Thread: trouble creating lather

Also research your soaps. Some just won't produce a good lather, particularly big brand ones or farmers market soaps based mostly in olive oil. Learning to lather is best with a reputable artisan soap.

Opusx11 is correct. Check what hard soaps you are using. Some of them just are not going to produce a good quality lather no matter what due to the ingredients. The guys on here that use the pucks on a regular basis can give you several different suggestions one ones to try I am sure. My suggestion, just like I stated before in the previous post, is to go to a cream for right now and keep working on trying to build the lather with a puck if you like and you will eventually get it down pat I am sure. My first success with building lather on a puck was when I got the Mitchells Wool Fat. It did take me longer than the creams I was using of course, but I did get the Mitchells to lather up good and got a good quality shave out of it. Good stuff. I still lean towards the creams more than I do the pucks but that is a matter of just personal preference. Good luck and enjoy the journey...............

Suggestion. I've found that the bowl/scuttle that you use to make the latter is 75% of the battle. I switch to using a Suribachi daily for lather. Find that it works with all types of soaps.

One issue that you brought up was the lather drying out mid shave and needing to be re-applied. This is not uncommon while learning to make a quality lather and how to use the razor. You may want to try just lathering one side of your beard, finishing that side up and then lathering the other side. When the lather dries out it can irritate the skin (how much it irritates would depend on your skin and the soap being used).

You have received a lot of sound advice above, good luck and let us know how things progress.

Matt

Thanks everyone for the great feedback. I will post back with some results after i try some ideas out.

One hard water trick that has helped is to save the soaking water from your puck in a spare cup/bowl. After you load the brush - add a small amount (like 1/4 to 1/2 a teaspoon) of the reserved soaking water to your scuttle at a time as you build up. The soap infused water seems to make the build up easier.

And if your puck is very hard you can grate it and pack it back in layers. This may make loading easier for you.

It's not like learning how to shave with a straight razor is not a challenge to begins with, there is all this other stuff - making lather, stropping, daily care of the blade and brush etc.

But it comes together before you know it...

Smooth shaving...