Lather Dry vs Wet

[Jslinger]

Hey guys, I have been wet shaving for a couple of years now and have discovered some interesting things concerning my lathering. When I first started I watched videos and looked at pictures as to what my lather should look like. I noticed that most people seem to use enough water to create a foam initially and then whip that into something thicker. Although sometimes the results (at least according to some of the pictures I have seen) seem to be a very foamy lather. I have found for me, that a dryer lather that doesn't foam initially when mixing seems to work the best. I was wondering what others experiences were.
Do you work a wet soapy foam into a thicker lather?
Or, do you use less water and work the brush until a cool whip like lather forms?

Basically want to know if I am alone with my dry lather.

 

[JMP]

I also tend to prefer a more "dry" lather in comparison to some i have seen. Instead of lemon meringue peaks, I get more of a thick rich foamy paste....similar to what you describe as cool whip but softer. I don't like to see any skin through my lather, and if I add too much water, that is exactly what happens. With a thicker lather I get more cushion and the razor glides really well!

 

[dpm802]

I may be in the minority, but I prefer a sloppy-wet lather.

Mountains of foamy goodness look good in magazine ads and mantic videos, but IMHO, it does little to improve the quality of my shave.

I like to put on plenty of water such that the lather will cover my skin, but not obscure it. And I keep loading the brush with more water and keep re-wetting the lather before every pass.

This is true with both soaps and creams, and especially very thirsty creams like Musgo Real.

 

[RazorPete]

Originally I was making a wet lather very close to what I saw on mantics videos. Shaves were greatly improved when I made a somewhat drier lather.

 

[SiBurning]

There's two sides of this: (1) how much air and (2) how much water are in the lather.

1. Starting with a bubbly mess, it's hard to get back to a lather with hardly any air. If you start with a paste and mix slowly so that very little air gets in, you can still make it quite wet, so air quantity has little to do with water quantity. You can also whip harder and add air later. Some ingredients make it hard to break the larger bubbles down into fine ones, so stay away from bubbles early unless you like a lot of air in your lather (and large sized bubbles with some soaps). I'm not taking a side here: both can be very nice.

2. As for dry vs. wet, I can go faster with a wetter lather, but a dry lather works better for going slow. I think it's got to do with the balance between the lubrication of the soap/cream vs. the skin effect of water which only comes into use at higher speeds: viscosity vs. hydroplaning. If you want to look up the engineering, try static vs. kinetic friction, or newtonian and non-newtonian shear and viscosity. For any combination of materials and what not, there's a particular speed at which things transition from static friction to kinetic friction. That speed is usefully within what you can do with shaving cream and razors, so you can go either way. If you're shaving at a speed near the transition, you'll jerk and drag, so slow down with a thick lather or speed up with a thin one. And don't ask me what effect air has on this--I haven't got that far.

There is some tradeoff between air and water. The one combination of four that isn't very useful is too much of both. A thin bubbly mess is pretty useless for shaving. OTOH, I often make a thin, bubbly, wet mess to use as prep instead of just using water. Then I go rinse the brush and my face and build a proper lather from scratch.

To add to the confusion, some people use dry and wet to refer to how it feels on the face, and an airy lather will feel drier regardless of the percent of water.

Personally, I go both ways, but my preference is to gently dilute a paste to avoid air bubbles as much as possible and shave with a cream-like consistency very much like yogurt and as little air as possible. The downside is the brush doesn't stay hot in my brush scuttle, so I do sometimes opt for more air which does stay nicely warm in the scuttle. It makes sense--air is a major factor in the fiberglass insulation of buildings--same with the air bubbles in a foam.

 

[southernmail]

At the beginning of the shave I find slightly too dry to be much more efficacious than slightly too wet. When getting to touch up I use water on my fingers to "stretch" the lather and that works really well.

 

[mbrossar]

My best shaves are with wet lather. I use a Chubby 1 and that sucker holds a lot of water at its core. When I start lathering, if its wet, runny and almost splashing around the bathroom, I know I'm in for a good shave.

 

[Jslinger]

This is why it can be so hard to figure out what techniques to use when starting out. It it is so crazy to me that so many different people prefer so many different things. It seems like the cream or soap should work best one way, and that is all.
It is awesome once you find your personal technique and it all falls into place.
Thanks guys.

