Thread: First Lathering

Greetings SRP —


Yesterday I kicked the can and picked up the VDH Shave Kit. After carefully reading through the Making Soap Lather tutorial on this site I headed into my john with my brush and bowl in tow. I followed the instructions to a T and didn't deviate for any reason. The lather in the bowl and what was loaded onto my brush looked to be correct but when I went to swirl the concoction onto my mug it was thin. During my prep I did dip back into the soap a bit to pick up some additional soap for my lather to get a bit thicker.


I still was able to shave with the mixture, so I'm not sure if this is a rookie error (probably) or if this kind of soap just seems 'thinner' than the canned crap.


I throw myself to the wolves now for insight.


Cheers
Lowball

there is nothing about this kind of soap that compares to the canned goo, it will be thinner or thicker depending your addition of water ,, it takes time to learn just as anything in this craft ,, but just because its not 2 inches thick on your face doesn't mean its not doing its job,,, practice it will come good luck tc

I always soak my brush then flick all the water back out before I start making later. You really do need very little water and the less you start with the better, because you can always add more as you build it up. However if you start with a watery mess then you're on the path to failure. That being said even a badly made lather is usually better than the crap in a tin.

What they said.

A few drops of water on lathered brush takes soap from stiff to perfect or from perfect to sloshy. A few drops less in the mug takes lather from weedy to wealthy.

Most shavers find critical mass in about three sessions once they go looking for it.

This is a good vid on face lathering but you can apply the ideas to bowl lathing too Lathering Tutorial - How to lather a shaving soap - YouTube