What's new

Lather Troubles

Hello All,

I wouldn’t consider myself new to wet shaving, but I’m having a bit of a problem building a nice lather.

For some background, It’s become a small part of my daily routine, even when I don’t shave, to practice making a lather. I do all of the recommended steps quite carefully, ring the brush to almost dry after soaking it, load the tips, and add a very small amount of water a little bit at a time. But when the lather has good volume and “meringue” like peaks, it’s still very airy and dries out pretty quickly on my face.

I’m beginning to wonder if it’s a soap problem or a brush problem. I’m using K Shave Worx Cure for a Belly Ache soap (which has a wonderful smell, but I believe might be discontinued now?) and a Holy Black Synthetic brush. It’s been a couple years now and I still only have the one soap and the one brush. I wanted to check in and ask, is it time to expand on my personal inventory, or am I still the problem?

Thanks for your help:). And sorry for a longer post, I wanted to detail my endeavor, as well as the recurring problem
 
I have no experience with either your brush or soap, so take this with at least a grain of salt!!

You might consider a few things:
1. Try another soap, perhaps a shave stick.
2. If you have hard water, then try distilled or bottled water.
3. Rather than going for ’good volume and meringue-like peaks’ I go for lower volume and slickness. In other words I use ’more product,’ then ‘more water.’

Stick with this and you will get the results you want!!:thumbup1:
 
I have no experience with either your brush or soap, so take this with at least a grain of salt!!

You might consider a few things:
1. Try another soap, perhaps a shave stick.
2. If you have hard water, then try distilled or bottled water.
3. Rather than going for ’good volume and meringue-like peaks’ I go for lower volume and slickness. In other words I use ’more product,’ then ‘more water.’

Stick with this and you will get the results you want!!:thumbup1:
+1 This and make sure you are not whipping to much air into your lather.
 

Ron R

I survived a lathey foreman
You should be able to get a decent lather with your synthetic brush IMO. As for your soap you are not loading enough soap or the soap is just not of quality to making decent shaving lather.
Lots of quality soaps out there to try, If your from the USA buy some Sterling soaps and it will make some nice lather for you IMO.
You could be not loading the brush enough also, from what you mentioned your adding water properly with small amounts.
I like to squeeze most water out of my brush at first and then add small amounts for water until to my liking, I mostly bowl lather but face lathering works well if your skin can handle that with lots of scrubbing and painting lather.
To dry a lather is not desired, it should have just enough moisture in the lather for better razor glide control and ultimately better shave results.
Just a few thoughts that should help.
 

brucered

System Generated
Load more soap. Use a soap that is well regarded. Never heard of yours.

Face lather. It is much easier to tell when the lather is the correct consistency vs bowl lathering.

Meringue tips don't sound good to me. If you are shooting for a food reference, I shoot for homemade whipped cream (by hand with a whisk). Not that crap in a can.
 
It's possible it's the soap, I haven't heard of that one, but most likely, you're not loading enough of it. Load it like you're trying to use it up. If you're already loading a ton of it, then you're probably whipping it for too long and getting too much air into it. @brucered speaks the truth, try face lathering unless your skin is too sensitive. Shoot for a thin layer of thick, slick, wet lather with no air bubbles.
 
Meringue peaks might be fine if your face is dripping wet, and if you then do a bit of face-lathering to incorporate that extra water into the lather. But it's more difficult to get the ratio correct that way, because there's less product on your brush than there would have been in the whole bowl starting out.
 

blethenstrom

Born to häckla
I was able to find the ingredient list for your soap. Seems like a nice solid ingredient list. By the sound of it it looks like some sort of an artisan soap. I found this link to one. Cure for a Belly Ache Shaving Soap - by K Shave Worx (Pre-Owned) - https://murphyandmcneil.com/products/cure-for-a-belly-ache-shaving-soap-by-k-shave-worx-pre-owned ingredients are listed along the perimeter of the label.

Stearic Acid
Water
Coconut Oil
Potassium Hydroxide
Sodium Hydroxide
Castor Oil
Kokum Butter
Shea Butter
Sodium Lactate
Glycerin
Fragrance

I do not believe that there is any problem with your soap, but I will reflect what others have said. Load more product first and foremost. Give it a good 30-40 second load on your wetted brush. You can reduce the time once you can produce good lather.

I think also you are adding too little water. You mentioned meringue peaks and drying soap on your face. Whipped meringue is a bit too dry. IMHO you should be more of a yogurt consistency. The wetter the lather is the slicker it will be, but of course you will hit a limit where the soap just breaks down and you certainly do not want to go there either. Also a wetter lather will not dry on your face. Just gradually add water, if it breaks down you added too much and you just start over. You will quickly learn how the soap reacts. Hope that helped.
 
I’m new and learning to make good, consistent lather as well. Suffering from lather drying out was my bag too until I started adding tiny amounts of water to the tips of my brush when lathering my face.
 
I'm going to go total left of center, water quality! And the suggestion to rectify that, Washing soda [Soda Ash. or Sodium carbonate][not sodium BIcarbonate][not the Lye or Sodium hydroxide washing soda, even though it works, its caustic to skin in undiluted amounts]
A teaspoon handle [pinch]
 
Don't try to make your lather look like the pretty photos, looks don't really matter in the end. The best lather is dense and slick, not foamy. More soap, more water, not so much air would be my suggestion. Agree with @brucered that face lathering makes it easier to sense what kind of lather you are getting so you can adjust as needed.
 
Even when I lather up the soap perfectly, it dries on my head. I shave my neck, cheeks above the beard and then carefully around my ears, so by the time I get shaving my head it is drying out.

I could avoid this by lathering the scalp after the other shaving, but what works for me is to re-wet the brush, dipping it lightly into water and re-wetting the shave soap already on my scalp.

I also wet and rinse the razor frequently and often track along with wet fingers on my other hand to bring more moisture as I shave.

I use Pheonix shaving products, pre-shave with the Pheonix cube, CK-6 shave soap, Razorock boar hair brush. The cube subs for a shave oil, providing a slick layer that prevents the skin from absorbing moisture and then grabbing the blade.

Additionally, I have found some razors are more prone to squeegee the lubrication right off the scalp.
 

musicman1951

three-tu-tu, three-tu-tu
My guess is not enough soap and too much air in your lather. You may want to experiment with a little bit more moisture left in your brush before you build the lather. If the brush is too dry it takes longer to load - but not too much with a synthetic brush or you'll make a mess on your puck.

How long does it take to build your lather? I'm going to guess again - too long. If you're adding a little water repeatedly during the process you're wasting time for no good reason (you know when the lather is way too dry and is going to need quite a bit of water) and you're potentially whipping more and more air into the lather as you go. Try a reasonable guess for the added water the first addition.

More soap, less whipping.

If none of these suggestions help you've probably got a water problem. The usual suggestion is to try distilled water - which is pretty cheap stuff.
 
Top Bottom