Thread: lather machine

Hi, my name is Tim. I am new and just watched Lynn's video last night and just recieved my razor back from him. I am ready to start Saturday. I am using Taylors old bond but was thinking about buying a latherking machine by Campbells but a barber told me it is only for commercial use and would be a waste of money and due to the lack of high volume use, might clog. Any opinons would be helpful.
Tim

Welcom Tim,

While a relative newbee myself, your barber is right. You could buy a whole lot of soap, mugs, etc. for what one of those would set you back.

There is all kinds of advice on this forum on making a nice lather. Might I suggest a visit to Mama Bear's site. http://www.bear-haven.com/ There you can see at least one technique for whipping up a good lather and at the same time see a very nice selection of shaving soaps. Personally, when I order a soap from her I also buy the unscented summer balm and have her add the same fragrance as the soap.

Thanks to you. I will check it out. I know he is right but the hot lather feels so good. Best of luck in your shaving. i am trying for the first time this Saturday. In case I need to be rushed to the hospital. lol.
Tim

There is no reason not to make hot lather yourself in a mug or bowl. I do each morning.

I doubt you'll need to go to ER but I would have a styptic pencil handy. Pretty soon, I'll be needing to buy another one.

You've almost gone through your entire styptic?! That's crazy!

Hot lather isn't hard to do, especially if you can't afford a scuttle. This is my no hassle way of doing it:

Put a bunch of water in my big bowl then pop it in the microwave for a couple minutes. The water becomes extremely hot, but the bowl soaks up alot of the heat.

Carefully take the bowl from the microwave back to wherever you shave at. Carefully pour enough water into a mug to soak your brush (depending on your brush, you may want the water to cool down a bit- I've got a cheapo burma boar, so it doesn't matter to me).

While the brush soaks up the heat and water, pour out almost all the water in the bowl, but leave enough to make lather with.

Remove your brush from hot mug water, wring it out, then apply soap. Whip up lather in bowl and enjoy hot lather for the duration. If you find it getting cold, put hot water in your sink and set the bowl in it. Mine is a heavy ceramic bowl that holds heat like an oven, so I don't usually have to do this.

Bear in mind there's not really one set way to do anything. Once you figure out how to actually make a good lather, experiment with different methods and figure out what you like. It's supposed to be fun, not a chore

We went through this a while back one of the guys bought a campbell, it may have been Joel over at B&B. As I recall he had a lot of problems with it. Personally I think your barber is correct. Do you really need a commercial grade machine when all you need to do is soak the brush and every now and then give it a shot of hot water. You'll also be stuck using their soap which ain't that great compared to the premium soaps out there.

I had one of these for a while and ended up selling it. The lather was always hot, but there was maintenance on it as I didn't use it 10 times every day and had evaporation and bottom line, I didn't like the suds as well as either a nice Tabac cake soap or some of my creams. It was always a thinner lather no matter how much I tried to make it thicker.

Have fun,

Lynn

I agree with many on this subject, Lather machines are meant for barbers doing multiple shaves a day. The main reason they are used is for hygiene because brushes would have to be sterilized after every shave.

I came across one of those Conair hot lather machines at Big Lots yesterday for $5.00. I tried it out this morning hoping it would cut about 5 minutes off of my shave. It didn't really save me any time but it was a plesant change from my shaving soaps and creams. Not better, maybe not even quite as nice but for five bucks, a nice addition to the routine.

Shoot, I enjoy whipping up my own lather too much to get one of these. Swirling that brush around in my mug is one of the highlights of the shave experience.