First Lather

[the gentleman hooligan]

Hello all, I thought I would share some pictures of my first attempt at making lather.
I just received my first brush a 24mm pure black badger w/resin handle from Whipped Dog. Not a highfalutin brush but it was supposed to hold me over until the 24mm Silvertip w/Firehouse handle arrived (still about 3 weeks out at the earliest, I guess). SBAD has already set in, I haven't yet had my first wet shave in over 20 years and while waiting on this brush I ordered an Italian Barber LE Semogue 1305.

Anyway, to get back on track, in my attempt to defunk and break-in my new brush for tomorrow morning's first wet shave. I am following the advice on cleaning new brushes (found in the wiki) and as a last step I attempted to make my first lather with the piece of MWF Larry graciously included to allow it to sit overnight and hopefully finish off any remaining badger smell.

I believe, I stopped my whisking early when I got excited about having what looked like good lather or might have had a little more heaped on. Tell me what you think maybe more experienced eyes can spot something in the photos and give me some pointers.

 

[wrinkles2]

Looks Great to me.

 

[ThomasB98908]

That looks like a great usable lather. Now, apply to face, face-lather in briskly and go to town. Looks like ya got the knack so enjoy ur shaves.

 

[Ducati Scotty]

Awesome!

 

[the gentleman hooligan]

Thank you all for having a look and for your words of encouragement.
The final step of building a lather and then letting it sit, (in my case overnight) really worked to get rid of any lingering badger funk.
When I shaved the next day all I could smell was the MWF.

 

[Silvaman61]

Shoot I wish I could lather that well. I'm going on my 3rd wet shave tomorrow, hoping to get some sort of fluffy stuff.

 

[Seisxdm40]

Shoot I wish I could lather that well. I'm going on my 3rd wet shave tomorrow, hoping to get some sort of fluffy stuff.

I've noticed that I need to use more water with soaps and less water with creams when making a good lather. Trial and error, keep at it you'll get it!

 

[Archer808]

The lather looks great, how did the shave go?

 

[Toucan]

I've noticed that I need to use more water with soaps and less water with creams when making a good lather. Trial and error, keep at it you'll get it!

Other way around for me. But I've only used AoS Soap and Proraso Blue cream.

Maybe that's why I perceived your lather to be a little too wet? (At least, for my taste - I like the lather to be more slick and dry)

 

[the gentleman hooligan]

The lather looks great, how did the shave go?

The pre-shave and lathering went well, the rest you can read about here, if you like.
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...the-best-of-shaves-it-was-the-worst-of-shaves

 

[kats]

Looks to me like you've got a defective brush there.... better send it to me ASAP for proper disposal.

 

[the gentleman hooligan]

Looks to me like you've got a defective brush there.... better send it to me ASAP for proper disposal.

Thank you for your thoughtful offer, but being the team player that I am, I will just take one for the team and keep the brush.

 

[the gentleman hooligan]

I received my second brush yesterday an Italian Barber LE Semogue 1305, (AD, what AD?), and I just finished cleaning and building my first lather with this brush (my third lather overall) as part of the defunking (it actually had almost no smell at all) and break-in process. I used the sample of MWF that I received from Whipped Dog.
I feel pretty good about it but tell me what you think. To wet, to dry, can't tell from my nearly adequate photos?

 

[bemiller]

It's tough to tell but I'd say maybe slightly on the dry side (gauging by the lather on the bottom part of the brush), MWF can take tons of water without over-hydrating. I just posted on another thread that MWF is one of the one soaps where I need to wet my face between each pass to compensate for how water-hungry it is.

 

[Niles]

Both pictures look good for some one new to making lather.