Thin Pathetic Lather

OK so this is my 5-6 time using VDH shave soap and from everything I read it is supposedly really easy and quick to lather. All I can manage to get out of it is a thin, grey, type lather. That's the best way I can describe it not much body. What am I doing wrong? I use a ceramic bowl, hot water, and an Edwin Jagger traditional English best badger Hair shaving brush same brush I have been using for ages. I'm also lucky if I manage to make enough lather to actually cover my entire face, its just so sparse. Thanks in advance! OH and if need be please feel free to point me in the direction of some really good posts on making lather, I've read a few but I thought I would pose the problem to the community anyway. Peace.

I don't know where the grey came from, unless it was the brush (maybe new ??)
Controling the water input helps, use 6 drops of glycerin, lather on the puck itself in a bowl.
The bowl should be about the size of your palm, so you can hold the bowl in your hand as you "whip" the lather up.

You can grate the puck into a bowl that has a lid, Pyrex, this loads lots of soap on the brush. Let dry a day or so before you cover it.

VDH is cheap, so practice on it while watching TV , when not shaving.

I am thinking too much water and not enough product. Try shaking your brush out after soaking it and then load on the soap for a good while. Then dip just the brush tips in water, light shake and go back to loading the soap some more. I usually go the face to build lather after that but since you bowl lather start building you lather in your bowl. You cab dribble a couple drops of water into the bowl at the start and add more later if needed as you build lather. In addition you can also try leaving a skim of water on top of the puck for a bit to soften it before you start to load the brush but just remember to dump the water before you loas the brush.

Bob

One thing that improved my lather a lot was covering the puck with a thin layer of water, walking away for 5 minutes or so, pouring some of the water off of the puck into the lather bowl. Running tap water onto the bristles until the weight of the brush lets me know it is good and wet, shake the excess out.

I used to press down a bit when loading the brush but from another thread Lynn said to just lightly load the tips. This way the lather doesn't get 'locked into' the middle of the brush where it doesn't easily release. I load the brush tips until I have a visible lather working on the puck, then go to the lather bowl.

Add water .... or not .... as needed. This method has been working well for me.

Logan,

The trick is in loading the brush on the puck, not really building the lather on the puck. I face lather and find that to work the easiest with soap or creams. I use less product than I did lathering in a bowl, etc.. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here's a video of Lynn loading a brush with soap. He's using one of the SRD soaps, but it's the same concept for any.. :gl:

Howard :)

Building a shaving lather with a brush directly on your face. - YouTube

One trick I've learned using the VDH soap is that as you whip the lather in the bowl, mug, etc. while going in a circular motion, try to pump the brush up and down just slightly. If you have loaded enough of the soap onto the brush, it should lather up well. Also, as mentioned above, add a few drops of glycerine to your bowl before starting to work up the lather.

I know I haven't been using a straight for long, but I've exclusively used the VDH soap (though I tried the Williams once... smells great but hard to lather up)

I'm not fussy about lather, but when I was trying to get that royal fluffy lovely lather I found that it's best to have as little water as possible. I shake my brush till none comes off when i shake it... start loading it with product until the top layer of your brush has a nice thick layer... than SMALL increments of water at a time. Like 3-4 drops - whip it - and continue adding water until pleased.

If you added to much water... you can either add some more product, or do what i do and just whip it a little longer. Unless you added a boatload :P

Good luck.

+1 ... and even though there's the right dose of water in the brush, the lather will often be too much loaded with bubbles anyway.

INCREMENT, buddies, INCREMENT !

I've used VDH for years with great results. Fresh out of the box, the soap is very hard and doesn't whip up all that well. It's tricky to gett he right combination of soap to watr at this point. After a number of uses, I find it softens up and makes a great lather. I use just enough water to cover the top, mix it up to give me a thick lather but not enough to cover my face and add a little water, repeating the process until I have enough for a decent shave. I also leave some water on the surface when I'm done to let it soak in for the next day. After a week or two of shaving, you should be able to get great lather without too much work. By the way, the hotter the water, the better.