Thread: Trouble with lather

I recently bought some vdh soap from walmart and a vdh boars hair brush to try and get away from the can. I have been going by the directions for bowl lathering in the wiki and after making a dozen or so batches I'm still a bit confused. I can't seem to get a plentiful amount of thick lather. I use very little water and only add more in by the drop if needed. It seems to be an issue with getting enough soap even after several attempts with the puck. Any suggestions would be welcome thanks.

Maybe soak the brush, say 5 min. Let it get plenty of water inside. Then give it a shake or two. Swirl it on the puck 30+ times. Until you begin to make a lather on the puck. More is better until you get the hang of it. Take the brush to a bowl and whip it up. Add water as it gets thick, sticky or dry.

Making lather is not hard really, sorta like riding a bike - so simple once it's second nature. Getting there can be tricky...
...Ray

In my experience with the VDH brush you can get a decent lather but not a great one... make sure you put a couple drops of hot water on the soap to soften it while the brush soaks in hot water for 3-5 minutes.
Then drain the water out of your mug/bowl and shake the brush off. Dump the smidge of water on to the bowl and load the brush like crazy. If you wrap your palm over the brush and grasp the bristles with thumb and a couple fingers it will help. Swirl and pump the brush on the soap for 30 seconds before you go to the bowl.
Swirl and pump in that bowl adding a few drops of water as you go (depending on the amount of soap it will be up to a few teaspoons to a tablespoon or so of water).
Also, is your water hard or does it go through a softener? Hard water takes some work and water that goes through a salt softener takes work as the salt breaks the soap down a bit so it screws with water to soap ratios.

I do let the brush soak in water but I squeeze the water out. Am I supposed to leave more water in the brush? I let a little water soak on the soap while I took a shower. Also I just read something about not using a smooth bowl. Currently I am using a completely glossy bowl. Could that be part also?

Don't squeeze all the water out, just shake the brush a couple times. And try loading the soap heavily, like for 60 seconds and see how it goes. Shouldn't be a problem with the smooth bowl.

I will try that tomorrow. Thanks

I get a pretty good lather with my VDH boar brush - even on a puck of Williams (ok... uberbrush, uberlather guys can stop reading here).

I have my Williams puck nestled securely into my teacup where it will live out it's life. I run my brush under the molten tin temperature water coming right out of my tap (I hope the landlord doesn't realise how much hot water I'm using 'cause he's paying for it) and soak the brush thoroughly.

I give it one shake. A light one at that.

It goes right into the teacup and I grind up a pretty decent, albeit wet lather. Swirling the brush around the puck and the cup to remove most of what's in it and what's gotten blown out the top I put it in a clean (warm and mostly dry) teacup and whip up to stiff peaks a good, moist lather.

If it seems too dry I add a little water off my fingertips, but by now I pretty much know how wet my brush needs to be from the get-go. The second teacup is pretty much filled with lather so after grinding said lather into my face I still have an ample amount for second, third and fourth passes if necessary. If the lather dries out any (and it very likely will with Williams) I just add a little water from my fingertips and it comes right back.

Dpeet was kind enough to send almost a full tube of some C. O. Bigelow cream that he didn't really care for and with the same wet VDH brush and large pea sized offering of the cream in my clean cup I am able to whip up mountains of lather. In the winter I'm sure I will use the Bigelow... it smells great and makes a great, long lasting lather, but the menthol stuff, summer and my face do not get along very well.

Thanks again, Dpeet!

I do not worry about any lather left in the teacup of Williams. It just dries and glues the puck solidly into it's vessel awaiting it's next assault.

(Uber brush guys can pick it up here)

Yea, there are better brushes, I'm sure. I don't have one, but my pig brush works pretty well and yours will too - for now.

The water here in Jax sux, period. It's so hard, I've seen it chip sinks on the way out of the faucet. I have a water softner, it helps tremendously. If I were you, I'd uber the soap. I had trouble with lot's of soaps people say are wonderful. I can't speak of VDH. I don't have it, or use it, but other well known soaps fell flat for me too.
Pick up some scent free shave cream. "kiss my face" is a good one, and I saw it at Winn Dixie near the organic stuff by the produce believe it or not. Also, get some glycerin. They should have that at WalGreens. Add a squirt of "kiss my face" and about 5 drops of Glycerin. You'll be in Lather heaven...

I'm definately going to have to try the uberlather method. From what I've heard it seems like the way to go. Thanks a Lot. Zib where in Jax are you?

No offense to VDH but if you expect thick plentiful lather you will be disappointed. You should be able to produce enough lather to get the job done but the stuff does have limitations.