Horrible lather

This is currently my third time shaving with a straight and whereas I'm not complaining so much about my shaving techniques, I am slightly sketchy about my lather. It seems to me that I can't generate any form of proper lather although I tried over and over again o.o I have a boar brush and am using a Van Der Hagen (although it has a VHD logo on the bottom) soap and a bowl that came with it. I have a boar brush that came with the soap >.> Nothing special but could that be the culprit for not being able to generate proper lather?

The way I generate my lather is the usual I'd say. I shave after a shower mostly so as my water is setting in the shower, I fill the sink and bowl with hot water and stand my brush in the bowl during the time I take the shower. When I come out, I take the brush out of the bowl and usually I give the brush a couple of shakes but today instead of just shaking off the water, I spread it thin on my face to have it a little bit wet (idk, seems like a good plan >.>). Then I run the brush a little bit on the soap puck and take the soap that got on the brush into the bowl and go on to make some lather. I make it accordingly with the guideline and once it looks fairly creamy I start applying it on my face; however, for some reason, the lather on my face appears to be very thin and seems "disappears" meanwhile I strop the razor. After I strop, I wipe the lather I had on my face and reapply a new coat to start shaving, but, again, it is slightly thin.

Does it matter how thin the lather looks or is it fine as long as it lubricates properly? If not, can anyone see what I'm doing wrong? I mean, it's hard for me to tell anything proper because I never shaved with anything before ;]

I always get a real good lather from VDH. Maybe you have to much water?

practice makes perfect.

A good badger hair will make it easier to make good lather, but boars hair is what I used for 20 years....

YouTube - How To Build And Apply Traditional Shaving Lather

That video by Mantic is extremely helpful. That should teach you everything you need to know about making good lather. Watch it twice!

posting for later

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Originally Posted by AnarchoPhil

I always get a real good lather from VDH. Maybe you have to much water?

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Well I've looked up the soap about the same day I bought it and people say it's better than Williams, so I guess the soap isn't the culprit. Maybe I do add a bit too much water; I'll try to make it not as wet next time.

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Originally Posted by jeffegg2

practice makes perfect.

A good badger hair will make it easier to make good lather, but boars hair is what I used for 20 years....

YouTube - How To Build And Apply Traditional Shaving Lather

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I've seen that video countless times. Now that I actually think about it, maybe the lather I get isn't the culprit. I find it fairly difficult to spread the lather onto my face. Whenever I get to it, the lather is nice and creamy, but if I try applying the it with circular motion the lather starts collecting on the sides of the brush rather than my face. In other words, the brush is collecting the lather instead of spreading it. To spread any decent amount of lather on my face I have to do a painting motion as if my face was a wall.

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Originally Posted by Utopian

That video by Mantic is extremely helpful. That should teach you everything you need to know about making good lather. Watch it twice!

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Watched it over and over again XD Burned it in my retinas. I've tried the hand technique in the video and the cup technique in the video, but I'm wondering if maybe generating the lather on my face would give me a better result. I'll have to wait a while as I've nicked myself twice today and don't want to open up the cuts again XD

The culprit is not the brush or the soap.

When I first started straight shaving, I had issues with my lather as well. My two issues were:

1. I was not loading enough soap on my brush; and

2. I was not adding enough water.

Sometimes, a dry lather will have the exact same charecteristics as a lather with too much water.

I would experiment making lather over and over again until you get it right. Try adding too much water, try adding too little and watch the results. I would also make sure you are loading enough soap initially on the brush.

Keep at it and it will click.

Don't fret over your poor lather. It happens to all of us on occasion. Try a variety of lathering techniques until you find the one or two that best suit your tastes and needs.

If your lather is too thin, then try either loading more soap to the brush, or using a tad less water.

Sounds like your water ratio is pretty accurate (since the lather isn't running off or anything like that) but it's the amount of soap that's the culprit. Next time you load the brush from the puck squeeze the hair together to make a tight clump. Press the end of the clump (still squeezed) into the puck. Do two to three times as much swirling as you usually do to really load up that brush. The hair when released from your squeeze should be covered on the tip and stick together. From there, build lather in your scuttle as usual but you'll have to add more water. You should notice you get a lot more soap than you need doing this.

The squeezing technique is what i tend to do to load my brush. The idea of adding that much extra soap is rule that out as a problem/fix the problem and to give you an accurate sense of how much soap you need to make good lather. Good luck and keep us posted. Pictures are good too :) .

