Thread: I can't get hot lather for some reason

Originally Posted by DZEC

Try this. It works for me.

Hot shower followed by hot towel on face.

Rub shaving soap directly on moist face. I find using a shaving stick soap easiest.

Soak brush in very warm to hot water. Boiling hot water could loosen the knot, so do not do that.

Use the warm moist brush to raise a lather on your face. Rewet the brush with hot water as needed, shaking off excess water first. A good badger brush will retain the heat better than boar or synthetic bristle.

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone, there's a few tricks and suggestions here like using plastic or thin metal like tin that I haven't tried, a few things just to clarify:

1. Yes, I do a "hot towel shave"...as well as I can anyway, but the towel gets cold within seconds
2. I have a scuttle that I fill with water, anything from hot from the tap to boiling from a kettle and let rest for a 1-2 minutes then soak the brush in hot water from the tap.
3. Do i need a new brush or something? I have a Vie-Long Silvertip Badger, that I got for relatively cheap. It does NOT HOLD heat, AT ALL. Even if i BOIL THE BRUSH in water within the time it takes to pick up the brush and squeeze out the extra water, it's COLD. Not just warm, or lukewarm, or maybe warm... just plain COLD.
4. It seems people have severely misunderstood my problem. My problem is that my house is INSANELY dry and cold, even in the bathroom it's frequently 30% humidity and 14C (57F). I ASSUME these may be similar to conditions encountered by people before central heating or proper indoor plumbing...I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions to overcome them.

Note: I DO in fact have and use a scuttle, in the proper way it was meant to be used, to no avail. I wish for lather that is honestly anything but ICE COLD. I know about hot towel, which I do use all the time, and works in hotels, and my parents' houses when I'm staying over...none of this works in my house because of how insanely cold and dry it is here. Again - I have no issues when I shave literally anywhere else including hotels, my parents house etc, this is a unique situation that has to do with the bathroom in my house.

I use the same scuttle as Obie and use it in the smae way except ine thing. I will sit the scuttle in a sick of hot water too. As hot as the tap will provide. This helps to keep the water warm longer. At least until its time to shave, i then drain the sink, remove scuttle from sink and shave. My lather is warm to the skin. Not hot, and sincr its warm to my skin id have to say it must be around 100 degrees.

I dont know why your lather drops in temp in seconds. Sound very odd to me! You said the second sip of soup is cold to you. I wonder if you just dont feel heat like most. I can have a cup of soup and have to let it sit for a few minutes before enjoying. Same with a cup of coffee. Its better after a few minutes but still hot!

Originally Posted by Gasman

I use the same scuttle as Obie and use it in the smae way except ine thing. I will sit the scuttle in a sick of hot water too. As hot as the tap will provide. This helps to keep the water warm longer. At least until its time to shave, i then drain the sink, remove scuttle from sink and shave. My lather is warm to the skin. Not hot, and sincr its warm to my skin id have to say it must be around 100 degrees.

I dont know why your lather drops in temp in seconds. Sound very odd to me! You said the second sip of soup is cold to you. I wonder if you just dont feel heat like most. I can have a cup of soup and have to let it sit for a few minutes before enjoying. Same with a cup of coffee. Its better after a few minutes but still hot!

Second sip is fine when I'm outside, at a restaurant, at work, in my parents house, or during christmas holidays when I went for vacation to mexico. I don't understand why people keep misunderstanding. My situation has nothing to do with ME per say, but me trying to overcome a unique situation where the environs is very dry and cold (it's not just the cold, even cold air will not cool drinks that fast, cold and dry together is what does the trick).

If the problem is the environment in the room in which you shave, how about making your lather in the kitchen in an insulated mug or bowl and transferring it all to your shaving location?

ALternatively, as Gasman has suggested elsewhere, float your bowl (preferably thin metal so the heat transfers easily) of prepared lather in a larger bowl of warm/hot water.

That way you create a micro-environment for the lather that will not be so quickly impacted by the ambient temperature and humidity in your shaving area.

Originally Posted by Tjh

Second sip is fine when I'm outside, at a restaurant, at work, in my parents house, or during christmas holidays when I went for vacation to mexico. I don't understand why people keep misunderstanding. My situation has nothing to do with ME per say, but me trying to overcome a unique situation where the environs is very dry and cold (it's not just the cold, even cold air will not cool drinks that fast, cold and dry together is what does the trick).

If your house is dry try installing a humidifier on the furnace and crank up the temperature to about 21C if you can stand that. If you get your household humidity level up to the normal range and increase the house temperature slightly and still don't get what you want from the lather temperature wise then it is not the house environment that is causing you trouble.

Bob

Originally Posted by BobH

If your house is dry try installing a humidifier on the furnace and crank up the temperature to about 21C if you can stand that. If you get your household humidity level up to the normal range and increase the house temperature slightly and still don't get what you want from the lather temperature wise then it is not the house environment that is causing you trouble.

Bob

Actually humidifier in the bathroom sounds like a great idea, will try that as well.

Id think a hot shower would put more humidity in the bathroom than a humidifier would. I live in Colorado. Elevation is 6500ft. Our air is dry and cold. If we dont use a humidifier in the house everything will spark. Touch a light switch, door knob, pet the cat, everything. When outside, when you get out of the car you will get static charge spark. Its normal for us. This is because of how dry the air is i believe.

Id think if you took a shower in a closed bathroom and made your lather in the bathroom, there would be plenty of heat and moisture in the air to combat any issues of cold and dry. JMO. I just hope you find the answer to your situation. I like warm lather. Cold is not as fun. Still does the job, but not as fun. Good luck.

Originally Posted by Gasman

Id think if you took a shower in a closed bathroom and made your lather in the bathroom, there would be plenty of heat and moisture in the air to combat any issues of cold and dry. JMO. I just hope you find the answer to your situation. I like warm lather. Cold is not as fun. Still does the job, but not as fun. Good luck.

HAH, I hadn't seen your post last night but did exactly that, hot shower with the door closed (neither of which I usually do, as i live alone) and that worked! Also: I finally didn't have the lather drying up on my face whilst I'm shaving!

However, rather than do a traditional scuttle thing - which is to put hot water in a vessel that attempts to minimize dissipation (thus keeping heat within the vessel for use), I heated up the vessel itself with an external source. So, not ceramic (poor conductor) but thin metal (as suggested by someone above) and a mug warmer! I rested the brush between latherings in the vessel on the mug warmer and it worked WONDERS! Mug warmers aren't hot at all, so it didn't dry up the lather at all. And I feel like it was a natural evolution of the traditional scuttle method, as now we have things like mug warmers.

I still think I could do with a better brush, not sure why but the one I have doesn't hold heat very long. But yea the above worked well.

So for those of you for whom the traditional scuttle method doesn't work try a material that dissipates heat easily (which is the opposite of what scuttles are meant to do) on a mug warmer. And, a hot shower works WONDERS to heat up and put some moisture into the air, which helps a great deal.

Then I have no idea, except to move, sorry....

Originally Posted by

Note: [B

I DO in fact have and use a scuttle, in the proper way it was meant to be used, to no avail. I wish for lather that is honestly anything but ICE COLD. I know about hot towel, which I do use all the time, and works in hotels, and my parents' houses when I'm staying over...none of this works in my house because of how insanely cold and dry it is here. Again - I have no issues when I shave literally anywhere else including hotels, my parents house etc, this is a unique situation that has to do with the bathroom in my house.[/B]

Originally Posted by Haroldg48

Then I have no idea, except to move, sorry....

Read above post . THe main thing wasn't the location, but WHAT i was doing. My house is the only place I had the door open and didn't use the shower.