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Unbearably dumb question about lather and badger brush

Been at this wet shaving thing for about two months. One thing that's been a great mystery to me is that compared to all the pictures people post of gallons of lather spilling out of their shaving cups or piled high on their brushes like whip cream on a sundae, I end up with very little lather on the brush - barely enough to cover my face, even after working it for a long time.

I read one of the reviews on Amazon for the brush I have, this one:
Amazon.com: Parker Safety Razor Handmade Deluxe "Long Loft" 100% Pure Badger Shaving Brush with Black & Chrome Handle - Brush Stand Included: Health & Personal Care
and a guy complained that all the lather seemed stuck inside the brush and he had to wring it out with his hand.

So I tried that and, voila, buckets of lather! Which I then brushed off my hand into the bowl and had way, way more than enough for 3 passes.

It's left me with a big question. I don't hear anyone else taking about having to squeeze the brush to get the lather out of it. But I definitely have to do that, because there's very little lather on the outside of the brush, but HUGE amounts somewhere in the interior.

I don't know whether to buy a new brush or learn a new technique. Any input or guidance would be welcomed on this.

Thanks

My technique is consistent with what the various Youtube videos show:
- soak the brush for few minutes in warm water, along with putting some warm water in the soap bowl and pouring it out.
- swish brush around for 30-40 seconds until there's a decent amount of soap on the tips
- add a few drop of water to the brush and work it in the bowl until it lathers - about a minute or two.
- as noted above, this produces copious amounts of lather, but 90 % of it stored internally within the brush where I can't get to it!!

thoughts?
 
That's just the way it goes. I wring my brush out on the very rare occasion I use a bowl since I usually face lather.
 
That's the way all of my brushes work. You don't need lather in the bowl, you need it in the brush. I think you are doing just fine.
 
What you describe is exactly why:
1) I face lather only and don't use bowls, and
2) I don't use badger brushes and only use boar brushes
I have found (and this is just me) that using a bowl is an unnecessary step between loading on a soap puck and then lathering my face.
As for badger vs boar brushes, I have always found badger brushes to be "selfish" and keep the lather in the bristles.
One more thing: one thing I found made a big difference was to load my brush "like it owed me money." I think I read it in a member's signature. Soaps are so cheap that we rinse them down the drain, after applying to our face. Try loading your soap for longer, would be another recommendation.
You did not mention what soap you were using, but some soap take a bit more vigor than others.
Of course, YMMV, but I definitely recommend loading your brush for 1-2 minutes at least, and consider trying a boar brush.
Omega and Semogue make fine and well-priced brushes.

Oh, and if you want to really want to try something different, consider using your soap pucks like a stick. I.e.: consider rubbing your soap puck on your damp face, then lather directly on your face with your brush. You will look like the gentleman on the front of the Cella soap.

Good luck and let us know how it works out for you.
 
It's left me with a big question. I don't hear anyone else taking about having to squeeze the brush to get the lather out of it. But I definitely have to do that, because there's very little lather on the outside of the brush, but HUGE amounts somewhere in the interior.
I think this is what people mean when they say that such-and-such type of brush is a "lather hog". I find that my badgers do this more than synthetics and boars, even though they are on the small side.
It doesn't bother me. It just means that I don't have to go back to the bowl as often.
...all the pictures people post of gallons of lather spilling out of their shaving cups or piled high on their brushes like whip cream on a sundae...
That would be what you call "lather porn". It could be that it's got a lot or air in it to give it volume. Not necessarily a good thing.
 
Consider this, if you use bowl or face; when you work the brush in the soap and liquid there comes a point where nothing seems to be happening. This is usually where people add water. How about this idea? use the side of a bowl and scrape - carefully, gently - the sides of the knot, drawing the lather into the bowl. This particular lather will be quite well constructed and thick.

Now add a few drops of water at the bottom of the bowl and combine the thinner lather with that just extracted from the brush. If you'll do this a few times ( or lots more quite frankly) you'll find the bowl lather starts compounding rather thickly and will begin to bloom with water added until you get to the volume you want, the richness you desire, and the lubrication to make the razor glide.

This approach has worked well for me with a Wee Scott or a large limited edition professional Omega boar knot mounted in an acrylic Italian flag themed handle. Where we just make a small miss, speaking of lather hogs - I think - is not accepting the fact that, once the brush "fills" with lather it's got no where to go. Remove that lather, and let the open spaces between the bristles join liquid and cream together again helps create the seed lather needed outside the brush to structure the weak foam in the bowl and result in that lovely whipped cream / greek yogurt lather you seek.

Face painting and hand mopping lather both form this dense soap air liquid 'curd' in the brush and give you the seed for producing it shortly there after in your bowl.

Try it! Once you see it happen, it is absolutely reproducible and you'll go onto the next 'most difficult thing about shaving' ... whatever that happens to be for you that is...
 
I appreciate all the answers. It does appear I have a "lather hog" brush. But there is one thing that confuses me in a few of the answers, which basically say "It's all good - just means you don't have to go back to the bowl as often". The question is, how do you get the lather that's inside the brush onto your face? I mean, it's stuck in there! LOL The last day or two I've been wringing it out with my hand and then dipping the brush in it to paint it on my face. I'd much rather use some technique to get the lather out directly onto my face but I can't figure out how. Do you just squash the brush against your face until the lather is forced out? What is the best technique? Thanks.
 
That would be what you call "lather porn". It could be that it's got a lot or air in it to give it volume. Not necessarily a good thing.

+1 Pay no attention to those pictures. They might show a good lather to shave with, but possibly not. Many gents here go for a gloppy, yogurty lather because that's usually the slickest sort of lather, and that sort won't stay all fluffed up on the brush while you snap a picture.

Volume is irrelevant to a good shaving lather, but slickness is vital.
 
Like you, I had a badger brush and it too was a lather hog. For the longest time, I thought I was terrible at lathering when I finally discovered that holding onto the lather was a characteristic of the brush. I didn't like that aspect of the brush at all and eventually after having tried both a boar and a synthetic, I found that they worked like I hoped and expected a shave brush to work. Why should I go to all that effort only to have to squeeze the lather out of the brush? For me, one of the reasons for using a brush was to keep my hands lather-free. I guess I never understood the widespread enthusiasm for badger brushes. While both had their learning curves, I liked my boar much more and my synthetic even more than that. Both were able to create a rich, thick, slick lather that I could actually apply to my face without having to forage for it.
 
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I started with the same brush as you. I saw the same results. I still have it, but have not used it for a few weeks. I will get back to it eventually. I recently won the two brushes in my Avatar, from the infamous auction site. My first plan was to re-knot them. But after posting here one generous poster pointed out that the knots did not look to bad and why not give them a go.
I followed the steps on this site to sanitize both. The one on the right is a Certifyd professional no. 6, and it is a monster. 30mm knot and 70 mm loft. I have not been able to find any info on it, because every site I find only lists through 5. no way I could face lather, with that, so I used a bowl, lather, and the differences were astonishing. Boar vs pure badger. But I have to do more of a paint it on vs. the scrub it on I did with the Badger.
The ever-ready 150, seems like it was never used. So I am working on breaking it in.
After trying the techniques suggested above, and you still do not like the results, there are plenty of reasonably priced boar or synthetic brushes. you might try one of those. I am not sure I would do a vintage brush though unless you are willing to re-knot if the one you get is long gone.
Good luck....
 
Each brush needs a bit of a different technique because of differences in things like the fibers, density, loft and knot. Some brushes tend to hold more of the lather than others (termed 'flow-through'), this affects how much soap you need to load. Exploring these different options is part of the fun IMO.
 
Each brush needs a bit of a different technique because of differences in things like the fibers, density, loft and knot. Some brushes tend to hold more of the lather than others (termed 'flow-through'), this affects how much soap you need to load. Exploring these different options is part of the fun IMO.
+1
 
i'm a dedicated brush squeezer. I do two lathers during a shave. lather one is with the first pass of face and head. Lather two is with second pass and touch ups and I scoop all my lather out of the brush. I get a lot more inside the brush with a badger or synthetic than I do with a boar or horse, but I still get a good handful of great lather out.
 
My technique is consistent with what the various Youtube videos show:
- soak the brush for few minutes in warm water, along with putting some warm water in the soap bowl and pouring it out.
- swish brush around for 30-40 seconds until there's a decent amount of soap on the tips
- add a few drop of water to the brush and work it in the bowl until it lathers - about a minute or two.
- as noted above, this produces copious amounts of lather, but 90 % of it stored internally within the brush where I can't get to it!!

thoughts?

Where's the step where you pour off the water from the soap into the lather bowl? I can't recall which B&B tutorial I learned this from, but I pour 1/2 to all the soap-water into the bowl. I'd guess it's a tsp or so. I also load the brush like I'm trying to use up the soap...really load it up aggressivley. I build lather holding the bowl at an angle with the water pooling on one side, and, as I lather on the opposite side, I dip into the water. Builds a sudsy mess/mass of lather.

When I started, I was afraid of too much water. Two years later I learned how thirsty soap can be and that I prefer a wetter, slicker lather. It takes time, and fun, to experiment.

Found it:How to make great lather from a soap
 
I have a couple of Parker badger brushes. They work quite well with shaving creams, but I prefer boar or horsehair for use with hard soaps. Some of the more expensive badger brushes are dense enough to have the backbone for soaps, but average density badger brushes are often too soft.

If you lather is getting stuck in the brush, the cure is to add more water. I like to bowl lather, but I add enough water to make a soft, thin lather in the bowl and then face lather until it thickens to the consistency I desire. There will be sufficient lather left in the bowl for at least two more passes. My shaving bowl sits on top of a candle warmer so the lather and the brush are nice and warm.
 
Each brush needs a bit of a different technique because of differences in things like the fibers, density, loft and knot. Some brushes tend to hold more of the lather than others (termed 'flow-through'), this affects how much soap you need to load. Exploring these different options is part of the fun IMO.
+1
 
OP here. I decided to try a Boar's head brush. Got my Semogue 1305 in the mail tonight. Gents, if there was any more lather in my bathroom after trying out this brush, I would've needed a GPS to find my way out of it.
 
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