When I lather (I use a lathering bowl), my brush gets all full of very thick lather and turns into something like club or blunt instrument rather than being flexible... which makes the cream rather hard to apply. Is it supposed to be like that, or does the brush not have enough water in it?
Are brushes supposed to do this?
- Thread starter DerekL
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Please check to verify you are lathering shaving cream & not concrete. 
- Thread starter
- #3
Razorock R-160.
I came back to add, this is a new Semogue 1250 boar, only in use for three days now.
I came back to add, this is a new Semogue 1250 boar, only in use for three days now.
Please check to verify you are lathering shaving cream & not concrete.
Laughed out loud at this
Sounds like not enough water to me. Are you soaking the brush before hand?
Could also be an issue of the brush not being broken in yet.
- Thread starter
- #7
Yes, I'm soaking before hand, then squeezing to get rid of excess water.
Yeah, could be the lack of break in, I missed that earlier. Tough call but you could try adding more water to see if that solves the problem, if not, break that bad boar in.
I'm going with brush not broken in yet.
As others have stated; soak the brush, but you need to break it in to get it softer. You may need to get yourself a good badger as you may find boar just to rough for you. Just a suggestion. Good luck.
more water
You can create lather with just about any brush. The brush being boar has nothing to do with it.
Italian soft soaps need a ton of water. I believe Marco has posted a tutorial on the best way to do it. I use his method with my R-160 and it comes out great, even with my hard water. Best of luck, the R-160 is my favorite soap, so I hope it works out for you.
Here is the link to Marco's thread:
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...alian-soft-soaps?highlight=Marco+Italian+soap
Here is the link to Marco's thread:
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...alian-soft-soaps?highlight=Marco+Italian+soap
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Its not unusual for brushes to hold most of the lather inside the knot. Some do this more than others. It doesn't matter if its boar or badger or synthetic.
Just squeeze it out from the base of the knot, but not all at once. You want to ration it out so you have enough for all your passes.
But if that brush is just 3 days old, its probably not ready for prime-time shaving. Give it a few more weeks for the tips to split and then it will really show you what it can do.
Just squeeze it out from the base of the knot, but not all at once. You want to ration it out so you have enough for all your passes.
But if that brush is just 3 days old, its probably not ready for prime-time shaving. Give it a few more weeks for the tips to split and then it will really show you what it can do.
Umm, if you have hard water then using a lot of water just makes it harder to counteract all those minerals that kill lather. Might want to look at the newbie lathering guide where it's suggested to actually start with less water & add water slowly. You'll be amazed at the difference.
I seem to be having the opposite problem... I have a badger hair brush from AoS and when I lather in a bowl the brush smooches out all over the place and pushes lather over the rim of the bowl. That isn't so much the problem, but more that when I apply to my face it spreads out and doesn't feel like it is massaging my face as I understood brushes are supposed to do. To correct the problem I pinch two fingers at the base of the knot, but I'm worried this will damage the brush after a lot of use. Is that an acceptable technique or is my brush too soft?
*smooshes. My brush hasn't kissed anyone. Yet.
Yah yah, smooches to you too I guess. ?
My AoS brush is pretty darn soft too and quite floppy. Does yours say Fine Badger on it? They have a (IMO) rediculous loft on them and no real scrubbiness. Mines a loft of 56mm if I remember correctly. And as long as you're not pinching the knot hard I don't expect you'll damage it at all. If you've got the same brush as I do I can tell you that the knot is in there REALLY well and ain't coming out. Believe me, I tried to get it out.
Not enough water. 100% sure of this.
Thats a characteristic of the brush you have. High loft, 3-band hair and not extremely dense yields a very soft face feel. Nothing wrong with your brush, its just the way it is.
For something with more backbone that will massage a little more try a 2-band badger brush.
I would say your brush will certainly improve as it breaks in, but if the lather is hard to apply due to being too thick/clumpy it sounds like you could add some more water to your mix - do it a few drops at a time, whipping it up after each addition to check your progress.
