Thread: time for soap or cream to absorb water?

So something ive been noticing lately, is that it seems the lather is slicker on my second and third passes than on the first. almost like the soap or cream needs some time to really react with the water. it doesn't seem to matter which soap or cream I use, or whether I lather in a bowl or face lathering.

has anyone else noticed this?

I've sort of noticed this, especially with face-lathering. But in either case, my explanation to myself has been that it may have to do with either more water being on my face or my face having absorbed more water prior to the second pass than in starting out on the first pass. The cream or lather in a bowl doesn't change over time from what I can tell. Also, I tend to use a pre-shave cream on the first pass, which means that there is not as much water on my face on the first pass.

I notice it a lot less if I use a preshave. My current go to preshave is Noxema. I also noticed that if I used a technique suggested by Glen that my soaps all seemed to perform better. If you lather your face and leave it set while you strop your razor, so just a few minutes, and then either wipe it off and regather or simply moisten the tip of the brush and regather, it seems to make the soap quite slick. Glen said it was to raise the whiskers up, but I mostly noticed the added slickness. Both ways make my shaves better because my soap seems to perform better.

Indeed, some soaps seem to be getting right by the 3rd pass.
On those, I load the brush and let it sit bristles-down in a cup awhile. Seems the soap is mingling with the water after a bit and goes on much nicer.
Never happens with MDC.

Could also be that not enough water was used for the first pass. That has happened to me making the subsequent passes seem slicker.

Bob

JMO
I now live in a hard water area. I must leave the soap for at least two to three minutes to get a slick lather. Even creams such as Bigelow/ Proraso requires time to become fully hydrated.
And, it takes about double the amount of product to make decent lather.

~Richard

I have pretty hard water, I think this morning I will try loading the brush before I shower, and see what that does.

so this morning I took my badger brush, soaked it with warm water while I stropped, loaded it with some taylor of old bond sandalwood cream, gave it just enough swirls in a bowl to get the water loaded into the cream, then took a 10 min shower, and then went to shaving. and man what a difference. the first pass was way slicker than even the last pass of anytime ive used it before, and the last pass was even better.

so now to try that out with my other favorites and see if its consistent

When I really want to enjoy the shave, I use the following progression:
- shower
- hot towel
- lather my face using hot lather
- brush my teeth, strop my razor - just use up 5 minutes
- wash off the lather and reapply hot towel
- apply hot lather again
- shave

Not sure if it makes any real difference, but I sure feel good when it’s done.

The general rule of thumb with this hobby


Take your Time and the results get better

Shaving
Honing
Stropping
even Lather Making

The more time and care you put in,,, you get back in better results