How much lather in a brush

[Eclectic]

I shave in the shower.
This morning I lathered up a badger brush with an Italian shaving soap then did a 3 pass + touch up shave. After this I looked at the brush and thought to myself "I wonder how much lather is left in that?".
So, to find out I started lathering up my body, not to shave it, just to see how much was there.
And there was lots. Quite a lot of me ended up covered in white lather, far more than what I put on my face for the shave. Which means that my brush lather technique is wasting more shaving soap/cream than it is using properly.
Try it yourself and see.

 

[Compaq]

But you have to remember, you need a bit of soap stuff / cream in the brush to get good lather. Big brushes need more. If you don't use enough, you're lather will be airy and protect very badly.

A soap isn't expensive anyway, so it doesn't really matter to me

 

[ImaWestie]

I'm using a shave stick worth about $2.50 Australian, and I see myself getting something over 50 (maybe, 100) shaves with it.

The brush, on the other hand, cost $30 or so.

I'm not too worried about the consumables, it's the brush AD that's costing me money.

 

[Hex]

When I am done shaving and am cleaning up my mess, I squeeze out the brush and there is easily enough for another 3 passes.

 

[okey]

i have had some great shaves as compared to using a gel and a shick 2 blader. I load up the brush in a similiar manner at all times and depending on the blade used i often wash a lot of soap down the sink at shaves end.I am not in the least concerned about the lost lather but i often forget that the luxurious stuff needs to be gently coaxed from my average brush by squeezing the **** outta it.Ohhhh that is the biz ..so rich and creamy and no beard to use it on .....crap. hmmmm next time i will remember

 

[Hex]

i have had some great shaves as compared to using a gel and a shick 2 blader. I load up the brush in a similiar manner at all times and depending on the blade used i often wash a lot of soap down the sink at shaves end.I am not in the least concerned about the lost lather but i often forget that the luxurious stuff needs to be gently coaxed from my average brush by squeezing the **** outta it.Ohhhh that is the biz ..so rich and creamy and no beard to use it on .....crap. hmmmm next time i will remember

Right on brother !

 

[DE Shaver]

I hear a lot of people of advising neophytes to load up a brush, sometimes as long as a minute, to achieve good lather. To me, this is a waste of soap and unnecessary in terms of getting good lather. A few seconds of swirling is enough to load up a brush for shaving. You can get a good lather from a relatively small amount of cream.

Do you ever watch toothpaste commercials and the amount of toothpaste the put on the toothbrush? You only need a pea sized amount, not the gigantic gob they demonstrate. The same goes with shaving gel/cream commercials. They put an enormous amount in their hand, which is obviously done to promote consumption.

 

[Saturn]

I hear a lot of people of advising neophytes to load up a brush, sometimes as long as a minute, to achieve good lather. To me, this is a waste of soap an unnecessary in terms of getting good lather. A few seconds of swirling is enough to load up a brush for shaving. You can get a good lather from a relatively small amount of cream.

I don't think it's a bad thing to advise neophytes to load up on soap (not cream - I doubt anyone would advise a person to swirl their brush in a tub of cream for a minute straight). The reason why is because the worst thing that can happen as a result of using too much soap is that you waste a bit. When you have a bowl of soap that's going to last you a few months even with very heavy loading, a little wastage is hardly worth fretting over.

On the other hand, loading up not enough soap is likely to result in a lousy lather. It may help him conserve soap, but teaches him nothing about what a good lather is like.

 

[DE Shaver]

On the other hand, loading up not enough soap is likely to result in a lousy lather. It may help him conserve soap, but teaches him nothing about what a good lather is like.

Actually, what you want to teach him is to achieve good lather with the proper amount of soap and water. In addition, more soap also means more scum build up on the razor and sink, which if fine if you are into cleaning. However, I can appreciate the point that it's better to have sufficient lather than insufficient lather. If neophytes are having trouble getting the water/soap balance, let's consider using more soap than required is a short term virtue and a long term vice.

 

[rogueinfomaniac]

Actually, what you want to teach him is to achieve good lather with the proper amount of soap and water. In addition, more soap also means more scum build up on the razor and sink, which if fine if you are into cleaning. However, I can appreciate the point that it's better to have sufficient lather than insufficient lather. If neophytes are having trouble getting the water/soap balance, let's consider using more soap than required is a short term virtue and a long term vice.

Being pretty new to wet shaving I can say it took me a good 4 or 5 months to learn this myself... but now I know I can take it easy with the creams/ soaps. I was wondering why I was using so much more water to build my lather in the beginning... I was using twice the amount of cream I should have been

 

[Go West Young Man]

Actually, what you want to teach him is to achieve good lather with the proper amount of soap and water. In addition, more soap also means more scum build up on the razor and sink, which if fine if you are into cleaning. However, I can appreciate the point that it's better to have sufficient lather than insufficient lather. If neophytes are having trouble getting the water/soap balance, let's consider using more soap than required is a short term virtue and a long term vice.

Agreed - the "more soap" advise should always be tempered with "until you figure out exactly how much you need through trial and error".

I facelather with shavesticks, and have pretty well worked out the ratios so that I need to really squeeze all the last drops of lather out of the brush for my touch-up pass.

 

[fluffman86]

This drives me crazy:

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIsj58fqVjY[/YOUTUBE]

Dude wastes WAY more soap than he uses. I swirl a stiff boar maybe 5 seconds on a puck, or 10 seconds for a soft badger. That runny, watery soap actually turn into a great lather with proper agitation. In fact, I'll often pour off into my hand any of the excess left on the puck or wipe around the edge of the container with my fingers and apply that by hand as a sort of pre-shave.

 

[sirleanalot]

At the end of my shave, I squeeze out all the lather that remains in my brush and apply it all over my face. I then proceed with cleaning up the brush, razor etc and putting it all away. I believe (and maybe its because i read this somewhere but i can't remember) that the couple of minutes that the lather sits on my face moisturises my skin. I then rinse it all off and follow it up with alum and AS + moisturiser.

 

[TxLeo]

This drives me crazy:

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIsj58fqVjY[/YOUTUBE]

Dude wastes WAY more soap than he uses. I swirl a stiff boar maybe 5 seconds on a puck, or 10 seconds for a soft badger. That runny, watery soap actually turn into a great lather with proper agitation. In fact, I'll often pour off into my hand any of the excess left on the puck or wipe around the edge of the container with my fingers and apply that by hand as a sort of pre-shave.

I agree with you, I don't like that video. In my opinion he uses way too much water. I use the watery soap to build lather too, but it's not that runny, just kinda thick and airy.

As for the original question, I could probably make another 3 or 4 passes with what's left, but soap is cheap and lasts for years. I dropped a new puck of Fat months ago, shave with it nearly every day, and I can't tell that it's gotten any smaller.