I'm wondering if the difference of opinion regarding this method is due to differences in varying ability of brushes to retain water? Would a newer boar brush shed more water than a well broken in brush - or vice versa?
My lathering technique with Italian soft soaps
- Thread starter Marco
- Start date
Marco, many thanks for your thorough and effective tutorial.
I've used Cella a few times before and didn't really have good results. Post tutorial, I had tons of lather which was rich and slick. I now feel good about using Cella and look forward to making it part of my usual rotation.
I currently have the red,plastic container of Cella. So when I load the brush, as soon as the soap starts lathering, it overflows the bowl, so I finished in my shave cup. Obviously Cella requires a lot of room to lather, what are other users using to lather their brushes?
I've used Cella a few times before and didn't really have good results. Post tutorial, I had tons of lather which was rich and slick. I now feel good about using Cella and look forward to making it part of my usual rotation.
I currently have the red,plastic container of Cella. So when I load the brush, as soon as the soap starts lathering, it overflows the bowl, so I finished in my shave cup. Obviously Cella requires a lot of room to lather, what are other users using to lather their brushes?
+1 VID-EO!We need a video.
Good question. I suspect that the variables of water hardness/softness, amount of product on brush, size of brush are factors as well. I have been breaking in a Semogue 1305, which is pretty much competely broken, and have seen a difference in it's performance, going from good to great.
+1. I used badger both times (I own no boar yet)...one was Silvertip, one was Pure. The Pure retains a lot less water, and required a moderate loading, whereas the Silvertip took a lot more soap (still worked well, but definitely took time to load through the opening wetness).
Hmm, I've been shaking my brush and doing heavy boar brush grinding immediately upon soap/brush connection without 120 light swirls with Italian soft soaps for the last 4 years.
I guess I'm doing it wrong.
Seriously, people can't figure out how to get a good lather with soft soaps?
I guess I'm doing it wrong.
Seriously, people can't figure out how to get a good lather with soft soaps?
Marco , please keep on ignoring the haters ! As we say in america , ( haters going to hate ) !
as for your post , count me as one of your biggest fan boys ! I have spent over 300 dollars in the last 2 months with joe at italian barber . ( AKA the Don of the Italian shave cosa nostra ) and have to say with the 10 plus italian shave creams - soaps i have I have not been let down buy any of them ! Now excuse me i am off to use my acca kappa for a great shave !
for all the haters out there , please stop drinking the hatoraide !
I may not be a native English speaker, but I know there's a difference between the words 'hater' and 'critic'. I don't think the use of the first word is appropriate in the context of this thread, whereas the second would be.for all the haters out there , please stop drinking the hatoraide !
Well since your not as you say a native English speaker , and are for sure not use to our New England sharp sense of wit , and rather dry and coarse sense of humor , I will forgive your assumtion that my post was said in anger .
In other words , please chill out , and take my words with the proverbial grain of salt ! Calling some one a ( Hater ) in the sense of my post is said in a joking manner with humor and jest !
you savy me keemo sabi ???
Far be it for me to second guess the accumulated experience of the MIBs, but my brush retained way too much water without shaking some off.
One other note, as Marco noted this technique yields an ungodly amount of lather and P160 on my fingertips makes the razor somewhat precarious to hold...
One other note, as Marco noted this technique yields an ungodly amount of lather and P160 on my fingertips makes the razor somewhat precarious to hold...
This is a great post- You described my daily routine that I use with my Cella!!
Seems to work very well for me, thus far. Using a relatively large boar (Omega 31064) a full minute's swirling gets me four passes plus touch-ups, if necessary. Tonight I'll try the Pro 49 with either Proraso or Cella and see what happens- given the size of the brush, I'll spend a little longer picking up the soap.
This is with relatively soft San Francisco water.
Thanks again, Marco!
Jeff
This is with relatively soft San Francisco water.
Thanks again, Marco!
Jeff
Oh yes.you savy me keemo sabi ???
