Help with my lather

[Rudd4Prez]

I have been enjoying the wetshave for a little over a month now, but the one thing that I have consistently not been happy with is my lather. My equipment is:

My Technique is:
1. Soak brush (approx 15min)
2. Shake excess water from brush
3. Load on soap for 5-10 sec
4. Mix in bowl for about a minute or so adding a few drops of water
5. Apply to face

It does not seem to fluff up as much as some of the pictures that I have seen, and it is kind of flat when I put it on my face. It seems to have the right amount of moisture but something is missing. I know the brush is probably part of the issue. Also my soap is toward the end of the puck but I wouldn't think that had anything to do with it. I am going to be ordering a few samples from Garry's sample shop to see if I can get something else to work better. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I will take some pics of the lather in the bowl, on the brush and on my face tonight and post them tomorrow. Thanks again!

Signed,

NEWB

 

[Brandon P K]

I'm sure more experienced gents will chime in. But my initial response is, "use more product!" 5-10 seconds is much less than the typically recommended loading time.

 

[dpittman70]

Hey, NEWB, I'm kind of new to wet shaving, too. But, I'll weigh in. You may want to load the brush with soap for a longer period of time. Maybe 45 seconds or even longer. The equipment looks just fine (as far as I know the Classic Brand shaving soap is good), and everything else about your routine looks fine, just need to find the "sweet spot" in your technique. I'll bet the Citrus Basil smells really good.

 

[Sullybob]

Classic brand shaving soap gets terrible reviews, I don't think I've ever read anything positive about it's performance. The soap is part of the problem but it isn't the whole problem.

You need to increase the time you load the soap, I would load for 60 seconds and then start making lather. It's much easier to start with too much product and keep adding water until your lather is the desired consistency and it's impossible to get good lather if you don't start with enough product.

I'm not familiar with that brush, if you are looking to replace it with an inexpensive brush I would look at picking up a Semogue or Omega boar brush, they are lather machines and they work great on soaps without breaking the bank.

I would take a look at the RazoRock Artisan line of shaving soaps and Haslinger shaving soaps. You can get a puck of either soap for around $10 not including shipping and in my opinion they are among the best of the currently available shaving soaps.

Here is a great post on how to make lather with lots of pictures.l

Here is Marco's technique on how to lather soft soaps.


Good luck!