i make a great lather, i coat my face, i shave my left side of my face, i go to do the right cheek and its all dry and sticky.
umh....yeah thats about it...anyone else have the same problem?
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i make a great lather, i coat my face, i shave my left side of my face, i go to do the right cheek and its all dry and sticky.
umh....yeah thats about it...anyone else have the same problem?
I had issues with DR Harris soap , I was so hot to try the Almond and it just didnt work for me, I had to keep dipping my brush and going over what was already on my face.
I'm not sure if this is your situation but when I first started it took me a long time to do a shave and I had that problem. As I got more experience I gained speed and it wasn't an issue after awhile. I also went from face lathering to bowl lathering and that improved the overall result. The face lathering worked fine for the DE but in my case the bowl lathering is better with the straight. I use DR Harris often, then and now.
I agree with Jimmy on bowl lathering. I used DRH Marlborough today, no problems. I do touch up my face often, but the lather is not dried out and sticky. I just figure that I'm going to throw the lather away so I may as well use it.Quote:
Originally Posted by JimmyHAD
I have had this problem with cheap Vanderhagen soap. And Im not slow it just dries fast. I blamed it on cheap!:rant:
Like Jimmy, I had this problem when I first started because I took so long to shave. I still face lather, but I get most of my face done before I reapply lather. I usually reapply before doing the chin/neck/goatee area. Nothing wrong with applying fresh lather from time to time. Harris lasts as long as anything else for me. Maybe a little more water in your lather? :shrug:
Jordan
DR Harris soaps (Arlington is my favourite) work just
as well as other top-notch soaps for me. I build my
lather in a bowl by gradually adding water -- perhaps
you could give that a try? Experiment with adding
more water as well.
- Scott
There are times when mine dries. It's combination of the dry winter air here in Chicago, and me just being slow. This is my one time of the day where I get to block out the rest of the world, and I'm in no hurry for it to end.
I don't mind re-applying lather.
try adding a little glycerin
it doesnt take my long to shave at all.
i figured out what it is. more water, if i make it more bubbly than thick im good.
mwf i didnt have this problem. hahaha for a year before i came on here i used to shave with a disposable blade straight because my friend owns a barber shop...hhahaha dude i think it took me like 1/2 an hour to shave the very first time hahaha
I'm so incredibly frustrated by this soap right now that I'm necroposting from a 2009 thread. It either dries too fast or is too thin to offer me any protection or won't rinse off the blade. :banghead: soaps drive me crazy
You beat me to it, more water. I did the same thing face lathering DR Harris Arlington and not getting the water ratio right.
Bob
i love bowl lathering arlington soap.
next.
I exclusively bowl lather, and DR Harris seems to work fine for me. The trick is to load the brush really well and then hydrate slowly until you reach the desired consistency by sight. Here's a tip about bowl lathering: it is a good way to get nice lather consistency BEFORE applying it to your face, but it is most definitely possible to over-process your lather. If you think about it you're whipping lather up in a bowl first, but if you continue to swirl repeatedly over your face you'll end up breaking the lather down prematurely, which makes it disappear more quickly than usual. Use your brush to lightly coat your face and a few paintbrush strokes to even it all out and that's it.
Harris soaps are thirsty and in my early days with them, had similar issues. I tend to load my brushes now from a fairly wet state. I soak my brush for 20-30 seconds, give it two gentle shakes to remove some of the water, then load. Starting with a wetter brush can get messy, also uses more soap, but after a minute of loading, I then face lather, adding more water as necessary.
This wetter brush approach is my preferred method for most soaps now, not only because of the lather quality I get from it, but also I feel there is less strain on the brush knot too.
So your soap is 5 years old. If the soap has been stored incorrectly that could create your problem, otherwise you are not using enough water or working up to the correct lather mix. You may want to just switch to a cream and see how you like that. I have zero trouble with all of my DR Harris soaps.Quote:
Originally Posted by kwlfca
I just bought this soap. I'm still getting used to it, it does indeed seem to be a thirsty soap.Quote:
Originally Posted by lz6
I've noticed there is a fine line between under hydrated and over hydrated with Dr Harris and other tallow based. Under hydrated and its drying up prematurely which leads to razor burn. Over hydrated and the razor is skipping (scary). But when the water to soap ratio is right, Dr Harris is great.
I had this problem with Mitchells Wool Fat soap, which I tried with very high expectations from all the enthusiasm you hear about it. But it was hard to lather up and dried on my face really quickly. So, ironically I went to VDH Deluxe, which is like $2 a puck, and found it lathers up nicely and stays with me the whole shave. The "Deluxe" can be melted gently in a microwave and poured into your shaving mug to solidify.
Others here like to malign the cheaper and more widely available soaps, but really…it's just shaving. I find the VDH soaps and the Poraso creams do a very fine job. For luxury, I think more of my razors themselves and my aftershave. Soap and cream in the end is just soap and cream.
With all triple milled soaps, MWF, Harris, Trumpers, I found leaving some water on top of the puck for 5 or 10 minutes, dumping some of that water into the lather bowl helps. Tabac is another that I've had difficulty with. I can lather to beat the band with glycerin soaps every time but the aforementioned soaps require more labor on my part ........... and some luck. :)
I believe you are correct. You can keep adding water to the brush, little at a time, as you face lather. You should see the lather continue to build as you add water to the brush, into big happy mounds of lather goodness on your face that won't dry.Quote:
Originally Posted by OutlawSkinnyD
Big +1 to that. I've been doing that for years, and it's a big help for hard soaps. I would highly recommend to anyone having difficulty with soaps to try this method and you'll almost certainly have better results.Quote:
Originally Posted by JimmyHAD
Adding a bit of water to sit on the top of MWF/DR Harris/Tabac soap pucks is another case of YMMV as I never do and still manage a nice lather. You gotta find what works for you.
Bob
+1 for your +1 (I guess that's +2?).Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryan82
Adding water that's sat on top of the puck to the lather bowl was really a game changer. Even as a newbie I noticed the difference immediately.
Mine is grated and pressed into a little pyrex dish. If I put water on top of the grated soap, it makes the brush pick up little pieces of soap when loading that don't mix up that well. I find wet brush on dry soap works better for grated. I swirl my brush on the soap until I have a thick cream, then transfer to the bowl and add some water.