Thread: Lather

Lawman, I live in an area with water so hard it can chip a tooth when you drink it. I to use mostly glycerin soap. I buy mine from a head shop in flagstaff. arizona. They sell the end cuts for 50% off.

I melt 2 or 3 chuncks in the microwave for a couple of minutes. This is in a 16 oz extra large coffee or soup mug .My scent is never the same. I might have apple mixed with moca coffee. Once it was blueberry and grape. Anyway it lathers up after I let the hardened soap soak in a half of a inch of really hot water. After 2 or 3 minutes I dump the water and shake out my brush that also was soaking in hot water.I beat my Badger brush up and down about 30x and do figure 8's with it at the same time.
Presto enough soap in the brush to do 2 passes with the razor. Good luck.

Wow. What a difference this makes.

Based on the responses, I soaked by brush in hot water while letting the soap soak in some hot tap water. After a few minutes, I shook the excess out of the brush and poured the excess off of the soap. Loaded the brush with soap and whipped up a nice batch of lather in a small soup bowl that I soaked the brush in. Added a few drops of water and generated enough lather for three passes.

Can't wait to experiment with some shave cream. Thanks again, guys.

Nice link to B&B. Will be trying that tomorrow. Shave are getting better by the day now...

Hi All,
I'll add a few thoughts about shaving soap lather that y'all can take or leave. It's what works for me, which means it should work for everyone.............hehe.
I use both creams and soaps with good results, and creams are a little faster to whip up for me. I normally will use a little more product, rather than a little less, and for a few reasons. First, it's easier to add water to a lather that's too thick, instead of adding more cream to thicken up a runny one. Second, I want to make sure I have enough lubrication, and too much 'soapy slickness' is better than too little. No, neither are right for a great shave, but I'll error on the side of more product, especially when trying a new cream.
The standard size recommended here would be the 'snurdle', or almond sized amount. The water amount will vary, but that's a good place to start. Got that so far?
Now, here's the thing for soaps that I use as a guide. I try to use about the same amount of soap as I do cream. Think about that, and how much swirling the brush needs to be doing to achieve that. We're talking 25-30 seconds of really going to town on that puck. After that's done, there will be a substantial coating of shaving soap paste on the lower brush tips, and the soap will have been worked into the brush by pumping it as well.
I use a fairly large (2 cups or so) container to keep either the triple milled pucks or melted cold pour soaps in, and I make sure to scrape the sides when done with the swirling........lots more of that paste there. THEN, I go to my bowl with about 1 tablespoon hot water already in it. I'm now ready to create my later. Let me say this will result in plenty of fluffy wonderfulness.....enough for my 4+ passes.
Anyway, you get the idea.........which is to visualize using the proper amount of soap when loading your brush. I'm not saying it'll work for you...........oh wait, I already said it WOULD be fine............hehe. Yes...........everyone will love it, just as everyone loves everything that everyone else does.
Hope that helps in some way,
Martin

Originally Posted by cybrok

YouTube - mantic59's Channel

The vids this guy made helped me a LOT on a lot of subjects.

Just watched the video on building lather and got the first real lather since I started! Once you know a couple of tricks building a good lather isn't that hard. I can't believe how much easier it is than I thought.

Love the trick about leaving the shaving mug sitting in the hot water in the sink.

I think it is important to not skimp on the soap or cream - use a good amount and to take the lather to its optimal performance you must whip the lather for a good long time. Keep whipping even after it looks done and you will find that it will continue to change characteristics the longer you beat it. It will reach its optimum only when you do this otherwise it may look good but will not be what it should be. Make sure to use enough water - that is one mistake a lot of folks make! Water is key (use soft or bottled water for best lather)!