Pre shave improving

G'day everyone

Just wanting to share my latest pre shave routine
I had been having problems with drying lather
Asked some questions and got some great tips from the members

Warm shower, massage hair conditioner into whiskers &
leave face wet. Make lather with Lloyds citrus soap and Fauldings shave cream
(half inch long dollop), add some water as needed, got nice thick lather going
Lather face and leave on for about 5 minutes.
Brush had already been soaking in hot tap water during shower
Wash off lather with warm water, added few drops water to lather for extra moisture,
leave face wet and re-apply lather in a nice thick coating.
WTG pass felt smooth nearly all the way to the end, usual trouble spot for me is around the chin area, made a few angle changes and seemed to get a fair result.
Wash face again in warm water, and a few more drops of water mixed in the lather,
re-apply to face for XTG pass which turned out to be about 45 degrees pass,
shave turned out passable smooth with almost no irritation even 30 mins later.
AT this time I applied the Nivea after shave lotion
Nice result and lather feels much better

That was my experience
Sorry its so long winded

Rick

Not long winded at all, Rick, just glad to see it is working for you.
Geoff

Quick question: I've heard several people mention MIXING both shaving soap and cream to make a lather. Any insight into this?

I'm a rookie and have had relatively poor experience making lather from just the soap I have. I'll look around for some more tips - I am sure this is my fault, I can't believe that a regular soap shouldn't make a decent lather on its own.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by murdoc

Quick question: I've heard several people mention MIXING both shaving soap and cream to make a lather. Any insight into this?

I'm a rookie and have had relatively poor experience making lather from just the soap I have. I'll look around for some more tips - I am sure this is my fault, I can't believe that a regular soap shouldn't make a decent lather on its own.

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Yes a good regular shave soap will lather fine
for most. Some folk have hard water (or too soft)
and their lather is hard to build at first.

For a beginner one helpful hint is to put a pea
size bit of shave cream (Proraso for me) on the
puck and then work on the lather. A bit
of Proraso on Williams makes a fine shave
not too much eucalyptus not too little.
Proraso is also sold under the C.O. Bigelow
name.

One hint for a rookie is to tinker and play with
making a lather. Add too much water, too little,
too hot, too cold, a little bit at a time one big
splash of water, face lather, palm lather, bowl
or mug lather...

If you shave ten times in an hour your face will
be hamburger. If you lather 20 times in
an hour no problem as long as you do not
let the hot water run the full time.

I often recommend the $15 Van Der Hagen Premium Shave Set (Soap, Bowl, Brush).
The brush is a budget boar brush and the soap only so so but for a practice kit
it is hard to ignore. After lathering through a puck of Williams or VDH shave
soap the brush will begin to break in and while it is never as soft as a badger
brush it will have a valued place in the shave den.

Enjoy..

Thanks Nifty - in fact I already have the VDH 'starter kit.' I'll keep working, I definitely just need to get a feel for the lather. I didn't really think of it as a process, but many on these boards also suggest tinkering: add a little water, re-soap your brush and go back into the later, etc etc.

I'll keep at it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by murdoc

Thanks Nifty - in fact I already have the VDH 'starter kit.' I'll keep working, I definitely just need to get a feel for the lather. I didn't really think of it as a process, but many on these boards also suggest tinkering: add a little water, re-soap your brush and go back into the later, etc etc.

I'll keep at it.

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Hey mate

Welcome to the group
I am a newbie myself and have learned a lot from reading the forums here

In regards to your lather can I suggest getting some glycerin oil (dont need much 100 ml is plenty)
And also an eye dropper for the oil
Only takes a drop or two and really boosts the lather
You can add it to the bowl any time during the process
I have tried at the start and about half way through building the lather
Both methods seem to work fine for me

Try out any other ideas you like from our members
They have some great advice and many years of experience to learn from
Above all enjoy the experience of learning these skills
See what works for you

Have fun
Rick

I been trying a lot of different things with lather and pre shave lotion but seems like i always go back to shower, wet face,
lather up proraso,a few drops of glycerin, i do one pass WTG and im good to go!! and still after a few months of straight razor shaving i enjoy it
and always look forward to it. Just wish that i discovered this site earlier lots of good info here for sure!!

Quote:

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Warm shower, massage hair conditioner into whiskers &
leave face wet. Make lather with Lloyds citrus soap and Fauldings shave cream
(half inch long dollop), add some water as needed, got nice thick lather going
Lather face and leave on for about 5 minutes.
Brush had already been soaking in hot tap water during shower

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So, your face is covered with hair conditioner and lather:

. . . What happens if you shave _right then_, instead of removing that lather and replacing it?

It may have cooled off, but that thin layer of hair conditioner does a good job of avoiding razor burn.

Just a suggestion, won't cost much to try.

Charles

I have been "retro shaving" for about a year and a half and found that simplifying the routine as much as possible really helps me. I'll never get out of the bathroom and do a lousy job shaving if I give myself too many products to use and too many things to remember.

Just make sure your face is wet and you have plenty of water content in your lather. It doesn't even matter if the water is hot or cold.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by murdoc

Quick question: I've heard several people mention MIXING both shaving soap and cream to make a lather. Any insight into this?

I'm a rookie and have had relatively poor experience making lather from just the soap I have. I'll look around for some more tips - I am sure this is my fault, I can't believe that a regular soap shouldn't make a decent lather on its own.

---

Hi, I'm a lover of Überlather, which is soap, cream and glycerin mixed together. I use probably more than two drops of glycerin. You'll find that together these are 'greater than the sum of their parts'. I'm pretty new to straight razor shaving (3 mths) and always used cheap (Palmolive) cream in a tube before. I find if I don't make a Überlather, I prefer a cream over a soap. There's a cool video on Überlather in the Wiki, it doesn't take as long to make as one might think; it's really very easy and quick...BTW, I find soaps really lather well when face lathering, esp with a stiffer boar's hair brush...

I'll try the applying water to the face after each pass. Makes a lot of sense that doing so will help stop the lather drying out.

I just gave up trying anything fancy on my 2nd and 3rd passes and just lathered and shaved half my face at a time. I put it down to the fact that XTG and ATG passes were by there nature slower than WTG passes.

A few pieces of advice that have helped me to build a good lather with a soap:

1. Use a brush with a nice strong backbone. If your brush is too 'floppy', it may be tough to transfer enough soap from the puck to the brush.
2. Try putting a thin layer of warm water on the soap before you get in the shower. Letting some water soften up the soap for a few minutes seems to make it easier to load the brush with soap.
3. Use a bowl, not a mug. Mugs an face lathering work fine, but a bowl seems to generate lather most easily and abundantly.
4. Add a few drops of glycerin to the top of the puck before loading the brush.

I've always used good soaps, but I have to imagine that a good routine and technique should give you a reasonable lather from almost any product.