That Mantic video is a gem, I have learned so much from it, definitely a favorite of mine. Besides the obvious points made in regard of the soap to water ratio, I would like to add that if you increase both soap and water at the same time, you may end up in a similar situation. However as Fbones says, there is a critical amount of soap that you need to use that is determined by your particular conditions: soap, brush, water and technique. Start with enough but not too much soap and then start adding water in small quantities. It is often easier at first to keep the amount of soap constant and add water. It is not impossible to make good lather after you have added to much water but it is certainly harder. I would also like to point out that new brushes, particularly boar brushes, take some time to break in. Until then, lathering may not be as efficient as you would like. One thing that has helped me in the past to speed up the process of breaking the brush in is to put some soap and lather on the palm of my hand for sometime while I watch TV :).

Al raz.

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Originally Posted by claytor

Sounds like your water ratio is pretty accurate (since the lather isn't running off or anything like that) but it's the amount of soap that's the culprit. Next time you load the brush from the puck squeeze the hair together to make a tight clump. Press the end of the clump (still squeezed) into the puck. Do two to three times as much swirling as you usually do to really load up that brush. The hair when released from your squeeze should be covered on the tip and stick together. From there, build lather in your scuttle as usual but you'll have to add more water. You should notice you get a lot more soap than you need doing this.

The squeezing technique is what i tend to do to load my brush. The idea of adding that much extra soap is rule that out as a problem/fix the problem and to give you an accurate sense of how much soap you need to make good lather. Good luck and keep us posted. Pictures are good too :) .

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Thanks for the tips! I will try them next time I'm shaving. I've decided to hang up my weapons for a short while until the cuts on my face (that 'stache are is one tricky bastard if I may say so myself >.>) heal; I don't want to reopen any of the cuts. I'll see about the pictures :)

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Originally Posted by Alraz

That Mantic video is a gem, I have learned so much from it, definitely a favorite of mine. Besides the obvious points made in regard of the soap to water ratio, I would like to add that if you increase both soap and water at the same time, you may end up in a similar situation. However as Fbones says, there is a critical amount of soap that you need to use that is determined by your particular conditions: soap, brush, water and technique. Start with enough but not too much soap and then start adding water in small quantities. It is often easier at first to keep the amount of soap constant and add water. It is not impossible to make good lather after you have added to much water but it is certainly harder. I would also like to point out that new brushes, particularly boar brushes, take some time to break in. Until then, lathering may not be as efficient as you would like. One thing that has helped me in the past to speed up the process of breaking the brush in is to put some soap and lather on the palm of my hand for sometime while I watch TV :).

Al raz.

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I was messing around with all the variables last time and the first time I ended up with extremely runny lather and the second time the lather looked fine but half way through shaving it was dry as a scab. I tried spreading it on the hand, and I'm not a particular fan of that technique. I can retry, but eventually I'd have to switch to the bowl, otherwise I'll have to regenerate the lather before each pass.

I used a van der hagan brush, bowl, and soap for a long time. When building a lather with these, i wouldent soak the brush in water. Just run some warm water in the brush shake it 2 or three times until the water doesnt "whoop" out of the brush, and into the sink. Just keep building lather in the bowl ontop the soap. Be sure to wet your face before you apply the lather. I think a little practice is all ya need. I mean the soap is only a buck fifty at walmart so dont be affraid to play with it. really hope this can help. :)

A different approach:

. . . Strop the razor _before_ showering ?

It sounds like the lather is drying out on your face, in the time it takes you to strop. Your facial hair should be reasonably wet after a shower, and might not need any time "soaking in lather".

If your lather is decent (not too wet, not too dry) when you put it on your face, shave it off _right then_. That's what I do.

[This idea is worth what you paid for it.]

Charles

Please remember that it doesn't matter how thick the lather is. I know a lot of people will disagree with me on that statement. However, my belief is that a thin lather that proficiently coats your skin works just as well as a thick lather that coats your skin.

The most important part is the skin's surface coating of the soap/cream as that is what lubricates and protects your skin from the blade.

I am also new to wet/str8 shaving and was having a hard time figuring it out. I now get routine three pass shaves with no nicks. The lather problem was solved for me by using uberlather. I don't know how to link video but you can find it by searching for uberlather by a member named jockeys. I even use his redneck scuttle. It is good stuff and really helped me out.

Some soaps and creams are easier to lather than others. L'occitane Cade is what I'm using right now and it's so incredibly easy to lather! Granted I've only tried six different products throughout my wetshaving career.

I only need a few swirls to load the brush then it lathers up immediately in my bowl. I can add a lot of water and it won't collapse on me. This is a very forgiving soap and it works nicely so if you're still having problems, try it out!