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alrighty, ill give taht a shot
@newwetsahver, I think your boar brush should work fine to build your lather. It will just take a little practice, I think. Are you following @Marco thread:
My lathering technique with Italian soft soaps
That's a good one right there! I found it early on when I started traditional wet shaving.
Here is a good resource in the Shave Wiki: Interactive Guide to Lathering
yeah, thats the technique im tryin get down. its a work in progress being new to wetshaving
If you start with too much water it cam cause it to be airy. Start with less and slowly add water over time.
I’m curious about this. Started out with a lot of water in my synthetic this morning - on a different soap (Chiseled Face) but plenty of it - and it bubbled up quick like soap suds. I knew I’d put plenty of soap in the bowl, so upon working it up, everything evened out into a huge, creamy (and yes, even yogurty) lather. But the shave was just ok, so I’m wondering if I compromised the lather up front by hydrating it so quickly? Did I compromise comfort and protection by getting the lather up so fast?
does anyone know why my lather seems to deflate a few seconds after i whip it up, sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesnt. any thoughts would grealtly be apreciated.
+1Try lathering it with bottled spring water just to see if your water is a problem.
Lots of great advice in this thread.
yeah, im in the socal area as well, the water is hard as nials for sure. im having zero luck with stirlings soap, not sure what im doing wrong, but i can seem to get a decent shave with it. i have been consdiering tryin to use distilled water as well. takes me forever to get a stable lather. i just got a synthetic brush, but this thing is a monster, so im back to sqaure 1 on figuring out the load to water ratio. i got an atomic rocket. im still playing around with getting a decent lather+1
@newwetsahver , as a Newbie to wet shaving, I have also had this problem. In fact just last week I had a total failure with Col Conk's Amber, after I rinsed from the first pass and re-lathered it was like shaving dry, worst shave ever since I started in January.
I might add the water here in SoCal is so hard it breaks ice cubes. I have been using synthetic brushes, a White Knight and an Omega S just for this reason but recently tried using a boar brush, a Semogue 1800.
Now to get to the point, I have also read a lot of postings about using distilled water and just blew it off thinking it was too much trouble.
Just for a test I filled up my mug with Reverse Osmosis filtered water from my kitchen sink and put it in the microwave for a minute to give it some heat.
I dipped only the tip of my synthetic Omega S brush in the water and proceeded to load up the brush with What the Puck Orange for a minute and went to the bowl to slowly start building a lather. After a minute I started adding water off the tips of my fingers and after about 5 minutes I had enough thick yogurty lather for 4 passes.
I tried this with my White Knight and got enough for 6 passes.
I also tested this with TOBS, Col Conk's Lime and Mike's Natural Lime.
I have NEVER had this much lather!
The only difference was the water and patience.
Happy Shaves my friend
Prof
@newwetsahver , It took me almost 4 months to try using filtered water and now there is no turning back. It made all the difference. Just fill up a coffee mug with distilled/filtered water, pop it in the microwave for a minute, and you have plenty of water to wet your brush and make lather with, a LOT of lather!yeah, im in the socal area as well, the water is hard as nials for sure. im having zero luck with stirlings soap, not sure what im doing wrong, but i can seem to get a decent shave with it. i have been consdiering tryin to use distilled water as well. takes me forever to get a stable lather. i just got a synthetic brush, but this thing is a monster, so im back to sqaure 1 on figuring out the load to water ratio. i got an atomic rocket. im still playing around with getting a decent lather
when you say only wet the tips, do you mean that for synthetics? and if so why only the tips?@newwetsahver , It took me almost 4 months to try using filtered water and now there is no turning back. It made all the difference. Just fill up a coffee mug with distilled/filtered water, pop it in the microwave for a minute, and you have plenty of water to wet your brush and make lather with, a LOT of lather!
Just remember to only wet the tips of your brush in the water and give it 2-3 shakes first.
Prof
when you say only wet the tips, do you mean that for synthetics? and if so why only the tips?
+1Because water will drip from the base of the knot on your hand, elbow, shirt, floor, everywhere. They don't hold it as well as badgers.
ok i will have to try this out.+1
Yes, for synthetics.
It also gives the brush more backbone and prevents you from starting with too much water. I was adding too much water too soon.
Be sure to let us know how things work out for you. BTW, I just used hot water from our Sparklets dispenser and I got a great lather from that also!ok i will have to try this out.
the only thing i dont like about the synthetic brush is it feels way too soft, my normal brush is a boar brush, the only problem i have with it, is it is too small for the scuttle i have, i think i need to find a boar brush with a bigger handle. ill give the syntehic a few more tries, but i just like the way the boar brush feels. feels like i can even put any pressure on the sythetic brushBe sure to let us know how things work out for you. BTW, I just used hot water from our Sparklets dispenser and I got a great lather from that also!
It is really so easy I don't know why I haven't tried before.
Prof
yeah, maybe i need to try out distilled water, sometimes i run into the collapsing lather problem as wellI once had a disappearing lather problem with one soap brand. No matter what technique I tried, the lather would start to collapse after a minute or so. I finally tried distilled water and it worked fine. For some reason, this one brand did not play well with my tap water.