Lather-working problem

Okay, so I just spent the last HOUR trying to work up a lather, and I can't. I've been working up lathers for the last several months, and now I've moved on to trying a new technique, hailed as the best, and I can't seem to get it to work. I am about ready to throw my TV out a window in frustration. What's going on here?
So previously, what I had always done was taken my brush, gravity-drained, and worked up a lather in the same mug as I kept my soap, which had held the water that my brush soaked in. It always took me about 3 or 4 minutes to work up the lather, in the small mug with a boar brush. But I learned that doing it that way was the reason my soap was disappearing so fast. I was told what I should do, is take a brush that has had as much water removed as I can, swirl it around in the mug with the soap in it, which has had just a little water in it removed prior to putting the brush in, until it starts to pull and I hear an audible difference. I never felt a pull or heard a difference in the audio despite swirling for a good 5 or 6 minutes, but the head looked charged with soap so I proceeded. I was told to put a little water into another mug, and then work up a lather in there. But here's my thing, I tried that 5 times, and each time, I could swirl that brush around for 15 minutes, add just a little extra water as many times as I could, but no matter what, all I could get was suds, instead of lather. It would be suds, with really, really, small bubbles, but suds nonetheless, and remain that way no matter how long I stirred, suds whose lubricating qualities would make canned foam fall down on the floor laughing. The only thing that's changed about my equipment is that I've had to replace my mugs with two small glass bowls becuase my mugs broke yesterday. Now I've wasted an hour of the last day I have to work on a paper, and I haven't learned anything about working up lather. And to add insult to the injury, I even went and tried to work up a lather my old way, and I still couldn't get anything but suds (which did used to happen, albeit maybe 1 in 20 times.)

1) First, go work on your paper
2) Forget the sounds changing, thats really bizaare stuff
3) Lathering is way easy
4) I think you've made a this-then-that correlation between changing bowls and lather that doesn't make sense to me

Try it this way

1) Put warm water into the mug
2) Soak the brush and squeeze that water out
3) Dump the warm water out of the bowl with the soap
4) Rotate the brush briskly in the soap dish
4) Add a little water if need be by dipping your fingers into the sink with your shaving water and then flicking them over the bowl.
5) As you add water eventually the soap with explode into a more lathering product
6) No changes in sound, pitch, harmonics or any other cosmic events

Oh, one more thing for the man that tries to make lather with too much water all the time (that might be you). After you "fail" to make a lather hold the brush bristles up and squeeze the brush with your fingers. A kind of OK symbol with your finger and thumb will work. The water will run out of the brush and the remaining soap will work itself to the top of the bristles.

Then put the brush back into the soap dish and start again.

Don't use two bowls, use only one bowl with soap already in it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AFDavis11

1)
2) Forget the sounds changing, thats really bizaare stuff
...
6) No changes in sound, pitch, harmonics or any other cosmic events

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I must dispute the good Mr. AFDavis counsel: while it may not be a cosmic event, you must be open to tectonic input. When the earth shakes you will know that it has all come together.

:w

I am new to this so by no means an expert, but I find that I can lather fine without seeming to waste soap (I can detect only a very slight depression in the soap cake I have been using daily for 3 weeks). I am using a Col. Conk's almond soap, and the $30 silvertip Chinese brush off eBay.

My method is soak the brush in hot water, leaving the soap dry. Give the brush a single slight shake to get true excess water off, swirl the brush on the soap for 15 seconds or so, then build lather on my face. To re-lather, I just use the brush on my face to build it up again, no extra water soap etc. When I am done shaving, I use a tissue to pat dry the top of the soap. I do have soft water, which makes some sort of difference I'm sure. At least with how I do this, the amount of water on the brush makes all the difference for lather that lasts or doesn't.

So - no advice for your method problem, but perhaps this is another method to try if you are trying to extend soap lifetime.

Too much water...

I will get the tap water as hot as it will go.

Run the brush inder it until it is saturated, then give it a good shake or two to get the excess water out.

Swirl the brush in the bowl to load the brush. Lots of suds means too much water; the load should be thick with little "suds".

Rinse my face with water as hot as I can stand, then take the loaded brush to the face. Generally, this makes for a good lather. If not, I run more hot water over the brush quickly, give it another shake and swirl in the bowl again.

As I move to the 2nd and 3rd (in needed) pass, I will actually scrape the brush on the edge of the bowl to pull the excess lather out of the brush into the bowl (for later use).

Adding a little hot water to the brush is quick and easy, but too much water will kill your lather.

v/r

Allen

Well, I still haven't been able to work up a lather, but I did work up some half-decent suds that lubricated my face enough to shave with. It's probably nothing, but just some food for thought:
I mentioned to both my stepmother, a pathologist with extensive knowledge of chemistry, and one of my teachers, who has a Doctorate in organic chemistry, that my problems started when I switched to glass bowls, whether or not those are the cause of the problem. They both said that there's a distinct possibility that the glass may be causing the problem. My stepmother says that glass does inhibit certain common ions from forming in a way that stoneware doesn't, and my teacher said that microscopic cracks in stoneware help bubbles form more easily, and that those cracks are absent in glass. So I'll get a replacement mug, and see if that makes a difference.

Ive never tried a glass bowl before...who knows maybe that could be the problem, they are incredibly smooth which would be harder to lather in. What type of brush are you using? What shape are the bowls? A short wide container seems to work best for me. Also, what movements are you making? a gentle circular motion, fast back and forth etc. Defiantly try a new mug and get back to us, im very curious to how it turns out. I wish you the best of luck!

If you haven't tried Alans suggestion yet, I would give it a shot. Thats about the way I lather. I've lathered in stonewear, glazed ceremic, wood, plastic, in my hand, and on just a cake of soap. You can make bubbles on any surface, the brush provides the roughness you need, not the bowl.

I would also like to mention that most of us that give advice are probably using a badger brush. A badger brush hold more water and soap and lathers easier. I would suggest you get a badger brush (even a super cheap one Tweezerman $12) and try the technique again. I would also suggest that not ALL the water need be out of your brush when you go at the soap. My soap is often totally dry when i start on it with just the residual water int he brush around. The soap will go fast your way because you will build a lather by using as much soap as is needed to match the water. In this case you need to play with using more and less water to get it to work.

Okay, so I tried it again tonight but with a fresh cake of soap and a stoneware mug. It went much better this time. I'm still not working up as much lather in the mug as I used to (I'd also like to note that I've switched bathrooms, and the humidity and temperature are really weird in this new one, but that shouldn't really make a difference, right?) but I worked up as much as I could, and then just a few seconds of work on my face and I was getting thick, if not necessarily voluminous, lather. I'm still having a problem getting the lather to stick around on both sides long enough to shave; I usually have to just lather one side, shave, swirl the brush around for another 30 seconds, then lather the other side and shave it.
I've definitely been considering upgrading to badger, I just can't afford it right now. Prom and everything, you see ($250 for two tickets...yeesh.) But I'm sending my razor off to be sharpened (I'm getting sick of the shavette) and as soon as I can, I'm gonna get a nice badger brush. How's the Vulfix 662? I'm quite fond of pewter and it's both their highest grade and a quite reasonable price (can someone explain why it's noticeably cheaper than their other brushes of the same grade? I checked the bristle loft, it's not small or anything compared to the others. And shouldn't pewter be more expensive than plastic?) I've also heard of people adding a few drops of glycerine to their soaps to increase thickness. I'm gonna drop by the drugstore when I can and try that.
And I gotta say, I can't thank you all enough for being so helpful. Working up a lather is the one thing I still haven't gotten any sort of consistent control over.