart, it's more of a cheap gift item I think. The Wal Mart soap is OK when they have it. Better than nothing I guess. I have some better stuff on the way. And a better brush. I think using crap makes you better with the good stuff.

Thanks for all the advice! Its helped.

I just received my tabac shaving cream and tested its lathering power lol. I didnt shave (will do that tonight), just the lather test. I found out something interesting. The initial advice I received about using a really damp brush and using a bowl to make lather that way didnot really create a creamy lather. however, when the brush was wet and then squeezed to let a lot of water out the drier brush and the cream made an impressively creamy lather and it smells so good. lol

Is this how it normally goes?

wetter brush for soap
drier brush for cream ?

KWood34

Originally Posted by KerryWood34

lol

Is this how it normally goes?

wetter brush for soap
drier brush for cream ?

KWood34

Ok, when does a sponge absorb more water: dry or wet?

Answer: dry. This is why it is easier to load a brush with a soap that is not drenched in water. You want the brush moist but not drenched in water. Also, for milled soaps that are typically harder, adding a bit of water to the soap helps. This is not necessary but it helps some people. This way, you make the soap softer and therefore, easier to be picked up by the brush. The other way around: dry soap and drenched brush, could be problematic, although not always.

After that, building lather lather should be the same for soaps or creams. You should progressively add water until you reach a point where no more lather can be built regardless of how much swirling you do, this is the peak of the soap. The "peak" is an intrinsic property of each soap/cream. Some soaps/creams are very robust (very insensitive to how much water you add, sort of; glycerin based soaps can be like that), other are a bit more "finicky" with the amount of water that they take and they may require a bit of experimentation. Usually soaps/creams that are very robust are not the best performers because the robustness is obtained at the expense of the performance (this is in general).

Finally, when you reach the peak of the soap, the lather has to be hydrated. PLEASE! do not add water like a madman here ;-), a couple of drops is usually sufficient. If you are lathering on a bowl, you can see big air bubbles mixed in with your lather when you reach this point.

Properly hydrated lather helps in several ways: 1) it ensures that the concentration of chemicals in the soap/cream is correct; drier lathers can irritate your skin because of the chemicals in the soap/cream are at a higher than optimal concentration; 2) it provides a slight excess of water, which contributes to soften your whiskers; and 3) very related to 2, has the optimal glide for the soap, which prevent your razor from skipping and nicking yourself. So, if you experience any of the above problems, you may want to work on your lathering technique. Please note that the cushion of the lather, which is the other important aspect of the lather during a shave, is less sensitive to whether the lather is hydrated or not. If you go overboard in the hydration step, you see beautiful lather that vanishes into thin air when you apply it to the face, this is very common.

I focused on aspects directly related to shaving but lather from good soap/cream should go beyond that as there is a lot more to a shave than merely removing hair.

Al raz.

Originally Posted by Alraz

Ok, when does a sponge absorb more water: dry or wet?

Answer: dry. This is why it is easier to load a brush with a soap that is not drenched in water. You want the brush moist but not drenched in water. Also, for milled soaps that are typically harder, adding a bit of water to the soap helps. This is not necessary but it helps some people. This way, you make the soap softer and therefore, easier to be picked up by the brush. The other way around: dry soap and drenched brush, could be problematic, although not always.

After that, building lather lather should be the same for soaps or creams. You should progressively add water until you reach a point where no more lather can be built regardless of how much swirling you do, this is the peak of the soap. The "peak" is an intrinsic property of each soap/cream. Some soaps/creams are very robust (very insensitive to how much water you add, sort of; glycerin based soaps can be like that), other are a bit more "finicky" with the amount of water that they take and they may require a bit of experimentation. Usually soaps/creams that are very robust are not the best performers because the robustness is obtained at the expense of the performance (this is in general).

Finally, when you reach the peak of the soap, the lather has to be hydrated. PLEASE! do not add water like a madman here ;-), a couple of drops is usually sufficient. If you are lathering on a bowl, you can see big air bubbles mixed in with your lather when you reach this point.

Properly hydrated lather helps in several ways: 1) it ensures that the concentration of chemicals in the soap/cream is correct; drier lathers can irritate your skin because of the chemicals in the soap/cream are at a higher than optimal concentration; 2) it provides a slight excess of water, which contributes to soften your whiskers; and 3) very related to 2, has the optimal glide for the soap, which prevent your razor from skipping and nicking yourself. So, if you experience any of the above problems, you may want to work on your lathering technique. Please note that the cushion of the lather, which is the other important aspect of the lather during a shave, is less sensitive to whether the lather is hydrated or not. If you go overboard in the hydration step, you see beautiful lather that vanishes into thin air when you apply it to the face, this is very common.

I focused on aspects directly related to shaving but lather from good soap/cream should go beyond that as there is a lot more to a shave than merely removing hair.

Al raz.

Thanks for the advice, but I find the opposite of what you said to be true. I begin my SOAP lather by leaving the brush in hot water for a couple of minutes pumping it in the water to be able to get it to absorb water into the middle part of the brush. Then I take it out of the water and let it drip until it only drips about 1 or 2 drops of water at a time. Then I just load it up in my soap also using a pumping motion (pushing brush up and down on the soap) to get some soap to soak into the middle of the brush. I then proceed to make lather in a bowl and it comes out nice and creamy and thick in less than a minute using this method.

My point was that this method only seems to work with soaps. With my Tabac shaving CREAM it work better when I do the same steps as above but instead of letting the brush drip on its own I give it a few hard squeezes and it is barely damp and then proceed to make lather. I was simply asking if this is the way it normally goes with soaps and creams.

KWood34