Thread: Lather problems

Alright... after a good many shaves I still can't get a decent lather going, and I'm asking for help.

I'm using TGQ soap, a Silvertip handmade brush, and I can NOT get lather the way it should be. Every lather I whip up is either not enough for for more than one pass, or literally disappears on my face. Saturday, during my shave, I lathered up only the right side of my face, and the lather on my neck was all but gone by the time I finished my cheek and chin, which didn't take long at all. I have had this problem with almost all of my shaves.

What am I doing wrong? Too much water? Not enough water? Not enough soap? I don't use much water...maybe a teaspoon or two. And that water is what I pour over the soap while I strop and pour into my lather bowl before I load my brush.

Ideas?

Hey Kas,
you might try ten drops of Glycerin in your lather bowl. It helped me build an amazing thick and moisturizing mound of good lather. Don't know what could be wrong with your process as is I am afraid. The Glycerin (I think) increases the surface tension in the whole mix (total uneducated theory). That being said, I use a cream so this might not work at all for you. Good Luck!

A teaspoon or two sounds like not enough water. You might want to try soaking your brush.
Greetings
oskar

Originally Posted by kasperitis

What am I doing wrong? Too much water? Not enough water? Not enough soap? I don't use much water...maybe a teaspoon or two. And that water is what I pour over the soap while I strop and pour into my lather bowl before I load my brush.

Yup, too much water, about a teaspoon or two too much. You don't need to soak your soap, especially not a soft glycerine soap like you're using. It just wastes soap, and all that extra water is contributing to your problems. After you finish soaking your brush, shake it out so its merely damp, then brush it around on the soap until there's a solid layer of thick cream on the tips of the brush. Then brush that onto your face, then dip the tips of the brush into the water (not much, just barely touch the water) and then work the lather up. Re-wet the tips of the bristles as needed to add water to the lather as you're doing this. Too little water is better than too much at this stage as you've already discovered.

Originally Posted by mparker762

Yup, too much water, about a teaspoon or two too much. You don't need to soak your soap, especially not a soft glycerine soap like you're using. It just wastes soap, and all that extra water is contributing to your problems. After you finish soaking your brush, shake it out so its merely damp, then brush it around on the soap until there's a solid layer of thick cream on the tips of the brush. Then brush that onto your face, then dip the tips of the brush into the water (not much, just barely touch the water) and then work the lather up. Re-wet the tips of the bristles as needed to add water to the lather as you're doing this. Too little water is better than too much at this stage as you've already discovered.

+1 here,
You can always add water, it is tuff to add soap...
The other thing that we are not addressing is hard water....
I have well water (hard as hell) and I get around that problem by using heat, the hotter the water the better it seems....

I use a bowl to lather...would that make it harder or easier to lather for me?

I soak my mug and brush in warm water while I'm prepping. Then
I take the brush and hold it over the sink until barely any water
is dripping out of it. I then take it and creat the lather over the
soap. I get a great lather doing this. I also add glycerin, but
that shouldn't be necessary to get a good lather. As Glen mentioned,
perhaps it's your water quality that is causing issues.

John

Originally Posted by mparker762

Yup, too much water, about a teaspoon or two too much. You don't need to soak your soap, especially not a soft glycerine soap like you're using. It just wastes soap, and all that extra water is contributing to your problems. After you finish soaking your brush, shake it out so its merely damp, then brush it around on the soap until there's a solid layer of thick cream on the tips of the brush. Then brush that onto your face, then dip the tips of the brush into the water (not much, just barely touch the water) and then work the lather up. Re-wet the tips of the bristles as needed to add water to the lather as you're doing this. Too little water is better than too much at this stage as you've already discovered.

+2

This is my technique too. I lather on a wet face, so there is water there also.

Jordan

It's also possible you are going too fast with the brush. If you whip it around like your beating eggs it will make a lot of bubbles with too much air in it. This makes it look nice when you apply it, but disappear quickly because there isn't much substance to the lather. You could try "stirring" more slowly and adding the water a little bit at a time. Taking your time like this will make it harder to add too much water without realizing it. Plus, as was said above, you can't really take water *out* of the lather. Adding a few drops means that at most you'll have a few drops too much, which won't really hurt things.

Doing the above helped me with a similar sounding problem, hopefully it will help you too. Good luck!

As you can tell, everyone has their own way of making lather from soap and everyone has their own choice of soap and choice of brush. Having been where you are now and not knowing the soap that you are using, but having a good hunch about what's going wrong, I'm am going to say you have too little water in the brush.

Try this the next time you go to make lather... I am going to possibly cause you to make more lather than you will know what to do with, but at least you will have made sufficient amounts of thick lather to get you through your 3+ pass shave and that should make for a nice change from what you have gotten so far.

1. Soak your brush for several minutes in quite warm tap water. I stand my brush in a mug and gently press the bristles against the inside of the mug a few times to release all the trapped air in the bristles. Do not put any water on your soap, it won't be needed.

2. After the brush has soaked in the water for a few minutes (mine will sit for maybe 5 minutes or more but 3 minutes should be sufficient) lift it out of the water and let it drain by itself until it stops running... it's ok if there is a drip or two coming from the brush. Now, *gently* flick the brush ONCE to remove some excess water... there may still be too much but it won't matter this time around as we're looking for MORE than enough lather.

3. Swirl the brush on top of your soap and pump the brush up and down to release the water from within the knot and to allow the brush to soak up some soap with that water as brush comes back up. Keep swirling/pumping until it's starting to look like decent lather, it needn't be ready to use, just that it's no longer runny and there aren't any large bubbles... By the way, no need to swirl like a madman, nor should you be particularly gentle, just swirl at something like 2 beats a second or so. Now that the soap/water is holding together on your brush can now begin to build the lather in a bowl or on your face. If water starts dribbling down your face, you didn't pump the brush enough while on the soap and thus there is just water deeper in the knot instead of a soap/water mix... that's ok, just go back on the soap and do a few more swirls while pumping.

You should be rewarded with ample amounts of lather if you do it this way. I have found that many times we try to rely on the brush abrading the soap and try to pick up enough soap that way instead of using enough water to dissolve the soap and pumping the brush to mix the soap and water together inside the brush.

Too little water in the brush to start means not enough soap dissolved, Adding water to the mug when you're trying to build the lather will just further dilute the already too little soap and you'll end up with a thin lather that just seems to evaporate in seconds on your skin.

Now, if you ended up with enough lather to shave ten men, I apologize and humbly suggest you perhaps flick the brush a little bit more next time. It's easier to shoot for the middle when you know what the boundaries are.

My two cents worth, and I find the instructions above will build lather from any type of of shaving soap with no soaking of the soap required.


Regards

Christian