Interesting Lather Technique - Let the flames rain down

[WilliamIam]

So, I was remembering how years back my dad made lather with Williams shave soap.

He would whip up a nice lather and have a shave - then he'd leave his brush in the mug and NOT rinse it. I can't ask him any more, so I thought I'd try it out....

Success! I got a very nice lather (Williams isn't easy for everyone) in only a few seconds.
I was in business with a pretty decent lather in under a minute. I need to mess with the amount of water, but it was not bad at all. Now I just need a nice scuttle to keep it warm.

Yes, I'm aware of the "if you don't rinse everything 100%, you'll get an infected ingrown hair and die" idea.

Rock on,
William

 

[michiganlover]

Well that is interesting, but I fail to see how not rinsing the brush would be at all beneficial......this would mean the likelihood of the brush ever thoroughly drying would be diminished, which makes the brush a breading ground for bacteria.

You should also be aware, that the Williams of the 1950's, and the Williams of today are not the same product. Williams seems to have been reformulated into it's present crappy existence sometime in the 1970's.

There is no way the present crappy product would have ever been able to compete, when it was sold right along side the likes of Yardley, and Old Spice, both very good tallow based soaps.

 

[thunderball]

I think my grandpa did the same thing...just leave the soapy brush to go hard in the mug. He always looked pretty well-shaven so it couldn't have been that bad!

 

[jfreaksho]

I'm not sure that rinsing it out really does all that much either... The brush dries out or it doesn't.

Does the presence of lather really make the moisture in the brush stay that much longer?
Doesn't the presence of dried soap (at least a little bit) discourage the growth of bacteria?
What does rinsing do to prevent bacterial growth?

After consulting with my wife (formerly a hospital lab tech) I learned that while most soaps don't kill bacteria, the boiling hot water (from a hot-water dispenser) that I use to soak my brush and then shave will kill pretty much anything that can be killed.

Since rinsing is done immediately after the shave, anything that grew in the brush since the last shave has already been applied (and scraped off) your face.

The only way to more effectively kill bacteria would be some kind of actual anti-bacterial product, and the only way to prevent it better would be to use some type of dryer after I'm done.

I like leaving the lather in the brush, and I will continue to do so for the time being.

If it's bad for the brush, I'd like to know, but I don't care about this one much.
J.

 

[oldandcrotchety]

Well that is interesting, but I fail to see how not rinsing the brush would be at all beneficial......this would mean the likelihood of the brush ever thoroughly drying would be diminished, which makes the brush a breading ground for bacteria.

You should also be aware, that the Williams of the 1950's, and the Williams of today are not the same product. Williams seems to have been reformulated into it's present crappy existence sometime in the 1970's.

There is no way the present crappy product would have ever been able to compete, when it was sold right along side the likes of Yardley, and Old Spice, both very good tallow based soaps.

I agree 100% about the Williams based on my own personal experience. I'm old enough that when I first started shaving, Williams was one of 2 choices available to me at the time. I'm sure there were others, just not where I lived. The Williams of that time was fine. Made a good lather with little effort and had good staying power. Well, just 3 days ago I dumped the remnants of my old VDH puck and replaced it with a Williams puck I had picked up recently. I can tell you that this was not the same stuff of old. Very hard to get a lather at all and when finally half-assed accomplished it was awful. No body to it at all and wants to just go away quickly from the face. Trash time for that one and time to crack open a new VDH puck. (Think I'll order a Tabak and see how well I like that.) Fred

 

[chicken neck]

You might enjoy this quote from James Joyce's Ulysees ..

"What advantages attended shaving by night?

A softer beard: a softer brush if intentionally allowed to remain from
shave to shave in its agglutinated lather: a softer skin if unexpectedly
encountering female acquaintances in remote places at incustomary hours:
quiet reflections upon the course of the day: a cleaner sensation when
awaking after a fresher sleep since matutinal noises, premonitions and
perturbations, a clattered milkcan, a postman's double knock, a paper
read, reread while lathering, relathering the same spot, a shock, a
shoot, with thought of aught he sought though fraught with nought might
cause a faster rate of shaving and a nick on which incision plaster with
precision cut and humected and applied adhered: which was to be done."

 

[kingfisher]

As far as a brush not drying goes, I'd be more worried that this would encourage the growth of fungi than of bacteria.

 

[WilliamIam]

With the amount of blood I get in some shaves....

anyway, I notice that my brush never gets completely dry if rinsed and I ruffle it halfway through the day unless it's warmer than 70F indoors.

And as for rinsing the brush, I'd been thoroughly rinsing the brush before and after using it.

 

[macabrem]

You might enjoy this quote from James Joyce's Ulysees ..

That is an awesome quote. That book is on my to-read list, so I guess it gets bumped up towards the top now.

 

[dpmtherrien]

For myself, I wouldn't worry about leaving the lather in the mug, but I'd be sure that my brush was well rinsed out. In most cases, especially with Williams, soap is soap, but I wouldn't want to take the chance of doing damage to one of my brushes.

 

[pauls51]

I look at it this way (my g/father did the same thing); when you shower and you soap up, do you get out of the shower and let the soap dry on you before getting dressed?

 

[AZShaver]

Joyce is worse than Conrad!

 

[cirrusvirus]

I'm not a big williams fan, but I do remember it being my first shave soap

I sceptical about not rinsing the brush, however I have found in the past that making later with the previous days left over lather in the bowl gave a creamier thicker lather almost like a yougourt consistancy. (wierd analogy but that's the closest comparison).

 

[gone down south]

I would worry that the brush gets cakey and gunked up, I always get better lathers with a freshly shampooed brush.