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I suspect we're all looking at this the wrong way. We should be looking at soap film thickness, lubricity & film viscosity. Of course, I could be completely off base too.
Ha, ha.
I suspect we're all looking at this the wrong way. We should be looking at soap film thickness, lubricity & film viscosity. Of course, I could be completely off base too.
Minute Method™: Experiment 1
I think you're on to something with the Minute Method Grant so I had to test it out for myself. I dusted off the old RR Monster and rinsed out bowl this morning for my Saturday shave. This morning was day one of a 7 day blind test of Gillette Silver Blue vs Gillette Minora. The razors were two identical RR TeckII's. Each razor is apportioned one half of the face a la Blade Wars. No preshave other than showering. My soap was Cella, a reliable favorite. My Saturday shaves are 6 passes. A Muhle R41 with a Feather (first use) carries out the final 3. Postshave with Afterburn aftershave. It's a demanding shave that quickly highlights any deficiencies in technique.
It occurred to me when I got my brush and bowl out that it would indeed be nice to have a food scale to measure the soap and water for the purposes of comparison and description, but it was too late for that, so off I went. I added my "normal" amount of soap and water to the bowl, set my timer for 60 seconds, and began to lather. The bubbles are large indeed. Based on every photograph you've ever seen of lather you would say that it was underdeveloped. Nevertheless, I have a great deal of faith in Grant, so I charged ahead.
I was surprised to find that the slickness did indeed seem much improved over prior brush lathering attempts. It wasn't at the level I've grown accustomed to with hand lathering, but it was much better my usual brush lather, and it was also my first attempt at the Minute Method. I don't doubt that dialing in the water/soap ratio & quantities will improve it significantly.
Pass one WTG went surprisingly well. It was noticeably slicker than my normal brush lather. I did notice that my skin was drying out between passes and that the second pass seemed noticeably less slick and smooth than the first. There was almost a "scratchy" feeling that was unfamiliar, and I don't think can be attributed to the newness of the blades.
When I hand lather, I use my left hand and basically "perma-lather". My left hand never stops face lathering throughout the entire shave and I add a few drops of water to my palm every 30 seconds. This ensures that no patch of skin is ever exposed to the air for more than a second and that my face & the lather remain fully hydrated.
At any rate, I decided to rinse off the 2nd pass lather altogether, and fully re-hydrate my face with a few splashes of cold water before re-lathering and resuming the shave. That seemed to improve things, and the second pass ATG went as smoothly as the first. For the second pass however, I changed my normal brush technique to mirror my hand technique of "perma-lathering". I kept the brush in my left hand, and would brush fresh lather over exposed skin as soon as the razor passed by. The third pass was fine from the get-go, with no need to splash my face with water between passes. I continued the perma-lather technique throught pass 3 to keep things slick and hydrated. All 3 passes yielded slightly more irritation than my usual shave, but not to an extent that the shave felt unpleasant.
The R41 came out for pass 4 and started out a bit scratchy. Mid-way through pass 4, I could tell it was not going well. I finished out the 4th pass but I could feel that there was significant irritation. The R41 is a funny little beast for me because it never feels particularly comfortable to me, even when it's shaving "well". Sometimes during the shave I envision the dozen weepers that will doubtless bloom with the aftershave, only to find no weepers at all. Like I said, it's a quirky razor. This time was something different though and was materially more irritating than I am accustomed to. The TeckII is forgiving, the R41 is not. I decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and finished passes 5 (ATG) and pass 6 (XTG) with the TeckII. The final passes were less enjoyable than I am accustomed to.
My post-shave is a homemade concoction that I have nicknamed "Afterburn". It's basically a liquid litmus test for shave quality. If there is even the slightest nick, Afterburn will light it up like napalm. The recipe is 1 cup 91% isopropyl alchohol, 1 cup witch hazel (which itself is 14% alcohol), and 2 tsp clove essential oil. The clove essential oil is basically the mirror image of menthol. There is a delayed reaction but rather than a cooling sensation that slowly builds to a crescendo, it creates a heat sensation that builds to a spectacular & fiery finish before slowly fading away. Clove essential oil is also one of the most potent antibacterials known to man. Pharmaceutical companies have filed dozens of patents using it in just the last few years alone. Put succinctly, it burns like fire for 60 seconds, kills all the wee beasties, and fades out to nothing in about 60 more seconds, unless of course you have a nick. If you have a nick, the sensation is something that is both hard to describe, and completely unforgettable.
