Overwork lather?

[es99]

Has anyone else found that it's important not to overwork lather?

 

[mblakele]

Not really: I usually face-lather for about five minutes, timed. But in a dry climate the lather will lose water to the air, so it needs frequent hydration.

 

[Cash_Stronomer]

I'm not sure I've ever over worked it? How would that happen?

 

[krawhitham]

Can you be more specific please?

I'm guessing that you mean either:

a) working the lather onto your face is causing irritation (in which case I'd suggest bowl lathering)

or

b) the lather is drying out by the time you get around to actually shaving (in which case you can simply freshen up the lather with a few droplets of water)

 

[es99]

I mean spending too much time leads to airiness and lack of cushion. Sort of like using too much water.

 

[Hkspwrsche]

What soap did you feel this issue? I'm just curious, as I really work the lather into the brush for break in and haven't seen any issue. It seems to keep getting better even 2x longer than normal agitating it in the bowl.

 

[Deipro]

I mean spending too much time leads to airiness and lack of cushion. Sort of like using too much water.

I think airiness is directly related to the amount of water. Like someone said above, the more you work the later, the more time you give the moisture in it to evaporate, which could produce what your observing.

 

[oldtrout]

Once the lather is perfect, stop, it's shaving time.

 

[JBLA]

Yeah, I found this with some of my early soap experiments, especially with soaps using sodium hydroxide instead of potassium hydroxide as the lye. Too little product + too little water + too much swirling the brush = foam that's fairly worthless for shaving.