5th Shave - Lather. What am I doing wrong?

I decided to have a go today based on what I'd learned from the WTG, XTG and ATG thread. My mission was to just shave WTG.

Immediately, one thing that's bugging me is lather. When I try and generate some lather from the shaving soap, it's very thin. I've heard it's supposed to be thin as thick lather clogs the blade but I don't know if that's only true in cartridge razors. However the lather is so thin that it's actually "evaporating". I'll shave my cheek, and when I have finished the rest of my face is almost totally without lather. If I shave these other areas, it feels like a dry shave. Very rough.

I actually switched to the Gilette shaving gel I had on two occasions but since that's dried up (the can was empty), I am going back to the soap.

What am I doing wrong? I have my soap in a mug and add a little water. I whisk around for a bit and then apply, but it's always very thin. Am I adding too little water? Am I not whisking around enough?

I should make a small confession. I'm using a mug (as in one you'd drink from) rather than a proper scuttle :o

I use a mug too.
Sometimes the same thing happens to me.
I'm starting to think its the soap. I have 2 mugs with 2 different types of soap trying to see what I like. I know the blue one doesn't give the lather that I like. The other one has a glycerin type soap that I got from Ems Place, it works pretty good.
I'm still trying different ones though.

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Originally Posted by Dan

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What am I doing wrong? I have my soap in a mug and add a little water. I whisk around for a bit and then apply, but it's always very thin. Am I adding too little water? Am I not whisking around enough?

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Try letting the warm water sit on the soap for at least 5 minutes. Depending on water hardness, you may have to whisk the lather up for a bit longer to get a nice thick lather.
Try making a super-lather and see if that helps.

Maybe too much water? I find that if I have too much water on my brush that the lather is very thin. Are you soaking your brush first? If so are you trying to make the lather with all the water left in the brush, or are you shaking a little out?

Try following this thread :
guide to making uberlather

Ignore the bits about adding cream and glycerin the basic process makes excellent lather with soap only.
Also if you are not using a triple milled soap (read a very hard soap like the Geo F Trumpers stuff) you might want to limit your soap soaking time or else you'll find your soap has been used up before you know it.

Barney

What kind of soap are you using? Some make a better lather than others.

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Originally Posted by Dan

I should make a small confession. I'm using a mug (as in one you'd drink from) rather than a proper scuttle :o

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Nothing wrong with using a mug.

Here's another good thread on getting good soap lather in which The Duke of Ducks states that:

"There are alot of variables at work here that affect the kind and amount of lather you get. The hardness of the water, the type and size of the brush, the type and brand of soap you use and your technique for brushing. All other things being equal I've found the type of soap to be most critical. I've found brands like classic shave, trumpers, taylors and haslinger to produce copious amounts of rich lather and brands like conk, williams to produce little or weak lather.

I usually produce most of the lather in the bowl and expand on that on my face. I don't think the type of motion you use matters as long as you get it going and it covers your face. You don't need three inches of lather on your face anyway just a light coat."

Hey Dan,
I've also had this problem once or twice since I've started. What seemed to be the problem was that I wasn't using enough water to et enough soap into my brush. Here's what I do now that gives me great lather:

I fill a bowl with hot water and let my brush soak while I shower
Pour the water out, shake out a bit of the water in the brush, and swirl it on the soap
Keep swirling and occasionally pressing the brush into the soap until a lather starts to form.
I usually lather on my face, but you can continue to lather right there, or in another bowl.

This usually gives me superlative amounts of thick, great lather. I must admit, though, I got this method from Badger and Blade. Check it out, they also have a good method over there in their Shaving Soap category.
Wishing you best of luck
-Dan

Like I said, one of the moderators over at B&B put together this great tutorial. It seems to address your problem directly. Hope this helps
Part 1 Part 2
-Dan

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Originally Posted by bonedog

Like I said, one of the moderators over at B&B put together this great tutorial. It seems to address your problem directly. Hope this helps
Part 1 Part 2
-Dan

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Hey, that's a great resource! Thanks!

Top replies! Pretty outstanding in fact!

Lilith, I am using a cake soap than Kenrup sent me as part of his newbie pack. Obviously in my boyish glee, when I received my soap I promptly chucked the package away without reading what type of soap it was :o

I'll give some of these a go, and tell you how I get on.

For those of you who use a traditional mug; do you build the lather in the mug itself (where the soap cake lives) or in a seperate bowl? I try to build in the mug but I've noticed there's not really must whisking room and the lather seems to form on the bottom meaning I have to flip the soap to get at it. I think next time I'll take another bowl up with me (my mum is going to love this!) and coat my brush with soap and then transfer to the empty bowl. How do you boys do it? I know, Bonedog, that you build on your face. The only thing that puts me off that is the prospect of whisking on my face and making irritating the skin or even flicking soap into my eye.

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Originally Posted by Dan

Top replies! Pretty outstanding in fact!

Lilith, I am using a cake soap than Kenrup sent me as part of his newbie pack. Obviously in my boyish glee, when I received my soap I promptly chucked the package away without reading what type of soap it was :o

I'll give some of these a go, and tell you how I get on.

For those of you who use a traditional mug; do you build the lather in the mug itself (where the soap cake lives) or in a seperate bowl? I try to build in the mug but I've noticed there's not really must whisking room and the lather seems to form on the bottom meaning I have to flip the soap to get at it. I think next time I'll take another bowl up with me (my mum is going to love this!) and coat my brush with soap and then transfer to the empty bowl. How do you boys do it? I know, Bonedog, that you build on your face. The only thing that puts me off that is the prospect of whisking on my face and making irritating the skin or even flicking soap into my eye.