I thought I knew English until I spent a few weeks with native speakers who took absolutely no mercy on what I thought to be (and they confirmed to be) not too shabby skills. The tons of unspoken shades of meaning, especially in the use of vernacular bawdry language, left me with a solid headache at the closing of every day. This is something one is not taught when learning a foreign language; my partner (who holds a degree in a foreign language and has taught at foreign universities) claims this is generally deemed inappropriate. The consequence is that you have to find out for yourself the hard way: it took me the better part of my stay to learn when it was appropriate to call someone a c**t, for example.
This episode is another example of such an issue, although it didn't deal with saucy words
. Unfortunately, I keep on managing to make a fool of myself this way. My sincere apologies for misreading you, therefore.
In that case, another quick lesson: it's never appropriate to call someone that. Even with asterisks, it is extremely ungentlemanly.
All this talk about whether to shake the brush, squeeze the brush, or just let it drip, etc., is of no consequence whatsoever.
In the end, a good lather has about the same ratio of water/product regardless of whether you started with a wet brush (like Marco does), or started with a dry-ish brush (as I do). I add water until it's like Marco's lather.
As long as you get enough product into the mix, and you're patient enough, and you know what a good lather looks and feels like, you end up with the same exact lather either way!
I prefer the dry brush because I use a lot less product and it's nowhere near as messy.
Whatever gives you the good lather is all good.
In the end, a good lather has about the same ratio of water/product regardless of whether you started with a wet brush (like Marco does), or started with a dry-ish brush (as I do). I add water until it's like Marco's lather.
As long as you get enough product into the mix, and you're patient enough, and you know what a good lather looks and feels like, you end up with the same exact lather either way!
I prefer the dry brush because I use a lot less product and it's nowhere near as messy.
Whatever gives you the good lather is all good.
I agree with you there. But that doesn't explain the five or six times I overheard it—mostly between siblings, I should add. I figured it required a level of familiarity I would never be able to attain with them, in any case. But even as a calculated insult it carries with it a certain ... how to put this... degree of contempt or 'badness' (if that makes sense) the level of which is very hard for a foreigner to pick up.
Mind, I'm not about to use the word: it is ungentlemanly. I brought it up as an example of very tiny things which distinguish someone with complete mastery over a language from someone with a not-quite complete mastery. Most native speakers are not aware of them: they apply the appropriate unwritten rules of social context without second thought. They won't even explain them to foreigners unless pressed, and then even only very reluctantly, with stern admonitions to stay away from them.
And on that note we return to lathering soft Italian soaps, where there is now controversy about the wetness of one's brush...
All this talk about whether to shake the brush, squeeze the brush, or just let it drip, etc., is of no consequence whatsoever.
In the end, a good lather has about the same ratio of water/product regardless of whether you started with a wet brush (like Marco does), or started with a dry-ish brush (as I do). I add water until it's like Marco's lather.
As long as you get enough product into the mix, and you're patient enough, and you know what a good lather looks and feels like, you end up with the same exact lather either way!
I prefer the dry brush because I use a lot less product and it's nowhere near as messy.
Whatever gives you the good lather is all good.
You are correct on the quality of the lather, but with my brush I would end up with a ridiculous amount of lather with that much water.
Marco , please keep on ignoring the haters ! As we say in america , ( haters going to hate ) !
However you put it, and regardless of all the smiley's used, putting down other people opinions AND direct experience, is poor form.
Marco espouses a method. It doesn't work across the board. All I've suggested is people actually try it, instead of instantly breaking out the bourbon every time Marco posts.
I wouldn't say they broke out the bourbon as soon as he posted. I think that most people have tried it and liked it in the past. Simply a speculation, there is no way of saying for sure.
That being said, I was skeptical of this method at first. Very very very skeptical. But I tried it, and it worked amazingly. The only problem for me was there was too much lather. It was very hard to handle. But that isn't much of a complaint now is it?
Plenty of posters jumped on with instant congrats, who clearly hadn't even bothered to try it. That's just rampant fanboyism.
Going on Marco's pics, how would anyone be able to face lather that lot? I know he did it in a bowl to show what you get, and that it's doable, but he face lathers. You can't face lather and create that much stuff.
