Another Newbie Transition from Cream to Soap

[ilias]

I recently made the switch from AOS cream to DRH soap, and I've learned a few things. First, it seems obvious that building wonderful lather from a cream is quite easy, and while not difficult, building lather from a soap takes a little more attention and knowledge.

Specifically for me and this particular switch, I noticed that the soap wasn't as slick as the cream but seemed to protect my skin just fine. The razor seemed to drag a bit more with the soap, but I didn't have any irritation on account of it.

I quickly learned the importance of charging the brush with enough soap to build lather in the first place. That charging has made a huge difference, yet I'm still not able to generate as slick a lather as I had with the cream. I know that lubrication is not the same as protection, but I certainly had a easier time gliding through the shave with a slicker lather.

I'm inquiring on everyone's experience with DRH soaps. Do you have the sense they work better drier or wetter. I feel like a have trouble getting water into it; that is, it's easy to turn dense cream into meringue with the addition of water. Thoughts?

 

[ctakim]

I don't know that I can specifically answer your question, but in general each soap I use has a different degree of optimal water to soap balance. It takes a bit of experimenting with each soap to get things exactly where I like them.

 

[Spatterdash]

That's an interesting conundrum. I have found soaps slicker than the admittedly few creams I have tried (Edwin Jagger, Proraso).

Now, just to be clear, I have found glycerin soaps (mama Bear, QED, Saint Charles shave) to be slicker than milled soaps like Tabac (good lather, hated the scent) or Pre de Provence (good lather, nice scent).

Aside from my apparently unusual opinion on glycerin vs. milled soaps, I always thought most shavers and I had one thing in common,... that we felt soaps were slicker than creams.

Very interesting.