How much soap do you use per shave?

[Blood donor]

I recently weighed the amount I use per shave and was surprised it was so much. I soaked my brush, flicked out the water to the point I'd normally load soap, weighed it, then loaded and weighed again. Two different soaps, different brushes, but daily I'm in the 3g of soap territory for 3 passes with face lathering. I know different soaps have different hardnesses and brushes more or less backbone, but I'm roughly in the same ballpark with all.

This seems a bit much when looking at some others' stats who are around or under the 1g point, but i don't wash any down the drain either. How much do y'all use?

Im going to experiment with loading slightly less anyway. I have Nuavia Blu incoming which is expensive, so want to max it out while not compromising the great daily shaves.

 

[les24preludes]

I think weighing the soap I use would come further down the list of need-to-dos than working out the specific gravity of the olive oils I use for cooking....

 

[Brian C.]

Never really thought about it. I don’t worry too much about how much I use. I have too many for that. Lol.


AoM;Knight of the Veg Table;B.O.S.S.;MFR2019

 

[Clay S]

Croaps weigh more after I shave than before.

But if I leave the lid off a measure the next day 1.5 - 2 grams less.

I haven't measured hard soaps yet and use so few creams I won't measure them.

 

[Jim99]

I never weigh the amount of soap I use, but a tub of Proraso will last me close to 4 months. A tub of Stirling will last me a solid 4 months. A tub of TOBS lasts me 3 months. I use the same soap/croap till finished, I’ll do two passes and I shave every day.

I guess that puts me at 1 to 1.5 grams a day.

 

[johnwick]

What type and size of brush are you using? When I recently did the FFFMM and used Wholly Kaw Exclusively with a 26mm Synthetic brush. I found I used about 1.2 g per 3 pass shave. After the fixed four I used a 26mm badger and used close to 2g. One of the wonders and benefits of synthetics is that they use less soap with even better lather characteristics.

Another variable is whether the soap you’re using is new or not. After they have been in the den for a few months, you’ll lose a lot less to evaporation and they all harden up a bit, using less soap in the end. When I get new soaps I lose 4-5 g a day for a few days sometimes just letting them air dry.

 

[RayClem]

There are a lot of things that can affect the weight of the soap used to build your lather. Perhaps, the most critical factor is the moisture content of your soap. Not only does it add to the weight of the soap, but a soap (or cream) that is high in moisture will load more easily into your brush.

Many soapmakers will indicate that you should be able to get around 90 shaves out of a tub of soap that is 4 ounces (around 113 grams). At that rate, you should be using about 1 1/4 gram per shave.

If you are using 3 grams of soap and are only getting sufficient lather for a three pass shave, I wonder if you are properly hydrating the lather. With softer soaps/croaps, I can do a 15 second load using a 24-26mm knot and get sufficient lather for 4 passes on my face and still have soap left over. Even on a hard soap, I never load for more than 30 seconds. If you are also doing a head shave then I can understand the need for 3 grams.

I would suggest that you try loading less soap and then add more water to develop more lather.

 

[Dog Whiskerer]

I've never calculated how much soap, by weight, I'm using. But it's not 3 grams. As long as my soaps last, I would say I'm frugal with my loading. You can always go back to the puck if you don't get enough lather the first time. But I think you'd be surprised how much lather a 15-20 second swirl on a puck of soap will create.

 

[BigJ]

My soap ‘collection’ may last longer than I will!!

IMO the problem with trying to weigh soaps is that soaps retain some water from the loading process. And different soap types (triple milled, croaps, etc.) are likely to retain more water than others.

My approach is to measure soap usage in terms of how long it takes me to use up a puck. And that takes awhile (especially if you have a brick or two of Cella or Vitos!!)

 

[GaryTha]

With my Williams Mug Soap, I use .157 grams/pass or .314 per 2-pass shave. This is about 150 shaves/puck. I won't know until I use a full puck how accurate this is.

 

[dmshaver]

I haven't weighed how much soap I load. I load enough to make a good lather, & if I need more for a 2nd or 3rd pass, I'll load more. I'm not worried about running out of soap anytime soon!

 

[Bakker1964]

As much as I need. Soap is not as inexpensive as blades, but it is not exactly priced like gold, either.

 

[Yyragtoj]

It's between 1-2g for most users (and for the same user it can vary depending on soap, brush).

 

[knife5000]

2 gr. for synthetic brushes.
4 gr. for badger, boar and horse hair brushes.


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[mrlandpirate]

Load t like ya stole it.....it's soap

 

[Leverspro]

I use one quarter teaspoon everyday, scooped into my lather bowl. It's a habit I got into while using sample, which I have dozens of, and I use a different soap every day as I enjoy the variety and exploring of different scents and formulas. Measuring every soap this way eliminates one of the variables when trying to compare how different soap formulas perform with different brushes. I use badger, boar and synthetics.

 

[Blood donor]

Wow great responses! I'm not really concerned if I use 'too much' or 'little' as like many of you, I have enough soap and cream to replace the melting ice caps with lather. I do 70 swirls on most soaps with either a 24mm Paladin badger or 24mm synth Yaqi. that's about 15-20 secsonds and I don't press down much. I'll try less swirls and more water and/or time building lather to see if I can lose a gram or so. If I can comfortably get to 1.5g that's twice as many shaves with my Nuavia! I'll also break the bowl out again as I think I can build more lather that way per key for me is that the last ATG pass is with equally good lather as my first, so I don't want to be skimping when I get to that critical pass.

 

[Blood donor]

2 gr. for synthetic brushes.
4 gr. for badger, boar and horse hair brushes.


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That's made me feel better! You really hate that soap!!

 

[musicman1951]

A jar of MdC lasts me a little over a year of daily 3 pass shaves. WK lasts me about 4 months for a daily 3 pass shave.

So the answer for how much I use: more than I need (some goes down the drain every day) but not enough that I care to measure it.

 

[gsurko]

Don’t know, don’t care.