Couple questions about shaving soap

Hey all,
I have been doing some reading on the board and it seems like a lot of people have multiple shaving soaps that they use. this raises a couple of questions for me. First do you use a seperate bowl to lather or do you continue working the lather up on top of the soap cake in the same bowl? When you talk about using different soaps do you have a different mug for each one? or do you use one mug for your soap of the day and just change out the soap pucks? I just ordered severeal soap samples from the shave den and am looking forward to trying them out, but was unsure how to handle them because it looks like each puck comes in a ziptop bag.
Thanks for the advice
Ari :confused:

The answer to every one of those questions is the exact same thing.

It's a matter of preference.

Some guys lather on the soap, some in a bowl or moss-type scuttle, some face lather.

Some of the guys who face lather will load up their brushes in whatever dish they happen to keep their soap in, while a few of us (like me) use an old-fashioned scuttle to keep hot water in for the brush and load up the soap.

The same is true for keeping different bowls/scuttles/brushes for each soap.

There just isn't a "right" answer.

Thank you both for that. Though it doesn't answer my question exactly, it also does. I was confused reading the many posts on soap and now I understand that i was confused because everyone does it thier own way.

I am also currious if anyone has advice for forming lather with hard water. Does it make a difference? is there anything that I can do to compensate/ get thicker lather? I am getting a decent lather, thick enough to mostly protect my face durring my shave (though I am still using a cartridge until i get my straight back from honing). but I don't get the kind of thick creamy foam that I have seen in pics posted by others (if that makes sense)

We have incredibly hard (well) water at my house in Indiana. The only real solution is to play around with the water to soap/cream ratio. I personally find that I have to use more water there to get the same creamy result that I get using the water in my apartment in South Carolina. But I would imagine that every soap/cream is different and you will probably just have to play around with it.

Drew

Fairly hard water here, too. First of all, some soaps just won't work quite as well. I do have fairly consistent results with creams, though.

On the other hand, I recall reading somewhere that the best lather for use with a straight is a little more on the watery side (and therefore more lubricating) than the ideal lather for other kinds of shaving. Be that as it may, ultimately it's about whatever works for you. I'd also add that I'm sure I could get a better shave now with a bar of Dial than I was getting with high-end products for the first few months I used a straight.

To answer your questions, I only lather directly on the soap with cheap soaps, as I feel it uses them up rather quickly. Otherwise, face-lathering is my preferred method, as it combines beard-prepping with lathering. I do use a separate bowl to lather creams from a tube or the aforementioned soaps that don't seem to lather as easily in hard water (often the glycerin variety). Hope that helps.

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Originally Posted by youngsmoke

I am also currious if anyone has advice for forming lather with hard water. Does it make a difference? is there anything that I can do to compensate/ get thicker lather? I am getting a decent lather, thick enough to mostly protect my face durring my shave (though I am still using a cartridge until i get my straight back from honing). but I don't get the kind of thick creamy foam that I have seen in pics posted by others (if that makes sense)

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It depends a lot on the composition of the soap or cream you're using, in my experience.

I live in an area of the UK with very hard water, all the ground in this area is made of limestone and clay, and the water is loaded with calcium and magnesium carbonates.

I have always had very poor results with glycerine based soaps. Annoyingly I can't use any of the 'decent' handmade soaps with the water we have here. I have tried Honeybee Sues, Mama Bears, Colleens, QED, and others, any whilst they all smell and shave great, with the water we have here they don't produce a lather that stays for more than 30 seconds.

The good news is, there are also plenty of soaps and creams that work great. Anything by Trumpers, Castle Forbes, AOS, Proraso, Tabac, MWF (Mitchells Wool Fat) has always worked just fine for me. :)

A lot of it is just experimentation, see if you can buy samples of different products to see how they work for you. :)

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Originally Posted by youngsmoke

I am also currious if anyone has advice for forming lather with hard water. Does it make a difference? is there anything that I can do to compensate/ get thicker lather? I am getting a decent lather, thick enough to mostly protect my face durring my shave (though I am still using a cartridge until i get my straight back from honing). but I don't get the kind of thick creamy foam that I have seen in pics posted by others (if that makes sense)

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You can try using distilled water to make your lather, Heat a bit up in a cup in the microwave to warm it up

Hi,
I use col conk soap puck, which sits in the bottom of a mug. I used to make lather on top of the soap puck (which seemed to take me too long), and about 4 months ago I switched to face lathering which is working great for me, plus I can keep the lather warm by drizzling hot water into the brush between passes. I also like the face massage...

The key thing is using really hot water-- I let the brush soak in hot water and I also put about 1/4 teaspoon of hot water on top of the puck to soften it up (I do this while I strop). Then I squeeze out about 90% of the water (and give it a shake or two), and load up the brush. The lather usually starts out too dry, but it is easier to drizzle water into the brush vs. starting out too wet. It is just right when it has the consistency of mayonaise.

If you like building lather on top of the puck, or in a bowl, and you want warm lather, that's where the scuttle comes in.

-Chief

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Originally Posted by CarrieM

You can try using distilled water to make your lather, Heat a bit up in a cup in the microwave to warm it up

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BE CAREFUL WHEN HEATING DISTILLED WATER! It is possible to superheat the water to over 100 degrees C (boiling), with no obvious signs of boiling. Drop a brush in there and its likely to start boiling violently in an instant.

YouTube - Superheating of water (Mythbusters)

case and point

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Originally Posted by OLD_SCHOOL

I loved that show when it used to be on.

Never knew that about distilled water, luckily I never use a microwave to try boil water.

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Mythbusters is still going strong. In the most recent episode, they dimpled the exterior of a car to see how it affected fuel efficiency, and it went from 24 mpg to 29 mpg. Cool stuff!

Also, just FYI, regular water is not immune to superheating, or flash boiling, or whatever one wants to call it. I've done it with tap water in a Pyrex measuring cup. It didn't work every time, but when it did, wow! Anyhow, Mythbusters goofed in saying that tap water wouldn't do it, and I wanted everyone to know in the interest of safety.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by youngsmoke

First do you use a seperate bowl to lather or do you continue working the lather up on top of the soap cake in the same bowl?

When you talk about using different soaps do you have a different mug for each one or do you use one mug for your soap of the day and just change out the soap pucks?

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1) I use separate bowl to whip up a lather since the bowls I have for the soap are too small to contain the lather (I just pick up soap with my brush). As somebody commented, if you have cup/bowl large enough, you can lather on puck.

2) My soaps stay in their separate bowls. You can always use just one mug, but then you'll have to switch the pucks wet (might get a tad messy) or remove the soap from the mug after it has dried there. This might or might not be easy depending on your setup. I'm happy with separate bowls (I only have 3 soaps), but you can try out what suits you.

I forgot to mention how I lather. After soaking my brush and puck in steaming hot water, I hold the brush over the sink until it only drips every 5 seconds or so. then i load up only the tips of the brush on the puck, until a little lather is produced. Then I go straight to my face for a minute or two, making sure not to push the knot into my skin. I find that, for me, this is the best way to ensure the right soap to water ratio. For the second pass, I drip a little hot water onto the tip of the brush, and I've got fresh warm lather.