Time to lather your soaps?

[DustBow]

If you don't mind, please post how long it takes you whip up a good lather for all the different soaps you use. Does it take you about the same time for all of them, or do some brands/styles/makes take longer/shorter than others for you?

thanks

[Newfie]

Dusty, while I've never actually timed it, I'd have to say a couple of minutes at the most. I won't comment as to whether or not one soap / cream takes longer than others as I'm still playing with technique, so it's hardly fair to judge anything when any differences could be attributed to something I'm doing.

[BD1970]

For me, usually it takes a little longer for a triple milled hard shaving soap like one of the 3T's, Dr Harris, etc versus a glycerin based soap like MB, Col Conk, etc. I like the lather from the first group better but I have to work it a little more to get it they way I like it.

[jnich67]

I lather on my face and I probably spend about 2 minutes to get where I want to be.

Jordan

[Boogie]

I also lather on my face, and the only soaps I have are Mama Bear. I spend a good 2 to 3 minutes working the lather on my face. Not that I really need to as all of Mama Bear's soaps lather very nice, but I just like the feeling of working the brush around and really getting my stubble ready for a good shave.

[Austin]

I will echo that triple milled soaps take longer due to the density of the soap. Glycerin and soft soaps lather faster due to nature of their composition.

[Suzuki]

For me, usually it takes a little longer for a triple milled hard shaving soap like one of the 3T's, Dr Harris, etc versus a glycerin based soap like MB, Col Conk, etc. I like the lather from the first group better but I have to work it a little more to get it they way I like it.

Agree with this - both in terms of time and that I like the later better with triple-milled or tallow/lanolin soaps (which are somewhere between glycerine and triple-milled in terms of hardness).

I find that the brush I use makes a bit of difference - for example my B&B finest is a soft, slightly floppy brush that takes a little longer (for me) to load up with a harder soap. On the other hand, my Simpson "Rover" in pure badger (short loft, very dense, firmer grade of hair) loads up in no time, but takes a little longer to build a lather.

Overall, I'd say 2 - 3 minutes to build a lather regardless of soap or brush - FWIW, I build my lather in a mug, but finish it on my face.

[TromboneGuy]

I will echo that triple milled soaps take longer due to the density of the soap. Glycerin and soft soaps lather faster due to nature of their composition.

True. Although my L'Occitane soap (best soap I own) seems to pretty much explode into lather on its own with very little work. It builds lather faster than even most of the creams I have.

[mparker762]

There was a thread on this topic last year (july maybe?) on SMF. A bunch of guys timed their soap-lathering process and the range was between 10 secs to 1 minute from grabbing brush&soap to having a shave-ready lather in their mug (brush pre-soaking allowed, soap pre-soaking not allowed). I was a participant in that survey and I found 10 secs eminently doable if you didn't mess around, and 20 secs was plenty even if you took your time. This was with Harris, a triple-milled hard soap - Trumpers and Truefitt&Hill are somewhat slower to lather. I've never noticed that glycerine soaps were faster to lather, but I haven't really used them much in nearly a year.

Edit: Here's the thread (http://www.shavemyface.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10880&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=). It was September...

[icemncmth]

I probably spend a couple of mins making foam...

But I like to whip mine up till it is thick....

Now the Kiss My Face products..will lather up with the first couple of whips with my brush...but I still like to work it for a while and feel if it is too dry ...

[Steerpike]

It seems in part to do with how easily the soap dissolves. Glycerine soaps dissolve really quick, milled soaps take longer. Of these, the vegetable oil based "castile" soaps wear the fastest, and I think a tallow soap is the longest lasting- look how long a stick of Erasmic lasts. I also notice that the soaps at the harder end of the spectrum give more lather for less soap, so you will get less shaves from a stick of glycerine soap than you will from a smaller one of Erasmic.

[TromboneGuy]

This morning I used Provence Sante, and it literally took me 30 seconds or less to get a great lather out of it with my medium-sized Edwin Jagger best badger brush.

[ratcheer]

They are all about the same, for me. I use Mama Bear's, QED, and Classic Shaving shaving soaps and I've also tried regular bar soaps (Neutrogena, Pear's, French milled, etc). I probably left something out, but my basic answer is still the same.

Tim