Originally Posted by
kaptain_zero
Jimmy,
Soak your brush with water (I prefer warm, but ymmv). Shake out the *excess* water... not a violent shake, just one or two light flicks so the water isn't dribbling out of the brush as you move it around or run down your arm when face lathering, but it must still be quite wet. Swirl on your soap (no pre-treating the soap is necessary, but it will speed your lather building if you do) until it starts to look good, then you can either work up the lather in a dry bowl/scuttle or in your hand or on your face.
If you do not have enough water, you will NEVER dissolve enough soap to make lather. IF you have too much water.... and you follow the instructions above... as in keep swirling on that soap until it starts to look good, you will end up with enough excellent lather to shave 10 men. Wasteful perhaps, but at least you got the lather right... now you know you had too much water and you can flick that brush just a little bit harder the next time. Everyone uses different amounts of water/soap/swirling time etc. So do not be surprised at how short or long you may have to swirl, or how much water you have to use, to get it right... it's different for every man, brush, soap, cream, water and temperature.... To start, just make sure your brush is thoroughly soaked and not too dry.... Once you get decent lather, but perhaps too much, you can start to cut back on the amount of water.... You have to start with too much water.... too little and you NEVER get decent lather.
Thin lather has two main causes.
1: Not enough water in the brush (no amount of swirling on the soap will fix it, you need more water)
2: Too much water, and you don't dissolve enough soap to bring it together (more swirling on the soap will eventually fix this issue, but you'll have too much lather)
Yes, hard water can be a problem, but you have eliminated that by using bottle water... unless you were sold tap water in a bottle.... and don't laugh, it's a problem all over both the USA AND Canada. I've never had to deal with really hard water (signs would be white crusting around your faucets and having to clean your coffee-maker or kettle from white mineral build up every few weeks). If you know you have REALLY HARD water, then we need to deal with that.... A gallon of real distilled water would fix that problem. Another tipoff would be that you can't get your shampoo to lather, no suds in your laundry and you have to chip all that white crud off your taps to get some water in your glass!
The warmer the water, the faster it will dissolve soap and the faster you can create lather. The colder the water, the longer it will take to dissolve the soap and make lather.
And yes, some soaps and creams are crappy...... but you should still be able to get them to lather... If you are using a cream, something around the size of a level measuring teaspoon should be fine to start... again, you'll probably need to adjust it up or down as necessary, but that would be a good start. I often hear "pea size" as a measure, but I tend to use a "half a shrivelled walnut's worth" If you start with a toothpick's worth of cream, you are going to have a hard time getting enough lather to shave with.
Those pictures of huge billowing piles of shaving lather... bah, it's dry and useless, but looks impressive for the camera. If you have trouble making enough lather for a picture, grab a can of goo from the store and add it before taking the picture!
The soap/cream has 3 basic purposes:
1: Lubricate your face during shaving.... allow the blade to glide effortlessly across the skin and help the water to permeate and soften your beard.
2: The hairs are softened by *water and a surfactant", so you want as much water as you can get into the lather and soap is a surfactant, the lather is there to keep the water on your face! It's called wet shaving for a reason.
3: And of least importance perhaps, lather lets you see where you have already shaved and collects the stubble into an easy to wipe off glob on your razor.
Regards
Christian