Thread: Trouble building lather

I have been having trouble building a lather with any soap I use. I take a good amount on my brush but when I try to mix it, the lather just stays in my brush instead of around the bowl. I've tried using less and more amounts of soap but it all ends the same. I'm not sure of this is a common problem but any help would be greatly appreciated.

That's a puzzlement. Some obvious and possibly stupid questions first:

1. Have you soaked your brush in either hot or cold water previous to loading it with soap?

2. Did you put a about a teaspoon of water on top of the soap to soak for awhile before you loaded your brush?

3. Have you tried adding a brush tip's worth of more water while trying to build the lather?

4. Do you use an addition of 3 or 4 drops of glycerin in your mixing bowl before trying to build a lather?

Sometimes it's the little things that matter.

Razorfeld has pretty much said what i would say, and the little things definately matter. I would start with the water ratios, also bear in mind that you can just lather straight onto your face (face lathering) and skip the bowl entirely.
It might also be worth giving a cream a go rather than the soap and see how you go with that, generally speaking i think creams are easier to lather than soaps.

1. Yes I soak my brush in hot water.
2. No, I haven't heard about this but I definitely will give it a try.
3. Yes, I've added small amounts of water then try to lather and slowly add more.
4. No, another thing I haven't heard of or have.

Pre softening works wonders.

Glycerin is cheap and available in the drug section of most grocery and drugstores. Just 3 or 4 drops helps a great deal.

What kind of bowl/scuttle are you using? Does it have bumps and ridges in it?

What soaps have you tried? i sort of assumed from your post that you have tried a few, and that you did a bit of a search for good and bad soaps. i havent had the misfortune yet, but i have read about some fairly ordinary soaps, one of which i have but am lothe to try in case i am disapointed and end up with a $30 bar of not terribly good hand soap.

First what brush are you using?

Second as has been asked what soap or soaps have you tried?

Third what is your normal routine when you build lather? Step by step please.

Once you get the hang of it you can lather practically any soap out there, even Dial deodorant soap.

It's the easiest and cheapest thing to practice. Start "dry" (minimal water) and add water a few drops/sprinkles at a time. Do not add water if there is anything runny in your bowl. If you see runniness, pour it out. Get drier. Go again. Enjoy.

You'll get the hang of it...we all do. If I had to guess you need more water. Somone suggested glycerin, but I've never had to do that with any soap. Watch this video, and see if what he does helps you any...and hang in there, and as SRP's founder says, have fun.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/begin...xperiment.html

If you have hard water it will hinder lather production. If it's hard try using distilled water or add a couple of pinches of citric acid to a wash basin of water. I use the latter and it's improved my lather 100%.