Thread: Lather?? help please!!!

Hello gents,

To start with, I began shaving "the right way" recently due to the fact that I’ve heard it irritates the skin much less, and I’m sick of having razor burn after shaving with the Fusion I had. Plus, I just think it's cool. I've started out on a budget, I got the Van der Hagen Deluxe brush/soap/mug kit with a Parker Disposable Straight Razor. I eventually want a Boker Tree Brand or a Hart Steel Razor, but I figure the parker was a good introductory step to see whether or not I want to do this and drop 150+ on a razor. So far I love it, minus the nicks. But I think the nicks may be because I’m missing something when it comes to prep. I must say that the pre-shave prep was one of the reasons I was looking forward to wet shaving, but so far I’ve only been frustrated with it. I've searched the forums, tried all the different methods I’ve found, etc... but I can't seem to get a decent lather going. I've been using the tutorial from here on building the lather in a bowl, not lathering on your face. Anyway, I'll get what I think is a good consistency, put it on my face and it disappears within a minute. It's more like soap suds than shaving lather. Today I actually stopped trying after like half an hour of frustration, completely rinsed my face and brush off and started trying again. My face, after I rinsed whatever I thought was a lather off (still hadn't shaved), was kind of tight and a little dry feeling, could this mean something? It also kind of seems that whatever it is that I’m making makes my hair stickier during my shave instead of being lubricating. Whenever I lather up, it kind of looks good to me in the bowl then I try and brush it on my face and it seems to just sink into my skin. I can visibly see my skin when I'm shaving, I’m pretty sure I’m missing something. Is this something I’m doing wrong? I've been shaving with whatever it is that I’m making, and it's definately not the comfortable, enjoyable experience that everyone says it should be. Should I just go with putting the soap in the bottom of my mug and lathering straight on my face? Could it be the soap? The Van der Hagen Soap I’m using gets great reviews, but that's assuming I know what I’m doing (big assumption). Could it be the brush? Could it be the water? I'm serving in Afghanistan right now and the water quality here is poor, very hard and treated non-potable is what we have running in our plumbing. I'm thinking of switching to a Truefitt & Hill cream instead of using soap, as that seems somewhat easier and less hassle, which is good for me right now while I’m here overseas. But I want to understand what it is that I’m doing wrong with the soap, as I want to enjoy that type of prep also, and my searches thus far haven't fixed anything. Also, any input on King of Shaves pre-shave oil? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Your Parker will nick easily, but I don't think the soap is at fault. I've shaved while at the beach using hand soap or dish detergent that I "lathered up" using my hands and no brush at all. Lather problems are usually a result of a problem of the balance between water and soap, or, in your case, hard water. You'll get lathering down eventually. I've been using the Van der Hagen soap lately and find it works just fine. I'd recommend lightening on your pressure with the Parker. Keep at it. It will come around for you.

Try taking your cream or soap and rubbing it around the inside of your bowl. Works better with a bowl with a ruff interior. Just rub the stick or the round inside the bowl until there's a light coating. If using a cream do the same with your fingers.
You increase the 'surface area' of the soap. Then run your brush around the bowl and in no time at all - lather.
I use a Suribachi and it works great with all soaps and creams.

If you can get a hold of a cheap Arko shave stick soap and give that a try. It has a reputation of lathering well in all kinds of water.

Bob

Thanks for the feedback. I'm getting it's more of a time-learned skill rather than one that you get right away. Like whistling with your fingers, something you have to do over and over to get, more of a "learn by doing" than a teachable skill. As sad as it sounds i'm probably going to go back and practice lathering during the evenings. I mean there's nothing else to do over here, so why not? Thanks for the tip on the parker ace, I think I may be adding too much pressure now that you mention it. That's funny with the dish detergent! Johnus, if i'm going with that method do you add any water to the bowl or just stay with what's loaded on the brush? I'll look into the Arko shave stick rather than using bottled water. Thanks, guys!

Most new comers to wet shaving are too bashful with the lathering bowl and do not sufficiently load the brush.

Load the brush for a full 60 seconds until the soap suds are pouring out of the soap tub or bowl.

Then go to the bowl, pour and wipe all the suds into the bowl, then whip it vigorously for at least another minute or two.

Load the brush again if it still looks too thin or add hot water if it is too dry.

A rich lather should entirely cover the skin.

Enjoy your shave.

Gammaray, not to sound too ignorant but is there some way to visually tell if it's too thin or too dry? Thanks!

I don't want to answer for Gammaray but from my own experience making lather if you use too much water it will be thin and runny. You put it on and it wants to slide down your face literally. You can have a thick lather but it does not have enough water in it and drys out too quickly. When you are making lather you are walking a fine line between having too much or too little water mixed with your soap.

You could also be building a decent lather but shaving slowly enough that if you cover your whole face with lather parts of it will dry out before you get to them, been guilty of that one. You could try lathering only a portion of your face at one time and then go to the next section you want to do.

Bob

Originally Posted by plwolfe

Gammaray, not to sound too ignorant but is there some way to visually tell if it's too thin or too dry? Thanks!

There are some videos showing members lathering. If you watch carefully you can see when they add water when it's too thick.

Thick lather that needs water has little to no suds or foam in the bowl when lathering. If you advance to applying that lather to your face it will be easy to figure out as the lather will dry before you are half done. If the lather is drying on your face you needed more water while lathering in the bowl. In a sense the lather will make your face look like the Mona Lisa before you're half done shaving.

Thin lather, watered down, generally has a itty bitty pool of water at the bottom of the bowl. If you pay attention to the lather it will also have larger bubbles and when you get a little peak (think meringue pie peaks) and it folds over, this means you need to lather it more. Just keep going swirling the brush making lather but do not add more cream/soap. Also, if you advance to applying the lather to your face the lather will make a sound like Rice Crispies (popping of the bubbles) and can be a little translucent.

Ideally you want the lather to be thick-ish. Think meringue pie peaks except the peak will not fold over if the brush is held vertical. The lather doesn't dry up quickly when shaving leaving you with a crust like appearance. You cannot see through the lather and doesn't make the Rice Crispies (bubble popping sound).

When I mentored a friend I recommended he practice lathering frequently even if he wasn't going to shave. Use a cream that isn't super expensive such as Proraso or CO Bigelow. Lathering is somewhere between a science and art.

This is just my experience and I'm sure others will have more information.

Thanks guys, I actually just got done with a lathering practice, I ended up using the soap disk at the bottom of the mug, instead of trying to use the mug and the soap in seperate bowls, and kind of compromised between building it in the mug and on my face. For the first time though I think i got the right consistancy, didn't dry off my face super fast and it felt creamy. I think maybe since I got it right this way with the disk in the mug that means I wasn't loading the brush with enough soap(?) when I was trying to keep them seperate. Now if I could just remember how exactly I did it... Great tip on the rice crispies thing, I noticed that earlier & now I know it's wrong.