Thread: Lather always dries out...Help!

Whip it.........whip it good.....(Devo)

http://youtu.be/SKyIt6zIJvY

Not all soaps are equal. Using the same method everyday I find soaps that do dry out right away. Use an established lanolin brand. MWF if available.

I used to struggle with the same thing.
I have pretty oily skin, and what really helps me is a proper washing with good soap before lathering up.
If I don't do that my lather will dry and die pretty quickly.

Try loading your brush up with water ether by soaking or running it under the faucet.

Next put some hot water on you puck and let sit a min.

Then dump the water off the puck and move brush over to puck without losing any water (make no movements trying to lose water you will lose some to gravity.

Load your brush for about thirty seconds just using the tips of your brush.

Wet your face and face lather.

Do your stropping

Rinse off first lather. Keeping face wet re lather.

Shave

Wet face in between each pass

Try adding just a drop or two of oil. If you have access to nothing else, get some Tres Flores Brilliantine, or even baby oil should work. I add the oil after loading the brush.

Originally Posted by Man

No, sorry. Are you saying that the lather should be a half inch thickness on my face? I've never gotten it to be that thick. After I "paint" it on, it's pretty thin, almost transparent.

Just spent a long time practicing building lather. On second look at honedright's method, I found that it is very similar to what I've been doing, minus the oil. I added water a little bit at a time. When I thought that it was hydrated enough, I lathered my face. After a minute, the lather is drying out every time. I rinsed my face clean, added a little more water and relathered each time until the lather was runny and transparent and bubbly on my face. At no point did it not dry out on me after about a minute. I have no problem "refreshing" the lather after I finish the first side of my face, it's just that by the end of my shave, I will relather under my nose and my chin, and by the time I'm done with the chin (less than a minute), under the nose is already almost dry. Do you guys add water to your lather to maintain its hydration during the shave or between passes?

When I reread my post it didn't make sense to me either. Lets try again.

Here is how I do it. I put the brush in the cup and fill it with water. Swirl the brush once or twice and dump out the water and shake the brush slightly. There is plenty of water on the brush and soap is wet with some excess around the edges. 10 seconds or so of swirling with the brush has the brush loaded with enough soap for 6 - 8 passes. I put more down the drain than I use but soap is cheap. When I lather my face it is 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick.

I did an experiment tonight and lathered my forearm to see how long it took to dry. The area that was 1/16 of an inch or less lather dried in about 10 minutes. I got tired of waiting and rinsed of the 1/8 to 1/4 after 20 minutes and it was still very wet. I used VDH soap nothing added.

I finally had some better luck this morning using more water, laying the lather on thicker, and refreshing it with the brush more often. I also added a little more water to my lather between passes. Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone!

It's good to hear you're having success! There's nothing wrong with experimenting making a lather outside of actual shaving, as weird as it may seem. I used to do it a lot. When (and if) you do, don't just wash the resulting lather down the sink; wash your face with it...

Originally Posted by honedright

Try adding just a drop or two of oil. If you have access to nothing else, get some Tres Flores Brilliantine, or even baby oil should work. I add the oil after loading the brush.

Nah, forget oil or glycerin, keep it natural; get a hagfish!

Hagfish Sliming Video - YouTube

Originally Posted by donv

Nah, forget oil or glycerin, keep it natural; get a hagfish!

I thought oil and glycerine are natural, and certainly less disgusting!