Thread: My brush is eating all of my lather??

So I have been experimenting with soaps and creams lately since I've gotten back in to SR shaving. Currently I have castle forbes lavender cream, a bunch of MNS, MWF, and a few mama bear. I only have one brush a kent BK8. It is great for my very sensitive skin, but is extremely floppy. I love the feel, but now that I have seen what good lather looks like from others on the forums, I wanted more lather even if it means a stiffer brush. I figured I would get a new brush soon, but I'm not sure what I want yet (something with a finest or silvertip knot from TGN). I figured that either way my BK8 would be my go to cream brush since its so soft and feels wonderful on the skin.

At any rate after paying very close attention to what I like and dislike about my brush lately, I realized that the trouble I have with making lather isnt that the brush isnt lathering well, its that it sucks all of the lather to the center of the knot and the tips remain fairly latherless. The only way I get really good lather on my skin is if I squeeze it out of the brush.

Am I doing something wrong, is this a trait that is inherent in certain types of knots that I should avoid in my next brush? Any ideas??

JLStorm:
How well are you loading your brush? How well are you whipping your lather? Also don't forget that your floppy brush will probably work much better with creams than with soaps. Finally, give the brush a good shampooing.

Just keep on applying soap. When the brush gets tired of eating it and feels full, it will regurgitate some of the lather back down to the bristles.

After I whip up my lather in my mug or bowl, I squeeze it out of the brush back into the bowl. When doing this I can tell whether it is runny or thick or in between . at least two thirds of the lather is wasted if you don't do that. Then you have a lot more lather to work with. I used to watch my father make lather and he did not do that. I learned how to do it on this forum from Jimmy I think.

I have the same problem with the larger Badger hair brushes, I find Boar brushes and the smaller badger brushes tend to "give up" the lather more readily.

I never worry about it. I just build lather until it's the way I like it. lets face it if you think your brush is a hog figure what the excess lather costs. I don't think you will worry about it then.

Do you mash the brush hard when loading and then building lather? That's usually the culprit when you get lather buildup in the centre of the knot, especially with a floppy brush.

I blame my uh, inability to lather on my hard water. The glycerin worked wonders lol .

Seriously - it helped allot... though I probably didn't really need it.

Thanks for the replies all. I do have hard water (well water) in a mineral dense area, but I also have a water softner unit which helps a bit. I used to mash my brush, but didnt realize it until I moved here and found lather harder to build, now I find that a very gentle touch is best.. For cream I use about a blueberry size dollop of castle forbes, which is quite a bit more than I ear of others using. i could use 2x that and still have it last for a while. My tallow soaps lather fairly well as long as I am lathering on the soap and not loading the brush with a little lather to build more lather in another bowl. I do think the floppiness is part of the issue, but I've definitely been wasting a lot of lather. Its not a money thing like TBS said, its not much $$ in the grand scheme of things, its just that i feel like I must be doing something wrong. I guess its that I'm not lathering enough. I do spend a fair amount of time at it. I'm thinking that maybe a TGN finest knot will help with the floppiness and hopefully build more lather in less time (<5 minutes).

Originally Posted by JLStorm

Thanks for the replies all. I do have hard water (well water) in a mineral dense area, but I also have a water softner unit which helps a bit. I used to mash my brush, but didnt realize it until I moved here and found lather harder to build, now I find that a very gentle touch is best.. For cream I use about a blueberry size dollop of castle forbes, which is quite a bit more than I ear of others using. i could use 2x that and still have it last for a while. My tallow soaps lather fairly well as long as I am lathering on the soap and not loading the brush with a little lather to build more lather in another bowl. I do think the floppiness is part of the issue, but I've definitely been wasting a lot of lather. Its not a money thing like TBS said, its not much $$ in the grand scheme of things, its just that i feel like I must be doing something wrong. I guess its that I'm not lathering enough. I do spend a fair amount of time at it. I'm thinking that maybe a TGN finest knot will help with the floppiness and hopefully build more lather in less time (<5 minutes).

If you don't like floppy get yourself a Thater or a Simpson Manchurian. They have backbone in spades. In a smaller brush they aren't that expensive either.