Different lather; straight vs DE shaves?

[Reevers]

I am also still strugling with getting the perfect lather for straight shaving but I do seem to prefer to have less air in it. When face lathering, I swirl less and paint more and it seems to work better when it's whipped up less.

Great advice Joris, I'll try that tonight!

 

[MikekiM]

I always use a slightly thinner lather. I find that it tends to dry up if it's too thick, and it loses some of it's "slickness"....Also, like Thomas said, I like to see what I'm doing...

Second this...

I prefer my lather a but more hydrated now. No question that my straight shaves take a little longer and the lather is vulnerable to drying down too quickly.

 

[casus4844]

I prefer my lather like this...

 

[Alum of Potash]

I mostly aim for a lather that easily rinses off the blade. That said, the flatter face-lather I've been obtaining lately with Razorock 888 has been wonderful too.

 

[buca3152]

IMO if the lather drips very slowly down the neck and I can see my face contours, its perfect. No Mr Softee ice cream. And no barbasol look. Lol

 

[PFP_Dad]

It's one of those YMMV things. I usually go for a thicker lather with a DE, but a thinner and slicker lather with a straight. That's the way it seems to work best for me. Try different ways and see how it goes.

This is what I do.

 

[Doc226]

I mostly aim for a lather that easily rinses off the blade. That said, the flatter face-lather I've been obtaining lately with Razorock 888 has been wonderful too.

That is exactly my goal. If the lahter is too "thick" it tends to stick to the blade, then I know I need to add water and thin it down, the goal is not to have it thin enough that it runs down the blade and into the tang and my fingers while shaving.

Tabac

 

[chromedometone]

I'm fascinated reading all this.

 

[Tomo]

Good lather is good lather no matter what your shaving with. I make no adjustments to my lather based on the razor. I aim for thick and wet but not runny.

 

[rbscebu]

Unlike @Tomo, I use a different lather for DE verses SR shaving. For DE and cart shaving I always used the same consistency lather. When I started SR shaving I continued using that same consistency.

I soon found with SR shaving that a thinner and much wetter lather, almost dripping, worked better. As my SR technique improved and at the suggestion of @camoloc I started to slightly decrease my lather water content but keeping it thin enough that I could still see small portions of my skin.

At almost 300 SR shaves, I am now at about halfway between my almost dripping and my DE type lather. This I have found to be the best for me.

 

[SterFry]

My experience and personal circumstances have taught me that slickness is the single most important factor in the characteristics of the lather for a straight shaver. Few will contest that.

One thing that does seem to divide the community is whether wetter means slicker. I've not found this to be the case. With every soap and cream I've ever used there has been an ideal ratio of water to soap, with any departure from that ratio in either direction consistently results in less slickness.

While adding too much and too little water both compromise slickness, adding too much water seems to do so less abruptly than adding too much, with cushion being just the opposite. Another way to think of it...

Ideal ratio = ideal lather characteristic

too much water = slightly less slick/much less cushion

too little water = much less slickness/slightly less cushion

Agitation(work time) is also a factor

These are my findings

 

[rbscebu]

My lather this morning, before the first pass.

​

When starting SR shaving, I soon found that a very wet lather was best for me then. Over time and varying the lather, I settled on a relatively thin lather that was not as wet as I started with but much wetter than I used when shaving with carts and the occasional "safety" razor shave.

 

[Mitzie]

Nobody has mentioned shave sticks whereby the wetted stick is first rubbed on to a dry face and then face lathered with a brush. I'm finding this gives me a closer more comfortable shave without any pre shave both with DE and particularly when SR shaving.

Strange how these little nuances can make such a big difference to shaving