Thread: Face Lathering and Slickness

Sorry if this has been asked before. I am coming around to face lathering due to acquiring some MWF, but I am having issues with getting moist enough lather. I keep dipping the brush but was wondering if anyone had a better method. Also, there seems to be a fine line between just right and getting wet lather everywhere. Any tips will be greatly appreciated!

There are many variables most of which center on what lather you want.

Things I do:

Soak your brush for a few minutes.

Wet the puck while you do the rest of your prep: shower, brush your teeth, etc.

Thoroughly wet your face. Keep your beard wet and watch the whiskers pop up.

Use a pre-lather lather. After soaking my whiskers I put on a lather to cleanse the hair. VDH is cheap and does a good job.

Use the brush to work the pre-lather and then rinse the face and brush thoroughly.

Now load with the MWF. Dip as needed.

Just some ideas. As often stated, YMMV.

Let us know how it goes.

Dave

You are going to get a few different answers and hopefully one will work for you. I do not have a prep routine just wet face and lather up. To lather up I dip just the the tips of my brush in water, quick shake and load the brush from a dry puck for a bit. Re dip the tips and load some more. Go to the face and build the lather adding water a bit at a time as needed by dipping just the tips of the brush in water till you have the lather you want.

There is a fine balance point between too much water and a thin runny lather that can fly everywhere and one that is too dry and quickly cakes on your face. You just have to add small amounts of water at a time till you get to the sweet spot of consistency for the lather. I believe MWF is known as a thirsty soap ad will take a fair amount of water before turning thin and runny.

Bob

Well sorry for the slow response, but I have found I prefer my badgers to boars so far in face lathering. They hold the moisture a lot better and require less dipping. Always fun to take up a new aspect of this game!

Try and moved the brush just a bit faster, like a mixing bowl. This seems to help with a face lather, as that is what I usually do. Just love the feel of the brush working on my face.

I get a little crazy with direction, and speed sometimes, but it does help keep the water and producing lather mixed up.

I know what you mean, aa. The stuff does have a hair trigger. Too much water and frothy suds slop is flying around the room and drooling down your chest; too little water and it's like spreading paste on your face.

I agree with Funstuff, above. Err, if you must, on the too-dry side, and just add a little water to the brush and work it faster in the mug and/or on your face. Once you crack the code it's rich and silky micro-froth. I had piles of it on the (badger*) brush this morning. Add a teaspoon of water to the brush if it's gooey, work the brush harder and faster. Buckets of bubbles. I think a lot about finding good lather is just using a brush more aggressively.

* I find MWF relatively insensitive to badger vs. boar as far as getting a good lather but, while I generally like a stiff boars hair brush, the MWF blossoms explosively with badger.

My only contribution to the great notes above is to reserve the liquid that I use to soak the puck/soap.
This is what I use for additional moisture as I build face or scuttle lather.
Something about that soapy goodness (Ph corrected?) makes getting the best out of your MWF that much easier.

Smooth Shaving...

I have always had this problem, even with the Sandalwood T.O.B.S. cream that i use....so i started lathering 1/2 of my face at a time, shave, then lather the other side and shave...rinse, repeat same process for ATG pass.

works great for me

Yeah I also use my soak water for dipping my brush. It certainly took a few time to figure out I needed more pressure than bowl lathering.

MWF is known to be difficult to lather. A good soaking of the puck is vital, as been said. What I like to do in general is strip the brush of its lather once or twice with my other hand during the process, wipe it back on the brush, then continue with face lathering. That way you don't have lather in your face and brush of different water content. After doing this the lather gains much more volume. To add water, just take a tip of the brush full at a time. Then it's not sloppy.

Happy Lathering!

OldSalt