Horrible lather

**boogyman19946** · 10-04-2010, 01:01 AM

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 ;]

**AnarchoPhil** · 10-04-2010, 01:17 AM

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

**jeffegg2** · 10-04-2010, 01:24 AM

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

**Utopian** · 10-04-2010, 01:43 AM

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

**losingXSleep** · 10-04-2010, 02:26 AM

posting for later

**boogyman19946** · 10-04-2010, 02:30 AM

Originally Posted by AnarchoPhil

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

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.

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

**Fbones24** · 10-04-2010, 02:36 AM

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.

**jhenry** · 10-04-2010, 02:37 AM

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.

**markevens** · 10-06-2010, 05:49 PM

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

**claytor** · 10-06-2010, 06:30 PM

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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