Thread: Help an old guy out with lathering

By the way most of Florida has crazy hard water. A few areas aren't as bad but for the most part it's seriously hard. All the basement rock is from old reefs and is Calcium Carbonate.

Originally Posted by Phrank

The "88" is like a plague for me to get lathering properly, sometimes it produces an unbelievable lather, I decide to use it again, and get a dud lather...no figuring that stuff out....same with LPL, some of these soaps are just hit and miss, yet with a whole whack of others, consistent performers every time...no splainin' it ....

That is very interesting! I can't imagine with would be your water as it isn't overly 'hard' as I use it all the time when I go back to visit my family. Furthermore, these soaps seem to lather quite effortlessly, every time I have used them in the past.
I wonder what it could be.
Have you noticed any consistencies with certain types of brushes or time spent loading the soap to determine which variables might be contributing to the problem?
Good luck.

Originally Posted by celestino

That is very interesting! I can't imagine with would be your water as it isn't overly 'hard' as I use it all the time when I go back to visit my family. Furthermore, these soaps seem to lather quite effortlessly, every time I have used them in the past.
I wonder what it could be.
Have you noticed any consistencies with certain types of brushes or time spent loading the soap to determine which variables might be contributing to the problem?
Good luck.

No clue why this soap does this.

Take the T&H creams, bang, lather bomb.

DR Harris, Penhaligon's, MWF, Tabac, many hard puck soaps I never have a problem with.

C&S and LPL are two, more so the C&S, that are really inconsistent for me. Awhile ago I tried to "88" again, really was bursting, totally got that sublime, subtle scent, was great, then tried to use it the other day...total dud. The LPL craps out on me on occasion as well...just can't figure it out.

Originally Posted by Phrank

No clue why this soap does this.

Take the T&H creams, bang, lather bomb.

DR Harris, Penhaligon's, MWF, Tabac, many hard puck soaps I never have a problem with.

C&S and LPL are two, more so the C&S, that are really inconsistent for me. Awhile ago I tried to "88" again, really was bursting, totally got that sublime, subtle scent, was great, then tried to use it the other day...total dud. The LPL craps out on me on occasion as well...just can't figure it out.

Sounds like me, just with different products. D R Harris never worked for me, nor Trumper's hard soaps. Total waste. I actually threw one of Trumper's pucks in the trash out of sheer frustration years ago.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Sounds like me, just with different products. D R Harris never worked for me, nor Trumper's hard soaps. Total waste. I actually threw one of Trumper's pucks in the trash out of sheer frustration years ago.

Jimmy, if that is the case... then it IS your water!

Time to take a step back and find some honestly "distilled" water. Not claimed distilled, actually, honest to billy bob, gosh darned, distilled water. Once you are in possession of such water, you should have zero issues with creating proper shaving soap lather, even from a puck of Trumpers soap!

Originally Posted by Phrank

No clue why this soap does this.

Take the T&H creams, bang, lather bomb.

DR Harris, Penhaligon's, MWF, Tabac, many hard puck soaps I never have a problem with.

C&S and LPL are two, more so the C&S, that are really inconsistent for me. Awhile ago I tried to "88" again, really was bursting, totally got that sublime, subtle scent, was great, then tried to use it the other day...total dud. The LPL craps out on me on occasion as well...just can't figure it out.

That is a bit odd and, also, with LPL as it is a veggie soap with enough coconut oil in it to be able to be lathered in any water.

With the help of the gentlemen who contributed their experience I have seemingly solved my problem with lathering. Wild huh ? Well it was a combination of things. Shows you that a guy can do something for years and still do it wrong.

You cold water shavers ............ don't hate me ..... but I'm back shaving hot after all these years. I never had been totally satisfied with my lathering, even years ago before I went cold. One of the things I loved about the cold water shaving was the simplicity.

Basically no prep, splash some water on my face/neck, lather and shave. I did soak the brush and puck (cold) but I didn't spend enough time loading the brush. I didn't use enough water, or apparently soap. You often, if you bother to read my blurbs, see me write that I did one pass and called it good, well I was skimping on developing my lather skills and finally couldn't call that good.

Long story short ..... ( you know that's a lie) ... I broke out the Moss scuttle, the small one where the walls hug the brush, and filled it with hot tap water. ran hot water over the bristles of the brush and gave it a shake.

Lathered on the soap which had some hot on top for a bit before I started. Worked the brush loading until I saw some suds. Decided it was too dry and dipped into hot water, loaded a bit more and face lathered. Good but not good enough. Wet the tips, loaded some more and bowl lathered (Czech & Speake 88) got a good lather going and let the brush sit in the scuttle for a minute.

Real nice lather and the Chubby 2 worked better than it ever had in the short time I've had it. So the past few shaves the lathering has been better and better. I guess the problem all along wasn't brush, soaps, water, but operator error. Lazybones. I was in too much of a hurry, and wasn't paying attention to the details. Thanks again to everyone who gave me something to go with. I'm now doing due diligence and finally getting some good results.

You're scaring me Jimmy. I've been following this thread closely since I have the same problems. I too do zero prep and cold water face lather. And I've been having lather issues as well. I have learned a few lessons from some of the suggestions given in this thread. Thank you. My worry: am I going to have to unearth my Moss scuttle and turn on the hot water?

Originally Posted by cau

You're scaring me Jimmy. I've been following this thread closely since I have the same problems. I too do zero prep and cold water face lather. And I've been having lather issues as well. I have learned a few lessons from some of the suggestions given in this thread. Thank you. My worry: am I going to have to unearth my Moss scuttle and turn on the hot water?

All I can say is, come on in, the hot water is fine ! ...........

Originally Posted by cau

You're scaring me Jimmy. I've been following this thread closely since I have the same problems. I too do zero prep and cold water face lather. And I've been having lather issues as well. I have learned a few lessons from some of the suggestions given in this thread. Thank you. My worry: am I going to have to unearth my Moss scuttle and turn on the hot water?

For the past 3 years or so I have been using cold water and no prep other than wetting my face before face lathering. No problems here raising a good rich slick lather for a 4 pass shave. I do not believe our water is hard.

That said, I think a lot of the trouble is not loading enough soap, thick proto lather, in the first place to do the number of pass you usually do. Then adding a bit of water at a time to slowly get the lather up to snuff regardless if you are using a bowl/scuttle or face lathering. Personally, I don't think water temperature has a huge bearing on it.

In the end though you have to do what you have to do to make it work which ever way that turns out to be.

Bob