guess what

I had a bad shave what a shock. I tried out my new soap from mama bear, and I don't know what I did but I did not get a good shave. I soaked the soap the super scuttle and brush, swirled around the soap for quite a while. Lathered and butchered my face. I just had a great shave 2 days ago with the same razor and am not sure what the problem is. Does anyone have a brush they would recommend for use with glycerin soaps? The brush I have is nice, but a little small and I am not sure I got a decent lather with the brush. My prep tonight was hot towel and oil, two days ago it was hot shower conditoner hot towel and lather. I have been using a paractice strop which has been cutting it close as far as stropping is concerned. Just had to vent Cya later

Should you use a different brush for the different "Makes" of soap? I only have the one brush that I use for everything. A smallish Altesse (See pic).

As a general rule, a better brush will make your shaving experience better, but in my opinion not -worse-; in other words, there are a lot of guys here who have very expensive brushes and el cheapo Target Proraso brushes (me included) and I enjoy both - they are different and the boar smells like ass - but I use it in regular rotation - just because it is small or cheap doesn't make it a bad shave - and while both require a certain technique to get the lather up, I find that the boar brush makes a better (thicker, and more importantly, faster- again in my opinion) lather.

So you need to really tell us what about the shave sucked, did you cut yourself, lob off an earlobe (like I do), razor burn, burning soap (some folks are very sensitive to the essential oils in MB's soaps - again like me) - The worst shaves I have are when the blade is messed up in some way, or I cannot get a soap to lather at all, which is rare certainly with MB soaps.

So get specific, and maybe we can help narrow it down and save you some $ on a veery pretty but not necessarily useful super duper critter brush.

K

I went with a simpson Duke #2 Even if it is not the brush the silvertip I bought off of ebay is nice, but rather soft. I have a tougher beard and thought maybe the Simpson would work better. If it does I can always sell the brush I have anyway. At any rate is is replacing a razor I sold so I did not loose more than 20 bucks on the 100 brush. The blade seemed to stick to my face. The lather may have been too sticky at first, and two watery the second time. I was trying to lather in the super scuttle I soaked the soap for a while, I guess that is not a good idea. I will try again tonight or tomorrow. That is the 3rd shave with the W&B I got back From Joe and I gave it about 4 strokes on a swaty hone last night after I shaved. I am going to give it 10 passes on some .5 paste and see where that gets me.

I am not entirely sure what you mean by sticky lather, I guess it was too thick for the blade to get through? I would love to have that problem!

If that is the case, and I guess that I have had similar situations, it is not the lather you need to work on - it is that your face or the blade is too dry. My suggestions is that you make sure you moisten your face prior to your shave (you should be prepping with hot water or something similar anyways) and leave you face wet when you apply the lather - then if you feel your blade sticks, rinse it under hot water and do not dry it off, but go after your shave with the blade wet and frequently rinse it.

Touching up the blade can't be a bad idea, but make sure you are using all the water you need to use - soaking the soap isn't necessarily bad, but you will not have much when you are done, because much of this soap will dissolve relatively quickly in hot water (kind of like the bar soap in the bathtub that seems to whittle away to nothing with only a few uses, the water merely hitting it dissolves it) - but it will sure make getting the soap on your brush easier - Lathering in the scuttle is ok too, I do it in my large scuttle and it works fine.

I still think your shave will come down to you blade and technique, not the brush. Good luck!

K