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 ;]