 

[MoJoe]

It all depends on the soap/cream that I'm using. If I have experience with it and know about how much water it can handle then I add the water at the beginning making it soupy and then whip it into lather. When I use a soap/cream that is new for me I tend to start out dry and add water slowly to build it to the consistancy that I am looking for. Once I find the right formula then I go back to the other method of building lather.

 

[dom1610]

I opt for the drier lather. I love a lather that leaves no hint of skin showing.

 

[sodajerk]

How much depends on the soap or cream - but all or toward the wet side. I go by feel and my KMF is a little on the dry side while my Tabac is good and wet (but not thin).

 

[Defcon5]

I like my lather nice and creamy. When you brush it around your face and starts looking more like cake frosting, and starts sounding more slappy.

Then it's done!

 

[kingfisher]

SiBurning has it right. There is so much more involved that just wet or dry.

Having said that, generally I think I use MORE water than most. I prefer a lather than doesn't really hold tight peaks and that looks shiny in the bowl. In my experience, razor glide is greatly aided by having a wetter lather.

As always, YMMV.

 

[SiBurning]

This is why it can be so hard to figure out what techniques to use when starting out. It it is so crazy to me that so many different people prefer so many different things. It seems like the cream or soap should work best one way, and that is all.
It is awesome once you find your personal technique and it all falls into place.
Thanks guys.

+1000

Start talking about DE blades and how they interact with different razors and lathers and how fast or slow you can move a duller blade vs a faster one, which in turn depends on pressure, angle, etc. and how many passes you can tolerate with each type of blade... Yup! It's hard to find a sweet spot, and there may be more than one that suits you. The only way to find out is to try different things, and, if you're so inclined, to keep experimenting after you do.

 

[JMP]

I like my lather nice and creamy. When you brush it around your face and starts looking more like cake frosting, and starts sounding more slappy.

Then it's done!

agreed!

 

[Iakona]

There's two sides of this: (1) how much air and (2) how much water are in the lather.

1. Starting with a bubbly mess, it's hard to get back to a lather with hardly any air. If you start with a paste and mix slowly so that very little air gets in, you can still make it quite wet, so air quantity has little to do with water quantity. You can also whip harder and add air later. Some ingredients make it hard to break the larger bubbles down into fine ones, so stay away from bubbles early unless you like a lot of air in your lather (and large sized bubbles with some soaps). I'm not taking a side here: both can be very nice.

2. As for dry vs. wet, I can go faster with a wetter lather, but a dry lather works better for going slow. I think it's got to do with the balance between the lubrication of the soap/cream vs. the skin effect of water which only comes into use at higher speeds: viscosity vs. hydroplaning. If you want to look up the engineering, try static vs. kinetic friction, or newtonian and non-newtonian shear and viscosity. For any combination of materials and what not, there's a particular speed at which things transition from static friction to kinetic friction. That speed is usefully within what you can do with shaving cream and razors, so you can go either way. If you're shaving at a speed near the transition, you'll jerk and drag, so slow down with a thick lather or speed up with a thin one. And don't ask me what effect air has on this--I haven't got that far.

There is some tradeoff between air and water. The one combination of four that isn't very useful is too much of both. A thin bubbly mess is pretty useless for shaving. OTOH, I often make a thin, bubbly, wet mess to use as prep instead of just using water. Then I go rinse the brush and my face and build a proper lather from scratch.

To add to the confusion, some people use dry and wet to refer to how it feels on the face, and an airy lather will feel drier regardless of the percent of water.

Personally, I go both ways, but my preference is to gently dilute a paste to avoid air bubbles as much as possible and shave with a cream-like consistency very much like yogurt and as little air as possible. The downside is the brush doesn't stay hot in my brush scuttle, so I do sometimes opt for more air which does stay nicely warm in the scuttle. It makes sense--air is a major factor in the fiberglass insulation of buildings--same with the air bubbles in a foam.

Nice and informative - now I'll have to pay attention (and experiment either way) to how much water I start with in the bowl, and how that transitions into large bubbles, more air in the lather later on.