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

Originally Posted by BobH

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

This. I notice it every shave. But when I try to get the lather to 'second pass state' on initial lathering, it ends up too wet and runny. I've come to accept that for some things there is no shortcut...