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My routine:

I use (and LOVE) Mama Bear's shaving soap, which comes in its own handy travel tub, and my bowl is an old sugarbowl I picked up at Goodwill ($2, yay!). I put hot water in a small drinking glass, drip a little (1/4 tsp) in the bowl and a little on the soap, and soak my brush in the glass while I strop.

Once the razor's ready, I shake some of the water off and then pick up the soap tub. I gently mash the brush in the wet soap until the puck starts to get sudsy, then transfer the brush to the bowl. There I mash and stir for a minute or two, and the suds turn to a fine lather.

That lather is thick, slick, enough for both legs, and it doesn't evaporate quickly.

To all these excellent replies, I would just like to add that the water should be warm, but not too hot. If the water is too hot, it evaporates faster.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dan

For those of you who use a traditional mug; do you build the lather in the mug itself (where the soap cake lives) or in a seperate bowl? I try to build in the mug but I've noticed there's not really must whisking room and the lather seems to form on the bottom meaning I have to flip the soap to get at it. I think next time I'll take another bowl up with me (my mum is going to love this!) and coat my brush with soap and then transfer to the empty bowl. How do you boys do it? I know, Bonedog, that you build on your face. The only thing that puts me off that is the prospect of whisking on my face and making irritating the skin or even flicking soap into my eye.

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I used to build as much as possible in the soap bowl and then the rest on my face but since reading the guide to making uberlather I've been building lather in a separate mug - pretty much as Lilith described. Makes for a much better and longer lasting lather.

Barney

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dan

The only thing that puts me off that is the prospect of whisking on my face and making irritating the skin or even flicking soap into my eye.

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I wouldn't worry about it. I only build lather on my face, and have never run into that problem. Here's what I do...

When I get into the bathroom in the morning I start both the sink and the shower running at full hot. Once the water is coming as hot as it will get, I plug the sink to fill it up. I keep a small coffee mug in the bathroom, and I put my brush in that mug, then that mug into the sink, and let it fill up with hot water and over flow into the sink. By the time I am done adjusting the temp of the shower the sink and mug are full so I shut off the water, and take my shower.

When I get out of the shower, I open the package that my Col. Conk soap comes in (I like Amber the best) and take my brush out of the mug still sitting in the sink full of hot water. I shake it gently a couple of times to get the excess water out of the brush. I usually know I have the right amount of water out of the brush when I can hold it with the bristles at a 90 degree angle to the sink, and can swirl it gently in circles, without excess water falling out.

Next, I rub the brush in a circular motion on top of the soap cake (still in the original package) until I start to see some large bubble lather start to form on top of the cake. When this happens, I use the sides of the bristles to pick most of this up off the cake, and load the brush with soap. Then I just start going in a circular motion on my cheek, and a thick rich lather will form. I spread it out all over my face, then I finally take the mug out of the hot water, empty it, and put the brush into the hot mug to sit while I shave, and it keeps the lather on the brush nice and warm.

This method provides me with plenty of lather to shave my face and head to a BBS state with some left over.

Hope this helps
Adam

I used to build lather in one "stage" as many of the suggestions here relate (wet brush, shake out a bit of water, rub on soap, lather in bowl), but I find I get better results from soaps if I build the lather in two separate "stages":

Stage One: Loading the brush

1. Soak your brush in hot water while you shower
2. Cover the top of your soap with a thin layer of hot water
3. This is where it differs from the advice above: once you are ready to shave, take your brush and shake a lot of the water out. I used to give it two good shakes when I was doing a single-stage lather, but you really want to get the brush fairly dry here.
4. Dump the water off your soap, and start rubbing the brush on the soap. If you start to see tiny bubbles and a lather form, you have too much water. You want a thick paste, not foam at this stage.
5. Continue to load your brush with paste until you have a fair amount in your bristles

Stage two: Creating the lather

1. Once your brush is laden with soap, turn your hot water on a trickle and dribble water back into the brush. It takes time to learn how much water to add, and it also varies with each soap, but you'll pick it up fairly quickly.
2. Make sure your face is wet with hot water, and start rubbing the brush against your cheek.
3. Build initial lather on your face...this will be a little thin and runny at first.
4. Once your face and neck are covered, continue to swirl the brush on your face until the lather thickens up and becomes dense. As you are brushing, the air, water, and soap are mixing to become a thick, slick lather

This method will easily give you enough lather for three passes, plus you don't have another bowl to clean up. Also, agitating on your face will lift your beard and get it ready to shave.

Nothing wrong with creating lather as suggested above...I did it for years. I just happen to get better results if I focus on loading the brush first, and then adding water back in to create the lather. You may want to try it both ways to see which one works better for you.

I'm going to try a few of the methods out tomorrow morning. I'll let you know how i get on. I'd have done them today but I thought my face needed some time to recover from the last brutal shave :)

About your problem with having the lather at the bottom of the mug, I tend to build my lather in the mug and have had that problem before. The perfect cure for it is to stick your mug with the soap in the microwave for 15-20 seconds. It melts the soap and creates a formed soap cake at the bottom of your mug. This works perfectly for me and allows me to build my lather in my mug without having to switch mugs.