What's new

How wet is your brush?

When you bowl lather a puck of soap, how wet is your brush? Is it soaking wet or just moist? If you start off moist, I know you can add water later if needed. What do you do?
 

Chef455

Head Cheese Head Chef
So your brush after 3 shakes would be just damp I guess.
I go for right between damp and wet...

Yet it also depends on the brush itself, the soap or cream to be lathered, and where it's going to be lathered.
 
Last edited:

Tirvine

ancient grey sweatophile
As wet as it can be without dripping. I like a lather that doesn't run down my neck but comes close.
 

musicman1951

three-tu-tu, three-tu-tu
It's a real consideration for me. I find that when the brush is too dry it takes waaaaay longer to load the brush. On the other hand, if it's too wet you end up with a bit of a mess on the puck (no biggie) and lather that's too thin.

I try to leave the perfect amount of water in the brush so I don't have to add more - just because. For my brushes that's two shakes straight up and down, not a whipping motion.

All of that is silly, of course. It usually takes me 4-5 seconds to load the brush, and if it takes 25 seconds I promise I have lost nothing valuable for the extra 20 seconds. It's easy to add a little water, and I often do. When the lather is a little thin I just use it to get some experience with thinner lather.

But that's just my process. It hardly matters as long as you load the amount of soap you like and end up with the lather you like.
 

Ron R

I survived a lathey foreman
I found out for myself that squeezing or flicking water out might save your lather from being to foamy.
I tried the Marco method of leaving a lot of water in the brush but it depends on amount of soap in bowl or how long you load the brush from the puck.
I use a lot of different soaps because I enjoy variety & some soaps react very differently when generating lather because they are formulated with different ingredients and you could ended up fighting the lather to often with to wet a brush for my desires of a nice lather.
The best way I found is squeeze excess water from brush and swirl and add water when a paste forms to control the lather you enjoy and have been using this method for years now. Add a few drops by hand or a mister(my preferred methods) I use to just dip my brush tips in the water(still do sometimes) but if I'm half a sleep I add a little to much sometimes and will fight the lather making. Once you get your method established it becomes very easy and fast and very enjoyable IMO. I always like to add my lather to a wet face also. You can always add a few drops to the brush if lather is to dry on your face, to dry is not good either.
IMCDB on Youtube has some excellent tutorials on making lather and there is no one better than Chris for making lather, he makes it look so very easy also IMO.
I learn sometimes better by watching or observing then apply from the experienced person than reading about it.
Have some great shaves!
 
Last edited:
It's a real consideration for me. I find that when the brush is too dry it takes waaaaay longer to load the brush. On the other hand, if it's too wet you end up with a bit of a mess on the puck (no biggie) and lather that's too thin.

I try to leave the perfect amount of water in the brush so I don't have to add more - just because. For my brushes that's two shakes straight up and down, not a whipping motion.

All of that is silly, of course. It usually takes me 4-5 seconds to load the brush, and if it takes 25 seconds I promise I have lost nothing valuable for the extra 20 seconds. It's easy to add a little water, and I often do. When the lather is a little thin I just use it to get some experience with thinner lather.

But that's just my process. It hardly matters as long as you load the amount of soap you like and end up with the lather you like.

I was going to type a response until I read this, which perfectly sums up my preference. A moist brush seems to load more soap than an overly wet brush. I want to lather on my face, not on the puck.
 
I found out for myself that squeezing or flicking water out might save your lather from being to foamy.
I tried the Marco method of leaving a lot of water in the brush but it depends on amount of soap in bowl or how long you load the brush from the puck.
I use a lot of different soaps because I enjoy variety & some soaps react very differently when generating lather because they are formulated with different ingredients and you could ended up fighting the lather to often with to wet a brush for my desires of a nice lather.
The best way I found is squeeze excess water from brush and swirl and add water when a paste forms to control the lather you enjoy and have been using this method for years now. Add a few drops by hand or a mister(my preferred methods) I use to just dip my brush tips in the water(still do sometimes) but if I'm half a sleep I add a little to much sometimes and will fight the lather making. Once you get your method established it becomes very easy and fast and very enjoyable IMO. I always like to add my lather to a wet face also. You can always add a few drops to the brush if lather is to dry on your face, to dry is not good either.
IMCDB on Youtube has some excellent tutorials on making lather and there is no one better than Chris for making lather, he makes it look so very easy also IMO.
I learn sometimes better by watching or observing then apply from the experienced person than reading about it.
Have some great shaves!
So you use more of a moist brush than a wet one. Like you said, you can always add a little water if needed.
 
I use a synthetic, so I squeeze almost all of the water out before hitting the puck. I then apply to a wet face and sprinkle water onto the tips as needed to hydrate the later further.
 
I don't soak my brush anymore. I leave it in the bowl, and ladle very hot water onto the bristles, then whip up the day's lather. Been doing this since early December, and it seems to work.
 
I wet my brush so that it is full of water. Then I give it one good snap of the wrist and this removes most of the water but it's still pretty wet. If I give it two snaps of the wrist, it will be only moist then.
 
so here's a little different approach.

i pre-lather the face using bar of glycerin soap and whichever brush.
rinse out the brush, lightly rinse the face.
this effectively hydrates the brush.
then i'll squeeze any excess water from the brush and proceed to lather whatever shave soap or cream.
for me, this seems to give a little thicker lather; i can always add a drop or two of water.
Of course, YMMV!
 
so here's a little different approach.

i pre-lather the face using bar of glycerin soap and whichever brush.
rinse out the brush, lightly rinse the face.
this effectively hydrates the brush.
then i'll squeeze any excess water from the brush and proceed to lather whatever shave soap or cream.
for me, this seems to give a little thicker lather; i can always add a drop or two of water.
Of course, YMMV!
Sounds like you are using your soap like a shave stick. That's another way of doing it.
 
These days I use mostly badgers, so I don’t soak them first. I start with a damp brush then add a few drops of water at a time until I get the lather I want. :thumbup1::thumbup1:
 
Top Bottom