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- #21
how can you judge when the lather is overhydrated and no good anymore? Also is there a point where you can load too much soap and your shave brush cant handle the amount of lather you are trying to create? the boar brush i use sometimes seems a bit small, its one of those burma shave brushes, and i use in conjunction with a scuttle, could that be factor in the creation of the lather? soetimes it seems as tho the brush is just too smallI think that a tight/dry feeling after the shave often has to do not with actual dryness but with over-exfoliation caused by too much pressure or an incorrect angle, or both.
Contrary to popular belief, not all soaps are drying to the skin, although they can be. Soaps that are excessively cleansing will dry the skin a lot more than a shaving soap, which is designed to be a lubricant, not a cleanser. Saponified coconut oil is quite drying, but most shave soaps either have only small amounts or they make up for its presence by superfatting and adding additional butters, glycerin, etc.
Another thing to think about is that you are not lathering the soap properly. Have you done test lathers wherein you add water by small amounts and continue to do so, watching its effect on the lather, and continuing until the lather becomes very clearly over-hydrated and worthless? If you have not done so, I encourage you to do it. It will be 10 minutes well spent. Just add a few drops at a time and incorporate fully, then add a few more drops. Don't stop until the lather is worthless. Make good observations of the stages it goes through; in other words, evaluation the lather before you add more water. Find out what its "sweet spot" is and how wide it is.
But I still think it's probably more of a technique issue than a lather issue.