Thread: What To Do With Shaving Soap After Using?

So I just got my first shaving soap with a bowl and brush (I've always been a canned cream user... yes I know, try not to get too sick lol) and I used it for the first time tonight. Such a better experience creating the lather and applying it with a brush apposed to just spraying some from a can to your hand. Now my SR comes in tomorrow so I just lathered and rinsed it off just to try out the brush but I did have one question. When I finished, there was a whole extra lather on the top layer of the puck and edges of the bowl and I wasn't exactly sure if I should just wipe the edges of the bowl and leave what was on the top, or do what I did, and just put a little water in it and pour it back out to clean it. What do yall do with what lather is left in the bowl? Thanks and I'll let ya know how my first straight razor experience goes hopefully tomorrow if it comes in!

Leave the lid off your bowl or what ever your using until the soap dries. You can leave the extra foam on top of the soap it won't hurt anything. After the soap dries put the lid on. The extra lather I just put down the drain. How ever many circles you ran your brush over the soap cut in half. Most puck soap a little goes alooooooooooooonnnnnnnggggg way. I do circles on my soap for 5 seconds then lather in my bowl or on my face. I usually have lots left over and just dump it down the drain. I have yet to completely use up any of my soaps. I have a bunch . Watch out for SAD, it can get you in trouble. So can RAD. Welcome to the madness and if you have any more questions you've come to the right place

I keep my soaps in 8 ounce pyrex bowls and I lather in a separate bowl. After I load my brush, I put the lid back on the pyrex bowl till the next use.

Originally Posted by clamup1

Leave the lid off your bowl or what ever your using until the soap dries. You can leave the extra foam on top of the soap it won't hurt anything. After the soap dries put the lid on. The extra lather I just put down the drain. How ever many circles you ran your brush over the soap cut in half. Most puck soap a little goes alooooooooooooonnnnnnnggggg way. I do circles on my soap for 5 seconds then lather in my bowl or on my face. I usually have lots left over and just dump it down the drain. I have yet to completely use up any of my soaps. I have a bunch . Watch out for SAD, it can get you in trouble. So can RAD. Welcome to the madness and if you have any more questions you've come to the right place

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it a ton! Well I do have one more question, the soap came with its own wooden bowl it goes in, so can I just mix the lather directly in the wooden bowl then to my face? Or should I get a separate bowl?

Originally Posted by mathnerdm

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it a ton! Well I do have one more question, the soap came with its own wooden bowl it goes in, so can I just mix the lather directly in the wooden bowl then to my face? Or should I get a separate bowl?

You can do it either way. You can load the brush with soap and then build the lather on your face which is called face lathering. The other way is to load the brush with soap and use a separate bowl to build the lather before applying to your face which is called bowl lathering. The choice is strictly yours.

Bob

Originally Posted by BobH

You can do it either way. You can load the brush with soap and then build the lather on your face which is called face lathering. The other way is to load the brush with soap and use a separate bowl to build the lather before applying to your face which is called bowl lathering. The choice is strictly yours.

Bob

So I take it that completely lathering in the same bowl as the soap is in isn't good? And when you talk about loading the brush with soap before building the lather, exactly how much soap is enough soap to load before going to the face? I'm sure it just takes trial and error to learn but is it just enough to cover the tip of the brush or what? Thanks again for yalls help!

Originally Posted by mathnerdm

So I take it that completely lathering in the same bowl as the soap is in isn't good? And when you talk about loading the brush with soap before building the lather, exactly how much soap is enough soap to load before going to the face? I'm sure it just takes trial and error to learn but is it just enough to cover the tip of the brush or what? Thanks again for yalls help!

What's Bob's saying is there are essentially two ways to go about lathering. After rinsing you face, I use cold water (cold water shave is another subject) I will splash a bit of water onto the soap in your bowl, for instance, I will put some hot water on top of my DR Harris soap puck, then I'll wet the brush, and swirl it around clockwise and counter-clockwise about 8-10 times loading the brush. Then I will apply to my face using the brush swirling the brush on my face to get a good lather - then shave.

The other way is to use a separate mug, bowl or scuttle (very nice). Same routine to load the brush, then you would use the bowl, with a little water in it, and swirl the brush in the bowl making up a lot of lather, in the case of using a scuttle, it can be a nice very hot / warm lather, then apply to face - then shave.

And after shaving using the soap bowl, I don't rinse it out, just put the lid back on the bowl. With a mug / bowl / scuttle, you would rinse it out afterwards.

I normally cold shave and face lather, but hot lather in a scuttle once in awhile is superb!

Hope this helps!

Originally Posted by mathnerdm

So I take it that completely lathering in the same bowl as the soap is in isn't good? And when you talk about loading the brush with soap before building the lather, exactly how much soap is enough soap to load before going to the face? I'm sure it just takes trial and error to learn but is it just enough to cover the tip of the brush or what? Thanks again for yalls help!

Phrank's answer basically covers it. You have to remember that there many variations on the way to do this. Unlike Prank, I do not put water on top of my puck at anytime yet we both seem to get a workable lather for our needs. Just saying there is no exact laid down routine that you do to get a good lather. You just take things as a general guidance on what to do and wing it from there till you find what works for you. You will get there if you experiment a bit. Lastly, I would load the brush with soap from the soap bowl and then either make/build the lather in a separate bowl or on the face.

Bob

Originally Posted by mathnerdm

So I take it that completely lathering in the same bowl as the soap is in isn't good? And when you talk about loading the brush with soap before building the lather, exactly how much soap is enough soap to load before going to the face?

I have heard of users here who do build the lather in the same mug/bowl that the soap puck sits in, but I think most do not (probably because all that water reduces the life of the puck?). But I did it that way for years with cheap Williams soap.

I seem to need to load much more soap into my brushes than other guys here: they talk about swirling the brush for five seconds, or a dozen swirls, while I seem to need like 20 clockwise and 20 counterclockwise! Presumably, I'll eventually find that the problem is with 1) my soaps, 2) my brushes, or 3) my lathering technique. In the meantime, I still get a good lather and a good shave, and _still_ never go all the way through a single puck!

For quite awhile now I've been using a Suribachi as a shaving bowl. I've had great results with it. Best is that my soaps stay dry and in their original containers. For hard soaps I just slice off a piece and press it into the bowl. Soap soap and creams are used the same way.
( lather making is accomplished very quickly with min effort).