Thread: How to use soap

Hey everyone,

While I am not all that new to straight razor shaving, I am new to using shaving soaps.

I have been using creams (to excellent effect) for a number of months now, and would like to move into the wide world of soaps.

So here are a few questions:

1. Is there any sort of special preparation required for soap?

2. How do I use the brush with a soap?

3. Is building a good lather really any different than with cream?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Building soap lather is easy but it requires loading the brush correctly. I think that you may find these items from the wiki helpful:

Illustrated Guide to Making Basic Cream Lather in Three Different Ways - Straight Razor Place Wiki

Illustrated Guide to Making Basic Soap Lather - Straight Razor Place Wiki

And since we are on the subject, you may want to try making uberlather (soap + cream + glycerin), here is how:

Illustrated Guide to making Überlather - Straight Razor Place Wiki



The answers to your questions are as follows:

1) It depends on the soap. If the soap is milled, you may want to add a bit of hot water to soften it a bit. It is is glycerin based, this is not important.

2) After you wet the brush in warm to hot water, you get rid of the excess (shaking or squeezing) and then proceed. Then you load the brush, which means rubbing the brush on the soap until the bristles are saturated with soap.

3) Not really after you load the brush. Creams are softer making loading the brush easier.


Al raz.

Thanks for the links and the advice!

For me the biggest difference is the water.

When I use soap I put some water on top of the soap while the brush soaks. Then I dump the soap water into my bowl and completely shake out the brush. The water from the soap is usually sufficient.

When I use a cream on the other hand I don't put any water in the bowl before hand instead I don't completely shake out the brush.

Aside from those two things it's pretty much the same. Build the lather and add water as needed.

Originally Posted by Bone

Hey everyone,

While I am not all that new to straight razor shaving, I am new to using shaving soaps.

I have been using creams (to excellent effect) for a number of months now, and would like to move into the wide world of soaps.

So here are a few questions:

1. Is there any sort of special preparation required for soap?

2. How do I use the brush with a soap?

3. Is building a good lather really any different than with cream?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

1. No, just make sure there is enough water in the brush

2. Get the brush wet, swirl the wet brush around on the surface of the soap until you get a good lather started. Keep swirling it a little longer to fully load the brush. Transfer to face, mug, scuttle; what ever your preference.

3. No, it just takes a little more water to offset the harder texture of the soap.

check out the third link in my sig.

Originally Posted by Bone

Hey everyone,


1. Is there any sort of special preparation required for soap?

2. How do I use the brush with a soap?

3. Is building a good lather really any different than with cream?
.

Hi there,

No special prep needed for soaps.......not even a hot water soak before using. Just run a little hot water on the puck to get it wet before applying the brush.

How you use your brush will partly depend on the type of soap. Glycerin based will make a frothy lather very quickly if there's too much water in the brush. You don't want a lot of bubbles when loading your brush, since that can interfere with how much soap you actually pick up off the puck. So, I use a fairly well shaken out brush for those types.

Triple milled or other harder soaps will take a little wetter brush to help prevent the brush from sorta sticking a bit to the puck as you're loading up. Plus, it may take a little longer swirling time to get enough soap for a right ratio.

Once I'm done with that part, I go to my bowl that has a little hot water in it and start my lather there. That part is the same as using creams.......you won't have a problem there. Figure using soaps will add maybe an extra minute or so to the shave time.

Here's the thing that stuck in my mind years ago, and take it as just something that works for me: Visualize the amount of shaving cream needed for a normal lather making experience, and figure on using about that much soap. Yeah, it can take a little time to load the brush properly, and I have learned to always err on the side of too much rather than not enough. It takes me a good 20-25 seconds to finish swirling on a triple mill puck, but it's easier to add more water than product if I screw up. Besides, I prefer a thick, heavy lather anyway.

Ok.....I'm done. Maybe that'll help somehow, or maybe someone else will have an idea more suited to your technique. I will say that soaps are well worth looking into......some great ones out there.

Enjoy your journey down that rabbit hole,
Martin

Oh.........don't forget to try and get as much of that thick and creamy residue off the puck itself.......it's where all the extra vitamins are hiding........

I may be a bit archaic but since I usually shave in the shower...I grab the puck rub it around on my face for 10-20 seconds and put wet brush to face and swirl away, works great but obviously not the ideal method if you shave at the sink, still works though, trust me

This is my method and I find it easier than most:

soap puck sits with water on it while brush soaks.
Squeeze and shake out brush.
Pour water off puck.
Rub brush on puck to cake some soap on.

Face lather (just make sure to add drops of water to the brush to prevent it from being dry).

done.