Suffice to say, after applying my homemade concoction, I'm unable to to accurately report much of anything other than that the face staring at me in the mirror had a very peculiar expression before the world faded to darkness. Kidding of course, but it truly was a "Home Alone" aftershave moment. I'm not sure which stage of the shave caused the irritation (possibly all of them), but I'm sure that pass 4 didn't help. I did indeed have a half-dozen small weepers, which hasn't happened to me since my first experiments with the Fatip Piccolo.
So my results were mixed, but I think positive over-all. I never would have attempted my 6 pass Saturday shave with my normal brush lather. The first 3 passes with the Minute Method lather were sufficiently confidence inspiring that I felt comfortable giving it a go. Which is to say it's the best lather I've made with a brush. And in fairness, a 6 pass shave is asking an awful lot of any lather.
I'm sufficiently impressed that I'm going to bring my food scale, a syringe, and some distilled water up to the shave den and experiment some more. Maybe I can dial the lather in a bit and finally learn to shave properly with a bowl and a brush.
One of the things that just occurred to me is that when I shave, I make an effort to minimize the time between getting out of the shower and shaving so that my skin is still fully hydrated when I start to lather. I set up my razor and soap on the sink so I can be shaving 30 seconds after I get out of the shower.
It someone spends 3-4 minutes making lather after getting out of the shower, it seems like their face and whisker would be completely dry by the time the lather went on. Maybe that has something to do with it? Starting with completely saturated/hydrated skin and whiskers because neither one drys out in 60 seconds of lathering?
Just a thought.
Awesome report, Nick! Thanks! I wish that I'd tried Cella by now so that I'd have an optimum water-to-soap ratio and lather-building time for you. Next time, when you measure mass, try a water-to-soap ratio of 10. That's a good starting point. Congratulations on the success with a brush lather. A minute of building lather seemed to be an improvement, which is great to hear. It's possible that 45 seconds or 30 seconds might work better. Remember, there is no fixed best time. We all build lather at different paces, for one thing. Also, one minute might be best for one soap, and then not an optimum for another. For AOS shaving cream, 45 seconds seemed to work best for me. Currently, I'm finishing up evaluating Declaration Grooming (formerly L&L Grooming). 60 seconds worked fine, and 45 seconds seemed to yield similar results, but with slightly more dense lather. Tomorrow morning, I'll try 30 seconds with slightly more soap and water, expecting more dense lather again. I'm not sure what the optimum time is yet for this soap, and there might not be much of a difference in the time zone that I'm looking at, but it takes about 20 seconds at the optimum water-to-soap ratio for all of this soap to get incorporated, so 30 seconds is the lowest time that I'll test with it.
I was just kidding about the Minute Method™ of course. I know you never said that all folks should use exactly one minute for all soaps. I just thought it was a catchy name that simply communicates the idea that good lather can be made in about a minute rather than the 5 minutes many people have grown accustomed to.
My first experiment with it was really very positive. A 6 pass shave incorporating a R41 is something that I find difficult even under the best of circumstances. Sometimes it goes sideways just because I haven't had my coffee yet. I've never attempted it with brush lather before. I figured if I could even come close to pulling it off with brush lather using your method, you're probably on to something.
Too bad about the Cella; I was hoping you might have some data for it. If you haven't tried it yet you really should. It's amazing stuff. It's the only soap I own that can be applied once and has enough residual slickness to carry through a 6 pass hand lathered shave. Not even Grooming Dept soap can manage that. With every other soap I own, I have to re-lather after pass 3.
Currently in the den I have the soaps below. If you've tried any of these, I'd be keen to hear your recommended weights. Otherwise, I'll carry on with the recommend 10:1 ratio.
- Cella
- Grooming Dept Tacit
- Haslinger Schafmilch
- Wholly Kaw: Man From Mayfair (DM)
- Wholly Kaw: Monaco Royale
- Tallow & Steel: West Indies
- Tallow & Steel: Maya
- Proraso White (soap)
- Arko
- Proraso Red (cream)
- Cremo Creme
- RR XXX
- RR Amici
I've been thinking about it a bit. I worked out a thought experiment to help me visualize what happens when lather is made. Let me know what you think.
Lets assume that the same brand of soap is used at the same concentration & quantity.
Test lathers of different duration are made with it & with different brushes, as well as by hand.
The lather leaves a film of soapy water on the surface of the skin. Tiny bubbles of soapy water (the lather) lie on the surface of this film. They act as a cushion.
All other things being equal,
More air will be incorporated in lather if the brush is used for a longer time. Additionally the tiny soap bubbles that make up lather become smaller the longer the brush is plied, & the bubble walls also get thinner. The soapy water layer on the skin gets thinner as more of it is used to make lather.
