I've always, and I mean ALWAYS (~30 years or so) had trouble with getting a great lather with boars. When I acquired my first badger about 3 years ago, lather bombs came with little to no effort. At first, I attributed this to the whole "badgers are better than boars" discussion and, quite frankly, I couldn't disagree.
Back then, my boars were generally the wonderful drugstore variety than rhymed with Milkonson-Gourd, so I thought that maybe it was just a crappy brand and acquired a Semogue 610 to give it another go with a better branded boar. Still no go *sigh* My lathers were okay but much thinner than with my badgers and quite simply, just not as much fun.
So off goes the 610 to another member and I happily return to my badgers ...... until I get bitten with the "I WILL whip this boar monkey off my back" thing once again. Enter the Semogue 2010 LE Custom Boar, aka the "Blue Boar." Alas, try as I might, the same thin, watery lather. *double sigh*
I was just about ready to throw in the boar towel again when fellow member Foyle sent me a nicely broken-in SOC (or was that a sock?
). Strangely enough, I had acquired the 610 from him many moons ago in a trade. If I didn't know better, I'd swear he was on a mission to make me a boar convert. 
Given this was a PIF from a fellow I have exchanged oodles and oodles of PMs with and have developed a great deal of respect for, I had to give this brush a real go before throwing in the towel for the 4th time.
Sadly, while much nicer than my previous attempts, my badgers still outshone the boars, even the mighty SOC! Until that fateful morning....... *insert ominous music here* .......
I normally don't leave my brushes (badgers or boars) sopping wet when loading like brucered and other do using the world-renowned Marco Method, but prefer a drier brush (gently fist squeeze) and stop loading when the soap starts to get sticky. It's what I've always done and you know what the say "Practice makes perfect"..... when that should actually be "Practice makes permanent."
So this past Sunday morning, with little to lose, I did the wet'n'drippy brush thing with the SOC while rolling my eyes at the instant soup mess of watery suds that formed in my OS mug while loading. How in the heck is anyone supposed to make lather from this soggy mess? Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound..... so I keep "loading" the brush, thinking all the while that I'm making soup and that there's no way the brush is loading like it should.
After a minute or so of gentle swirls, I have an OS mug of thin white soup, which I then transfer to a seldom-used lathering mug as there's no way I could face lather this thin stuff. With nothing left to lose except for a few minutes (but there's no rush as it's Sunday), I sighed once more and started lathering my soup with a brush pump thrown in every now and then After about a minute, to my surprise, the soup started to thicken up an expand like crazy. Another minute and I have the creamy gobs of lather that I've seen in the SOTD pics.
That was THE first time I have ever gotten lather like that from a boar. My quick takeaways....
- boars like being wet, wet wet while loading
- boars like proto-lather soup
- boars like to enjoy LOTS of the aforementioned soup
- boars like to work their magic over a few minutes instead of having an "instant ON" switch
- boars are kind and forgiving enough to accept my apologies
I guess it was me all along these past years.
Back then, my boars were generally the wonderful drugstore variety than rhymed with Milkonson-Gourd, so I thought that maybe it was just a crappy brand and acquired a Semogue 610 to give it another go with a better branded boar. Still no go *sigh* My lathers were okay but much thinner than with my badgers and quite simply, just not as much fun.
So off goes the 610 to another member and I happily return to my badgers ...... until I get bitten with the "I WILL whip this boar monkey off my back" thing once again. Enter the Semogue 2010 LE Custom Boar, aka the "Blue Boar." Alas, try as I might, the same thin, watery lather. *double sigh*
I was just about ready to throw in the boar towel again when fellow member Foyle sent me a nicely broken-in SOC (or was that a sock?
). Strangely enough, I had acquired the 610 from him many moons ago in a trade. If I didn't know better, I'd swear he was on a mission to make me a boar convert. Given this was a PIF from a fellow I have exchanged oodles and oodles of PMs with and have developed a great deal of respect for, I had to give this brush a real go before throwing in the towel for the 4th time.Sadly, while much nicer than my previous attempts, my badgers still outshone the boars, even the mighty SOC! Until that fateful morning....... *insert ominous music here* .......
I normally don't leave my brushes (badgers or boars) sopping wet when loading like brucered and other do using the world-renowned Marco Method, but prefer a drier brush (gently fist squeeze) and stop loading when the soap starts to get sticky. It's what I've always done and you know what the say "Practice makes perfect"..... when that should actually be "Practice makes permanent."
So this past Sunday morning, with little to lose, I did the wet'n'drippy brush thing with the SOC while rolling my eyes at the instant soup mess of watery suds that formed in my OS mug while loading. How in the heck is anyone supposed to make lather from this soggy mess? Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound..... so I keep "loading" the brush, thinking all the while that I'm making soup and that there's no way the brush is loading like it should.
After a minute or so of gentle swirls, I have an OS mug of thin white soup, which I then transfer to a seldom-used lathering mug as there's no way I could face lather this thin stuff. With nothing left to lose except for a few minutes (but there's no rush as it's Sunday), I sighed once more and started lathering my soup with a brush pump thrown in every now and then After about a minute, to my surprise, the soup started to thicken up an expand like crazy. Another minute and I have the creamy gobs of lather that I've seen in the SOTD pics.
That was THE first time I have ever gotten lather like that from a boar. My quick takeaways....
- boars like being wet, wet wet while loading
- boars like proto-lather soup
- boars like to enjoy LOTS of the aforementioned soup
- boars like to work their magic over a few minutes instead of having an "instant ON" switch
- boars are kind and forgiving enough to accept my apologies
I guess it was me all along these past years.
Last edited:
