Hard and soft soaps

Since I love shaving with a good creme, I decided to give a soap a try. After reading stellar reviews, I bought Mitchell Fat Wool. However, I have found that I have difficult time making good lather. In further research, I have learned that MWF is a hard soap that is not at easy to create lather with particularly if you happen to have hard water, which I, you guessed it, am plagued with.
I don't want to give up on soaps (or MWF for that matter) so I would like to give another good, but softer soap a try. I have heard people rave about Tabac and Dr. Harris's soaps, but my primary concern is to find one that will be a touch easier to make lather with.
Cheers!

I have all three and they are all hard soaps. Cella, Vitos, Prorasos are softer soaps. I am lucky to have soft water so no trouble with any of them. As an experiment you could get a bottle of distilled water and use that to see if it makes a difference. If it does not make much of a difference in the lather you produce then it is your technique that is lacking with hard soaps. For a good idea of how to make a lather Shaving Lather with Badger Brush - YouTube .

Bob

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Originally Posted by milant

Since I love shaving with a good creme, I decided to give a soap a try. After reading stellar reviews, I bought Mitchell Fat Wool. However, I have found that I have difficult time making good lather. In further research, I have learned that MWF is a hard soap that is not at easy to create lather with particularly if you happen to have hard water, which I, you guessed it, am plagued with.
I don't want to give up on soaps (or MWF for that matter) so I would like to give another good, but softer soap a try. I have heard people rave about Tabac and Dr. Harris's soaps, but my primary concern is to find one that will be a touch easier to make lather with.
Cheers!

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DR Harris is certainly reliable and easy to use and find. If your budget allows, take a look at Klar Seifen, Calani and Czech &Speake. All top soaps, easy to use and great performers.

A little less $ is Haslingers and Dr. Dittmars. I've used the former but not the latter though both are well regarded by folks I know. Of the four I've listed that I personally used, they were all easier than the MWF to lather( for me), though I don't find the MWF particularly troublesome...just that initial foamy proto-lather.

Hard soaps are fantastic once you get the hang of lathering them, which does take time and effort. Soft soaps and glyceryn based hard soaps are easier to lather and are quite nice. Tabac is very easy to lather, especially considering that it's a hard tallow soap. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Tabac - I've never heard anyone complain that it's hard to use :)

Some other good choices: Proraso, SRD, Cella, Martin de Candre (expensive but excellent), and L'Occitane.

Milant,

I had a hard time with MWF the first several times I tried to lather it. This video Mantic59 put out helped me figure it out:

How To Lather Mitchell's Wool Fat Shave Soap - YouTube

Hope it helps! MWF is one of my top 2 soaps. Martin de Candre is the other. It's pricey, but very soft for a soap and well worth the luxury.

Regards,

JC

I am new to this and recently bought a puck of DR Harris lavender. I've found it lathers easily for me and I have fairly hard tap water and a Tweezerman badger brush; it provides a very nice comfortable shave.

I just finished shaving with DR Harris Marlborough. I highly recommend it. If there is a trick to it, it's probably in the soaking of the puck prior to use and the loading of the brush. Be sure to load the brush very well before you move on to adding water. DR Harris is my favorite.

If you have hard water the best solution is get some bottled water for shaving purposes. A gallon jug should last many shaves.

My top.soaps are MdC , Mike's orange , Harris Arlington , and mwf.

All make nice lather.

Mikes and Arlington take 20 second load time.
Mwf takes 30 second swirl time and
MdC I swirl for 12 seconds.

I like to count when I swirl and that's what I came up with.