A brush made of fine hair will make smaller bubbles faster, & so damage the slick lubricating soapy water film quicker. If no brush is used (lather is made by hand), the soapy water film will be almost undamaged & will approach its maximum theoretical thickness & slickness (lubricity).
Is it possible for you to do two daily shaves in a row with the same lather ingredients, as best as you can be consistent, with only a difference in the amount of lather-building time?
Is all lather bubbles? Lather is certainly created with aeration.
I would think larger bubbles create a less stable lubrication layer while finer, more compacted bubbles create a more stable layer of lubrication because there is more soap product within a surface area. The only reason tension might increase is because of loss of water with longer lather building time?
Just thoughts.
Well, yes, mostly . . .
Results
Inconclusive, though leaning against Grant's hypothesis. But see Discussion, below.
Method
First shave, 1/4 tsp (volume, pressed) of soap, and 1-1/4 tsp water. Agitated to the consistency I currently prefer (just past visible bubbles, thin but not runny). Agitation time: 1 min 50 sec. (Longer than I would have thought.)
Second shave, 1/4 tsp (volume, pressed) of soap, and ultimately 2 tsp water. Agitated to the consistency I used to strive for for over a year (dense, smooth, like yogurt). Agitation time: 2 min 25 sec. (Shorter than I would have thought.)
Discussion
If I were a better man, I would repeat this experiment 5 or 6 more times - and find a way to control for the amount of water used - in order to get some more significant results. But I'm not (a better man).
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I usually leave the brush fairly wet, and then as I work up the lather I dip my fingers in the basin and dribble water into the bowl as necessary. For this experiment, I wrang out the brush and gave it a few good shakes, then added water to the bowl with a measuring spoon 1/4 tsp at a time.
Normally (and in both of these tests), I have more soap in the bowl than I actually need. So when I got to the second test, and continued agitating past the point of the first test, it was simply impossible for me to get the lather I was looking for without adding more (significantly more) water.
The primary condition I was testing for was the amount of residual slickness on my face after rinsing after the first and second passes. I think this was slightly better with the second (denser, more agitated) lather.
The secondary condition I was testing for was the overall comfort and result of the shave. This was effectively a tie.
I am a firm supporter of the method of science. (Yes, for any who may have been incompletely educated, science is a method, not a result.) And I am an equally big supporter of Grant's efforts to quantify how and why shaving works the way it does. But I still think how wet a lather is is of greater import than how long it's been agitated - though I can't prove it.
More importantly, this attempt to be scientific, and my whole experience of traditional shaving, leads me to the conclusion that traditional shaving is at least as much an art as a science.
Wish I had helped more . . .
More and more smaller cells/bubbles results in more interfacial tension (similar to surface tension) within the lather between the cells/bubbles and the water-soap liquid phase. This increase in interfacial tension could be why lather built with more time is not as slick. It would seem that more interfacial/surface tension would correlate with less slickness. I don't know, though. This is only a guess.
I think you're probably right.You might have something there about a soapy water layer on the skin getting thinner as more time is used to build a lather that has smaller and more numerous bubbles. I don't know. My best guess is that with more lather-building time, with more bubbles that are smaller, you end up with more bubble surface contact with the skin, which results in more interfacial/surface tension and less slickness. We might be talking about the same thing but in two different ways. What do you think?
I suspect that smaller cells/bubbles is what creates cushion. The more one works the brush, the more lather generated, the finer the lather, the greater the cushion, but the lesser the film of soapy water next to the skin & therefore, lesser the slickness...
Yes, I agree, it’s definitely a component. I am trying to imagine a better way of isolating it as a factor.
The options are endless!
So I gave this a shot, although not measuring soap or water.
I normally bowl lather to soft peaks (adding water probably 8-10 times, 3-4 minutes) and then spend a minute or two lathering on a wet face.
Last night I added water in larger increments (4 total) building the lather in the bowl for about 2 minutes. It appeared to be a tiny bit wetter than usual, but I was still happy with it's appearance. Lathered on my wet face for about 2 minutes (didn't want to stop - very enjoyable!).
Slickness seemed to be slightly better than normal for this soap base (new scent). The Ikon Tech with Red Personna (7) glided over my skin with ease. Not a significant difference, but slightly noticeable. Enough so, that I think I will continue to try to decrease my bowl time, primarily by adding water a bit quicker.
I used to do some cooking, and there are some batters that should not be mixed or beaten too long, as it can toughen the end product. Pancakes, pie crusts, etc. I suppose a "tough lather" is cushiony but not as slick... LOL
Ok, Grant, I will admit that bringing a little science into my shaving can be done without breaking out any measuring devices.
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