Thread: lathering trouble

I have been at this for a couple months. Shaves are getting much better each time. The only problem I am having is with lathering. When I mix the lather it all seems to go up the brush to the handle. I squeegee it out on the edge of my cup. It does the same thing when I lather my face it all goes to the handle. Am I doing something wrong to make this happen? The brush I am using is a boar hair bought from WalGreens and C. O. Bigelow cream. All your help is appreciated.

Jeff

Try a different brush,

I have several that I use regularly, they all behave differently, I find that the smaller ones seem to deliver more lather to my face.

It might be that the boar brush needs some more breaking in.
Keep at it, I'd say.
Try to use light pressure while building the lather and soak the brush real good before starting to build it.
Eventually the brush should start to break in and the performance should be much better

Or you could always try a badger brush, that would be pretty much ready to go straight out of the box

Well it could be several things from a dirty brush, bad water and improper technique and others. I would start with technique. Let the brush soap in a mug of warm water for a several minutes, up to 5. Do not let the top of the bristles where they meet the handle soak in the water as that may soften the glue that holds the bristles in the handle. I fill the sink with hot water put the mug in the sink being careful to not overflow the mug. Nest make sure you use enough shave cream. It should be the size of a large almond. If that is what you are using use about 50% more. Shake the brush out about three times with a quick flick. Work the brush into the shave cream in a small bowl. A rice bowl works good but even a cat food bowl from Walmart would work. You need to have room to incorporate air into the shave cream and using a mug doesn't give enough room. Work the brush like you were whipping eggs. Go easy if you add more water. I wet my hand and let a few drops drip into the bowl and whip again. You can always add more water but if you add too much the shave cream will be wet and runny. THe shave cream, especially Bigelow, will be thick and a little shinny. There is no way this will get sucked up into the base of the bristles enough to hide the shave cream from your face.

Other options would be to use distilled water, also available from Walmart for around a buck a gallon. If you are still having problems give the brush a shampoo, rinse well and let it dry. 12 Mule team borax and warm/hot water will get the old, dried up soap off the bristles.

You will have to work a bit more to get a good lather with a boar brush and one from Walmart will add to that but it is not impossible. More expensive brushes in badger will cut the work down. Vulfix makes a pure badger that sold for ~$25 a couple of years ago : Vulfix Old Original - Men’s shaving brushes, Razors and shaving accessories

A super badger and silver tip badger will be better yet. The loft of the brush will also effect the work to create a good lather. I have a 23mm silvertip that I love. The 21mm Vulfix pure badger requires a little more work. The vintage brushes I have are more work yet. I would suggest just sitting down and work on your lathering by it self. Mo worries about shaving with the lather, just experimenting until you understand what it takes to get thick. Good luck.

+1 on the badger brush. Had (well, have) a cheapo boar brush from Walgreens and it never really worked that great (I actually still use it for my pre-shave soap). Same issue that you have - the lather doesn't stay at the tips. My badger brush, on the other hand, has never given me issues.

You can get an inexpensive badger hair brush for ~$10. I've had this one for... about 3 years now? It's the only brush I use for lathering and it still works great:

Amazon.com: Tweezerman Men's Shaving Brush: Health & Personal Care

Using a brush is a pretty basic skill. It's all a matter of using the proper amount of water with your particular brush matched to the amount of water you need for the soap you are using and then some twirling to develop the lather. So you have to experiment with the water. What can complicate things are having hard water and a brush that fights you. If you have a brush that is stiff it needs to be softened , usually by soaking and being broken in especially if it is a new boar.

You got plenty of good advice here so I would just do some practicing and change the variables.

If you are using a boar brush, try using it like a paint brush to get the lather onto your face THEN work the lather in with the tips. Boar brushes work nothing like badger brushes as a general rule, but some of us prefer them anyway (mostly because they were all I knew existed from 1992-2008). Lather tends to work its way towards the handle with boar brushes, but they work marvelously if you paint the lather on your face with the side of the brush then work it into your beard with the tips.

I found that leaving the brush in the lather bowl to soak for a few minutes before the shave helped my lather. I also found that leaving some water on top of the puck while the brush soaked improved my results. Emptying the shaving bowl and pouring some of the water from on top of the puck into the bowl. Starting with that made a positive difference in my lather. Also, go to youtube and check out Mantic's shaving videos. The one on lathering may give you something to go with.

I used to have this same problem, and I found one thing that seemed to change my lather completely - less water. I soak my brush for about 5 minutes in warm water, then squeeze the water out of the brush with one hand, and give it a couple flicks. With a fairly dry brush (still moist, but not wet), I can easily build a good lather very quickly, and the lather seems to stay toward the tip of the brush much more. I also have found that a bowl works MUCH better than a mug. You don't need anything fancy, just a simple cat food bowl or cereal bowl will work fine. With a fairly dry brush and a shallow bowl, I have had much better results from soaps and creams, regardless of what type of brush I use. Start with a dry lather that seems to 'pull', and that is more pasty than 'soapy'. Keep working it, and add a few drops of water with you hand until you get to the right consistency. If you add water too quickly you will ruin the lather, which will be evidenced by visible bubbles. If this happens, you basically need to start over.

Thinking purely logically, if you were putting alot of pressure on the brush when face lathering and bowl lathering, that may squeejee it up to the brush handle.

When I make lather in a bowl or on my face I use light circles while squashing the brush half way down its length every so often to create the lather, you may just be squijing it too much or as others have said it might be the brush. Only way to fix the problem is trial and error - change your technique and see if there's any improvement, change your brush, do the same and even change your soap or cream and see if it improves any.

@SFshaver: I use a soap that's best used with ALOT of water I flick it once out of the sink with really hot water - doesn't work anywhere near as well without really hot water - and face lather. It starts out as bubbles but after 2-3 minutes its a thick whipped cream, then I add glycerine and it explodes!

But, if I added too much water to tabac or Mitchell's Wool Fat, it would completely ruin it and wouldn't get any thicker. Every soaps different and needs to be used differently. 99.9% of straight shaving is trial and error, its the only way unfortunately

regards Alex