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Lathering

Got a question regarding lathering. I've been going through the wiki on lathering because I've been using shaving cream which I scoop a little out as opposed to a puck or a bowl of shaving cream. Ive been putting a little scoop in my scuttle,then fill the bottom half with hot water and let it and the brush and my preshave oil sit in hot water while I shower. When I try to make lather its less than ideal and certainly not the results in the wiki.

So am I cheap and need to try a bigger scoop, or is there a way to make this work?

thanks
 

Ron R

I survived a lathey foreman
Got a question regarding lathering. I've been going through the wiki on lathering because I've been using shaving cream which I scoop a little out as opposed to a puck or a bowl of shaving cream. Ive been putting a little scoop in my scuttle,then fill the bottom half with hot water and let it and the brush and my preshave oil sit in hot water while I shower. When I try to make lather its less than ideal and certainly not the results in the wiki.

So am I cheap and need to try a bigger scoop, or is there a way to make this work?

thanks
You should never have to put water in the bowl with any cream to bloom IMO!
I suggest just take a dollop of your cream or soap(pressed in bottom) and smear it in the bottom of your bowl and take your damp brush that you gently squeezed the water out and start to stir until you get a lather that is still thick and then add some drops of water by hand and stir some more add a few drops of water..... until your happy with lather needed. I can make a soap, croap or soap lather decently in under 2 minutes by just doing this method any time.
To much water will never get a decent lather and will just frustrate a person fighting it.
 
You should never have to put water in the bowl with any cream to bloom IMO!
I suggest just take a dollop of your cream or soap(pressed in bottom) and smear it in the bottom of your bowl and take your damp brush that you gently squeezed the water out and start to stir until you get a lather that is still thick and then add some drops of water by hand and stir some more add a few drops of water..... until your happy with lather needed. I can make a soap, croap or soap lather decently in under 2 minutes by just doing this method any time.
To much water will never get a decent lather and will just frustrate a person fighting it.
Thanks. Didn't have a lot of water but it was a bit watery and I have to work to get my face covered.
 
Fantastic advice from the gents above.

I'll just add that my lathers improved exponentially once I got away from bowls/scuttles altogether and started lathering directly on my face. Creams in particular are well suited to face lathering and can be especially useful at the beginning due to their relative ease.

Now, don't get me wrong...bowl lathering has plenty of adherents and there are quite a few veteran members of B&B who go that route or do both or some kind of hybrid.

But, for me and many others face lathering is preferred. There are many reasons that are usually given and if you stick around I'm sure you'll encounter them all before long. The most applicable in this case would be the immediate tactile feedback.

IMHO, face lathering makes it far easier to judge the quality of the lather you're building. Your face tells you exactly what the lather needs i.e. 'too pasty', 'too wet', 'too thin', etc.

This can be important for a wet shaver building up their skills as the more reliably and efficiently you can make a good lather the more energy and focus you can reserve for the 'business end' of the shave...the shaving.
 
Everyone's advice worked. I actually had thick lather this morning! I think I was also being a little cheap on the soap. I've got those samplers from Captain's Choice, and was trying to get 2 shaves out of each sampler. Probably not enough soap.
 

musicman1951

three-tu-tu, three-tu-tu
You should never have to put water in the bowl with any cream to bloom IMO!
I suggest just take a dollop of your cream or soap(pressed in bottom) and smear it in the bottom of your bowl and take your damp brush that you gently squeezed the water out and start to stir until you get a lather that is still thick and then add some drops of water by hand and stir some more add a few drops of water..... until your happy with lather needed. I can make a soap, croap or soap lather decently in under 2 minutes by just doing this method any time.
To much water will never get a decent lather and will just frustrate a person fighting it.
Exactly this!
 
Use more soap. Being new to this you dont real know how much to use yet. And soap is cheep. Even if you start buying soaps that cost 70 bucks a puck you will find that less soap is needed with those.

Being new use the scuttle or bowl if you want. Just leave out the hot water for now. Learn to make lather before getting fancy.

Hope your not mixing preshave with lather. Most people find preshave does nothing. Just puts oil on your face. And thats not good.

Some say to start with an Almond sized amount. Use an item that you see regularly to judge how much soap your using so you know how much your using.
Practise.
I can make lather on face, in bowl, in scuttle, in hand in about 20 to 30 seconds. Its just takes practise. You want as much water in the lather rhat it can hold without breaking diwn and without looking like suds with bubbles in it. Creamy is the trick. And cheep soaps will just nake it harder to learn IMO.
 
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musicman1951

three-tu-tu, three-tu-tu
There is no difference in quality between face lathering and bowl lathering - unless you're getting one of them wrong. They are different procedures in a few ways, but done correctly the results are the same. I only used a scuttle for many years. When I tried face lathering I wondered why anyone would employ that technique. Not surprisingly, I was much better at the scuttle because of the time spent. When I had invested enough time with face lathering I found I could make the same lather.

If your prep is not fully adequate you can find face lathering helpful in the prep completion.

The scuttle will provide a good place to soak a boar brush, considerably warmer lather for later passes and an excellent place to clean the brush when you're done. It's also easier to incorporate added water into the entire lather quickly. The process is also a little bit neater.

I have found one cream and one soap that don't do well with the heat of the scuttle (hot tap water). Proraso cream can dry out, but adding a few drops of water brings it right back to life. SV, surprisingly, is a soap that did not do well at all in the heat of my scuttle.

The only reason to pick either face lathering or the scuttle is personal preference. Neither is inherently better, and to suggest differently would be to disagree with me - which would obviously be madness.
 
Hello Joe,

Some time ago i stumbled upon a YouTube video of a gentleman by the name of Lynn Abrams. The technique that he used to load the brush has really worked out perfectly for me since then. Like you, i didn’t want to waste expensive soap, which happened to me a lot when using to much water in the brush while loading a hard puck for instance, and his approach really allows you to control the thickness and richness of the lather while lathering.

Here is the Video:


Hope this helps!
Cheers, John.
 
Hello Joe,

Some time ago i stumbled upon a YouTube video of a gentleman by the name of Lynn Abrams. The technique that he used to load the brush has really worked out perfectly for me since then. Like you, i didn’t want to waste expensive soap, which happened to me a lot when using to much water in the brush while loading a hard puck for instance, and his approach really allows you to control the thickness and richness of the lather while lathering.

Here is the Video:


Hope this helps!
Cheers, John.
I remember Lynn from a while ago. I stopped using a straight for a while ( about 5 years) and am now just getting back. Back then, Lynn helped me out with honing a bit - he was pretty helpful. I found out he's kind of retired from all of this now. He earned it he was helpful to a lot of people.

I noticed that if you go really dry, then gradually add a few drops of water you can control how thick it gets - and stop when you get it to your liking.

I've also got a new Simpson brush that its pretty soft but also kind of stiff and does not want to splay out to really slop the lather on. I think it need a few uses yet.

I do like the pre-shave oil because it helps soften my beard a bit. I put that on, then proceed to strop while that sits on my face. Not sure if it helps, but the warm oil is nice.
 
Great advice above!

I would add that my approach is: MORE product + MORE water = better lather.

The precise water to product ratio depends on the particular product.
 
By default always face lather. Since the AOS cream days’09 till the shave stick days or shave soap currently. Seems faster and more reliable, since the later is on your face.
 
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