Lather volume.

[ShaverGN]

I shave my face and my head. Obviously, I need lots of lather. Up until now, I used shaving cream or uber lather. This morning I tried the soap alone (Cella) using Semogue 610 and ran out of lather. Using cream, it’s easy to make as much lather as I want; just use more cream. The shaving brush, on the other hand, can only be loaded with a limited amount of soap.

How do I make more lather using soap? Should I get a large brush?

I need at least twice as much lather as you would use for 3-pass face shave. I build lather in a bowl.

 

[Sir Lurkalot]

You may have to load the brush for a longer period of time, something like two minutes or more.

 

[Mandina]

+1 on loading longer. My two brushes (an Omega boar and a Muhle HJM black fibre) aren't large but by loading longer I can easily get enough lather for 5 passes from most of my soaps (Mike's, Cella, Valobra, Proraso, Tabac, Cade, Arko, etc.).

 

[TallyShave]

You can always just go back to the puck and add more soap after a few passes.

 

[rxonmymind]

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...mpared-to-Mitchell-s-Wool-Fat-soap?highlight=

Scroll down. Put the soap in it's own dedicated bowl. This way "loading" doesn't become an issue. I've found this way the amount of lather desired is directly proportional to the amount of water added. Well not EXACTLY, but you get the idea. In the pic above within the thread I had enough for eight passes if I wanted.

 

[ridnovir]

just load for longer, work it add water, work it some more.

 

[Gabacho]

I am waiting on Cella but have Tabac. I too am a head and face shaver with a DE. I followed the advice in a post by Marco on lathering soap on the face and now I get more than enough great lather for my head and face. Occasionally, I have to give it a couple of swirls in the middle of the shave because I like it good and thick. As usual YMMV Good Luck!

 

[ShaverGN]

I prefer to build my lather in a bowl. Tomorrow I will combine the longer loading time with re-loading as recommended by Damon. Report to follow.

 

[jwilock]

keep a tube of proraso handy and just squirt some into your bowl if you need a little extra at the end of your shave

 

[aja1732]

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...mpared-to-Mitchell-s-Wool-Fat-soap?highlight=

Scroll down. Put the soap in it's own dedicated bowl. This way "loading" doesn't become an issue. I've found this way the amount of lather desired is directly proportional to the amount of water added. Well not EXACTLY, but you get the idea. In the pic above within the thread I had enough for eight passes if I wanted.

+1 to this.

 

[chris.hale]

I lather on my face / head, so I just re-visit the puck, but Damon's suggestion works great for bowl lathering.

 

[Cerbul13]

I feel that some soaps are simply much harder to load, and seems like I have to either add soap later during passes, or to add a tiny bit more water at the start. But adding water at the start will make the lather too runny, and not cushioning enough. One solution I use for those is to soak the soap in hot water during my shower, making it much more easy to lead on brush, yet I would still prefer to have my soap load easier. (I need 4 passes + touch-ups, so you can imagine that I do need a lot of lather).

One other thing I learned is to use the lather itself to add more soap later, as using water directly will make your lather too watery. At least like this you got yourself a warranty that you will add more soap but not water, increasing the cushioning property.

 

[ShaverGN]

This morning I woke up a bit earlier ready to tackle the lather volume dilemma. As recommended, I loaded the brush with Cella for almost 2 minutes. Then I build the lather in bowl. Once it reached good consistency, I squeeze the brush, added a few drops of water to the soap, and loaded the brush again. Then back to the bowl. Repeat twice.

With this technique you indeed can build an unlimited volume of lather. I had plenty for my head and face shave. Unfortunately, process takes a bit of time, more than I’m willing to spend on a weekday. I can build the same volume of lather using shaving cream in under 2 minutes.

 

[attime6]

Load the brush longer and you can always do a few more laps on the puck as needed.