Thread: Lather vanishing problem

How long do you spend loading the Conk on to the brush?

Ten circles, then ten circles, grip change, equals 25 secs or so, but that just me.

Crom

Originally Posted by smark

Hello everybody!
I've been reading quite a while this forum and wiki and would like to thank you all because you have helped me a lot starting shaving with straights.

My biggest problem at the moment is lathering I hope you can help me with that too. Or actually I think that the lathering is not a problem but after I have lathered my col. conk's soap in a bowl it starts quite soon to vanish from my face and from bowl also. I'm not able to put so much lather on my face that there would still be something left before I'm finished shaving.

I'm not sure what is happening to lather but it seems to be drying up. But adding water doesn't seem to help. Lather is not stable how mother how much water I add. And I'm pretty sure that I have also dried lather which is too dry. I'm pretty much out of ideas with this. Does anyone have any ideas what I could be doing wrong?

Try using more pressure at the beginning as Alan suggested. Really press the damp brush down into the soap and get as much soap into the brush as possible. This should produce a rather thick, almost paste consistency, "lather." Build up this "paste" lather until the brush is full and some of the paste is coming up the sides of your mug, or bowl. Then add your water a little at a time until you get the lather you want. Don't over do the water or you'll have to start over. Then make sure to wet your face first before applying the lather.

Thank you for all the replies. I've managed to take a huge step with my lathering capability. Actually today I didn't have any problem with my lather at all (or should I say I was very happy with it).

I think two major issues were water/soap ratio and too dry face when applying lather. I think my lather was too dry earlier. So now my wet shaving is really much more wetter.

Now I'm not drying my brush anymore after soaking it, just shaking the most excessive water out of it. After swirling it the soap I also use up and down movement and more pressure than before. For some reason I thought that it would be best to get the soap to just in the tip of the hair. I'm pretty sure I've read something like that from this site but maybe that was for creams or I messed up something.

Originally Posted by smark

For some reason I thought that it would be best to get the soap to just in the tip of the hair. I'm pretty sure I've read something like that from this site but maybe that was for creams or I messed up something.

I found this from the wiki page which was linked here earlier but it was for face lathering. Is face lathering really so different because at least for me (and my equipment) it seems to be much easier when mushing and mashing my brush against soap? I've soap in a mug and then lathering in a separate bowl.

Yea, its from this site. You have to be careful about what you read, even here and also how you interpret something. For example, I tried that same approach only to discover that it works, but takes 5 times longer to make a lather, which is far inferior to what I was already making.

So, what works, and what works best; and then what additional caveats are required to make something work that are left out of the descriiption, are always problems we face here.

Originally Posted by smark

Oh and one more question. I usually wash my face or take a shower before lathering. But my face is usually dry when I'm ready to put some lather on it. So should I spill some water to my face just before I put some lather on it?

What you could do is soak your towel into hot water and wring out excess water. Wrap your face with towel for couple minutes. I usually end up drying my face when I get out of shower. I find that this worked me.

It's easier because it softens your skin and hair making it easier to shave. :beer:

Take care bro

Hi,
Just wanted to add that I use Col Conk soap as well. When I tried to build lather in the mug I did not get that much lathery response, but I switched to face lathering and it works fantastic for me-- I get rich thick creamy lather in no time. Similar to the advice here:

-Soak brush in really hot water
-Put about 1/4 teaspoon of hot water on top of the col conk puck, let it sit for a few minutes
-Squeese out about 90% of the water from the brush
-Load the brush, pressing down pretty hard (15-20 swirls ought to do it)
-Swirl on face to build lather, if too dry drizzle a bit of hot water into the brush (I drizzle it into the base of the brush and let it work its way to the tips, I get nice warm lather that way)

I've also found the hotter the water, the faster I can hit the lather sweet spot. Try it once with boiling hot water and you'll see what I mean.

Good luck!
-Chief

Extra hot water does help- I just moved to Taiwan and there are hot water dispensers everywhere that give near-boiling water on demand. It's great for shaving.

If you use glycerin, just a few drops on the puck (with the hot water, usually) will help. Most glycerin is a synthetic product, but I've been very happy with a vegetable glycerin. (My wife is allergic to many synthetic products, and I'm not allowed to use what she can't.)
J.