Thread: Hard water and making lather using shave soap

I have hard water at my beach house. I can only shave half of my face by the time I get to the other half the lather is gone. Do creams perform better?

What kind of soap do you use. I have used arko, col conk, and a couple others with my hard water. It lathers well and keeps moist. I have tried a couple creams and proraso doesn't seem to last as long.

This has me curious. We have hard water at my house so I wouldn't know any better. I'd like to see everyone's take on this. As for myself, I get a good supply of thick rich lather in my shaving cup. Then I reapply as needed.

Chet-

A cream is mostly just a softer soap - OK, there may be slight differences in particular formulas - and won't perform "better" all things being equal. I suspect that you simply need to use more product and that may be easier to do with a cream. In fact, I suppose it's easier to waste soap with a cream than with a soap.

As with the above guys and many others I have hard water but have no trouble making lasting lather with a large assortment of soaps. I rotate between my eight "regular" soaps in stick form and always seem to add two or three others to each rotation and everything seems to work fine. (Modern Williams requires a bit more work but even it can make a nice creamy lather.)

In other words, even with hard water it's just a matter of experimenting a bit to find what works for you. Try to really load the brush with the soap (or apply more if using sticks) and work the dickens out of it to make a stiff lather, adding water as you go but don't add so much that it starts to form large bubbles. Also, as Mechromancer implied, don't be afraid to apply more lather as you shave.

rs,
Tack

When I started, I began with creams and though I had to work it, in spite of the hard water I have here I got great lathers. Then as I diversified (especially with soaps) I found that not all worked with the water I had. So I gave some away and "shelved" some others.

Ultimately in time, after revisiting those I had put away and giving them another shot without the pressures of getting out of the house quickly, I found I indeed could lather them up! Well wasn't that a kick in the pants lol.

Moreover, as I traveled and encountered other harness and softness levels, I found I needed more or less product and/or vigor :-) .

That's all to say with a little practice l think I can make just about anything lather with just about anything resembling water lol... Again with practice. But yeah for sure, I find creams easier for some reason. I say add a couple of swirls on the soap, dab a bit more water on the brush and go to town :-). .

Oh and when it gets really hard I find face lathering the best. Sometimes i,'ll even dab the brush in water mid face.

That's my experience anyway. Good luck!

Here are a few suggestions:

- Try adding a little glycerine to your bowl before lathering.
- A touch of Bicarbonate of Soda (Baking powder) added to the water you soak your brush in may help. This works best if you have a scuttle with a water reservoir and separate lather bowl - you can then use the same water for adding to your brush when lathering.
- Experiment with bottled water - if you are still getting thin and weak lathers then you need to add more product.

In answer to your original question, I find it much easier to get good lather using creams, but my routine now includes quite a few soaps plus the glycerine in a suribachi bowl. Soap sticks can be rubbed into the ridges of the bowl as well as into your whiskers just to add a bit more.

My take on this is that hard water alone is not the issue as to whether a good lather can be obtained. I have hard water and can get good lather from most soaps. One soap in particular though(shall remain nameless) has been a devil's own job to lather. That said, this soap will lather easily when I travel to the north of England where the water is even harder. Speaking with a few others elsewhere, it is probable that water hardness alone is not the issue in producing stable lather, but more the concentration of sodium chloride it contains. Many soaps contain a chelating agent such as EDTA that helps combat this issue.

I've always been hit and miss with some of the harder soaps. I have found that adding a dab of cream to the bowl with a soap always seems to pay off. If I'm having a hard time with that particular soap.

Folks always blame the water when they have issues and it always comes down to hardness. There can be many issues with water quality and some have nothing to do with hardness. Also hardness can vary tremendously and mild hardness isn't that big an issue. It's mainly the carbonates, magnesium and calcium that cause the hardness issues. The Western U.S has about the hardest water you will ever find and pure soaps really don't work. if you are in that situation the best solution is to get some bottled water and use that for shaving unless you buy a water softener. The hardness impedes foaming of the soap and when you add more soap often times you just get a thin weak excuse for lather that quickly dries on your face.

It's one of the reasons most soaps are a concoction of chemicals. That deals with the hardness. With shave soaps you have to experiment and find one that works well in your area.