Lathering MWF with hard water.my method.

[Recluse]

Hey folks...haven't been here all that long but long enough to see a lot of people talk about how difficult MWF can be to lather; ESPECIALLY if you have a hard water problem. Having been on Well water most my life, hard water was something you learned to adapt to. I've used the fat for a good portion of my shaving life and it is one of my favorites and I've never really had an issue with lathering it...even with hard water. I guess the technique my Father showed me when I first started shaving already took the hard water into account. So, I decide to make a video of the technique I learned...yes it's my first YouTube video...so don't beat me up too bad. http://youtu.be/zvgsShZtGsU

Al

 

[MickToley]

Good job! I posted the video here just to make it easier.

 

[Phog Allen]

Quite interesting. I gave my cakes of MWF away because of lather issues. Wish I would have tried your way just for the sake of knowing. Thank you for posting.

Cheers, Todd

 

[Badger]

Great Video, Al!

Gonna try it tomorrow.

 

[Recluse]

Thanks MickToley! I appreciate the assist!

 

[Dick Solomon]

I live in Chicago and have extremely hard water. I'm going to try this on my next shave. Will post results!

 

[SevereWX]

Thanks for the great tips! Definitely will be trying this method tomorrow morning!

 

[Jerry4roo]

Great video! I guess I should try some MWF some time soon

 

[NSmalls]

I have hard water as well. Will this technique work with any soaps? I use VDH.

 

[Gabacho]

 

[Recluse]

I live in Chicago and have extremely hard water. I'm going to try this on my next shave. Will post results!

I look forward to the results!

 

[Recluse]

I have hard water as well. Will this technique work with any soaps? I use VDH.

Yes, this technique is not limited to just MWF.

 

[azhawk0516]

I have hard well water as well, and I basically do the same thing. I take my wet brush and actually create the lather on the puck then face lather. This technique seems to work very well with nearly all hard soap. I never really understood why it worked. So thanks Recluse for the explanation. It all makes sense now. Very much appreciated.

 

[Chadao]

Thanks. just acquired my first MWF puck. Will give this a try.

 

[learis]

I will personally vouch that this method is completely night and day for me. My water is always hard (120ppm - 180ppm). I know because I have an aquarium and I used a measuring strip on my faucet water. Even my filtered water is still somewhat hard.

This technique produced a thick creamy sustainable lather the first time I tried it. For the past 6 months of shaving I have tried all kinds of soaps and creams (TF&H, GFT, MWF, QCS, Mike's Natural Soaps, Mama bear's soaps, Colonel Conk, VDH, RazoRock etc). No matter what my lather was always thin and foamy (no cushion or slickness really). I simply became used to having thin lathers that dissipated quickly. Every once and a while I'd get a thick creamy lather and I'd wonder how I did it. I figured it was just an art that I had to perfect.

After trying this technique I can confidently say that hard water has an extreme impact on creating lather. This technique softens the water and the lather is ten times better. For the person who asked, it works for VDH too. I used it on VDH and it produced a lather that would put even my best lathers with hard water to laughable shame.

I would strongly urge you to post this technique on the shave clinic section and to possibly have it stickied somewhere. It's very hard for people to realize that hard water is actually their main problem when creating lather. I wouldn't want new people to write off wet shaving as inferior because they can't make a good lather even with the best soaps. I've been on the verge of thinking this for a while, but I enjoyed it too much to give up.

P.S. I'm not sure if this is true, but I think one way to tell if you have hard water is to see if your lather fizzles when it comes in contact with the water. I notice that happening with mine.

 

[Shenanigans]

This thread just brought a few things to mind. A) I may have hard water B) This explains as to why when I lather with my brush soaking in 172 degree Sparkletts water why my lather builds a lot better, night and day.

 

[rockviper]

Sweet!
Whip that proto-lather like it owes you money!!

 

[TonyJoe]

Thanks for posting this. I've used this method or variations thereof before and couldn't figure out why it worked better. Making your own soft water. Now it makes sense.

 

[Hen]

I really appreciate the time you took to post this and I'm definitely going to give it a try in the morning.

 

[MegaBullfrog09]

I have hard water and will use this method to see how it works. Thanks for posting!