Is what I'm doing 'wrong'?

[dtezla]

I really like Williams Mug Soap, but I think I may be lathering it 'wrong'. I have my soap stuck to the bottom of a standard coffee mug. I fill my sink with water and let my brush and razor soak. I also fill the mug up with very hot water and let the mug sit in the sink as well so the mug itself gets warm. Then I shower.

After the shower, I dump the water out of my mug and shake off the brush 2-3 times. I then swirl the brush on the mug and keep swirling on top of the soap until I get a very nice lather. I then go straight to my face and work it on with the brush. I could just paint it on my face, but I like the feel of the brush swirling on my face. I do use quite a bit of the soap for this process, but I get about 2.5 - 3 weeks worth of shaves out of each puck.

Is this really 'wrong'? Or is this an acceptable way of using a shave soap? Due to the inexpensive cost of the Williams, I really don't care that I'm using it up quickly.

 

[eth]

What you are doing is heavy loading and then face lathering. This is pretty normal, but you are using up soap so quickly beacuse the puck is sitting in water through your shower. This dissolves a notable amount of soap into the water, so you pour out a lot of soap when you start the shave. It does make the soap very easy to load, but still, you could probably have each puck last twice as long if you wanted to.

 

[michiganlover]

What you are doing is called "Lathering On the Puck". It's considered to be somewhat wasteful of soap, but when you are using a low cost product, who cares? It's my preferred method of lathering.

However, I do agree, that pre-soaking the puck as you are doing is leading to an even further wasting of soap. But again if you are happy with the results, who cares.

Note, that lathering on the puck is the method depicted in the logo on the Williams box, and is I believe the method most men of yesteryear used.

 

[the_edski]

At $.99 for 2.5 to 3 weeks of shaving soap, I wouldn't worry about it at all. Now if you were doing this with MDC, we'd have to hog-tie you and stage an intervention!

 

[PugslyCat]

Note, that lathering on the puck is the method depicted in the logo on the Williams box, and is I believe the method most men of yesteryear used.

At $.99 for 2.5 to 3 weeks of shaving soap, I wouldn't worry about it at all. Now if you were doing this with MDC, we'd have to hog-tie you and stage an intervention!

I'm with these guys. If it works for you, go with it. Nothing is wrong if it makes a great shave for you. At the cost of Williams you could probably use it as a bath bar rather than leaving it soak, just to make sure its thirst is quenched. It's thirsty stuff.

If, on the other hand, you do wish to stretch the soap just a little bit you might consider dumping the water from the mug after a minute or two and setting it in a sink of hot water. I used to do this with Williams or VDH. I would fill the mug with hot water while I brushed my teeth and then dump the mug when I was done, being not too obsessed about getting every drop out of the mug. Maybe leave a teaspoon or so behind.

 

[MACGI98z28]

I am not a big fan of Williams but I got the best results getting the hot water going and wetting the puck in the mug with about 1oz of hot water and letting it sit and then hitting it with a wetted brush and building the lather on the puck without dumping out any water. I would adjust and add more water if necessary to get the lather right.

I agree with the previous post, you are dumping your soap down the drain. I think a puck of Williams lasted me about three months before I got sick screwing around with Williams, tossed it and started using Arko and a bowl to lather.

My biggest problem with Williams is that even a well-built Williams lather collapses in minutes. I understand lather going away, but not in the time it takes to do a pass. Arko, Proraso and just about anything else will give you much better results in term of lather. Arko has the benefit of being almost as cheap.

 

[fccexpert]

If it works for you, and you are happy with the results, then it cannot be wrong. If you want the puck to last longer, just stop soaking it while you shower. You can always add water as you make/apply lather if you need more.

I also have never understood the process of adding water to the soap and then shaking water out of the brush. Why not just keep the water in the brush. Again, you can always adjust the water/soap ratios as you lather (where is it written that you cannot go back and put more soap or more water on the bursh?).