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- #21
Oh, if you're loading for MINUTES, then something else is the problem. As much as I like Maggards stuff in general, I don't find their soaps to be my favorite. They are totally serviceable, though, and you should be able to make a functional lather out of it.
Do you face lather or bowl?
Everybody finds their own "best way" but I'll share how I do it, just as one point of reference. (I also regularly use a Maggard synthetic brush, so I am familiar with them.) I face-lather.
I shower before shaving 99% of the time. I leave my face damp when I get out of the shower.
If I'm using my synthetic brush, I don't soak it while I'm in the shower, I simply run hot water over it for 20-30 seconds prior to making my lather.
Shake brush once or twice to get rid of excess water in the bristles.
Swirl brush on soap until tips of bristles start getting "pasty". I find this takes me 20-30 seconds, typically. I don't time it, count swirls of brush, or anything of that sort. Look at what's happening and adjust as needed.
Quickly pass tip of brush under running water (not looking to add a bunch of water, here, just getting the tips a little damp).
Start swirling and/or "painting" motion on face to build lather. If it seems too sticky or dry, then quickly pass brush under running water again. Repeat as needed.
Work lather on face until it is no longer translucent, and no "big" bubbles are evident. The sheen on the lather will be shiny. At this point, if I were describing whipped cream, I guess it will have just barely reached "soft peaks".
If you are finding that you can see through the lather, or it's drying up and flaking off of your skin, or anything else, your water-to product ratio is not correct. If you just can't seem to get it sorted out, it is a common recommendation to try using bottled/distilled water to eliminate your water as the problem.
As for the razor, I personally wonder if people get too hung up on finding an angle as recommended by somebody else on the internet that's using altogether different equipment. Seems counter-productive.
My two cents: Put the razor on your skin so that it's on its cap. Handle pointing straight away from your face. Rotate it down until the blade just starts to engage the hair when you take a stroke. "riding the cap" is the phrase for this. Depending on the razor being used, this may not be the optimum angle even if it does technically work. Some razors may require that you lower the handle even more. Do a little experimenting. If you find that all you're doing is removing lather, but not hair, then you're not engaging the blade enough, drop the handle a bit closer to your skin. If you're tearing yourself up and drawing blood, back it off. Remember not to press the razor to the skin, let the weight of the razor do the work.
The shave wiki has pictures and better explanations of all of this.
I got another crazy idea.... what about just using can hoop (barbosol) for a shave? I KNOW I can get a good shave with that as I have done so with a cartridge, so the only variable would
Be the razor and my technique. My issue is I have too many variables right now and I don't know which one to tackle first.
). stick with the 7 o locks for a while then once you have developed your technique a bit more you can try different blades (you'll have to try the feathers they are wickedly sharp!)
