the case of the disappearing lather

**dub** · 12-11-2006, 10:48 AM

Hello practiced shavers,

I am extremely new to wet shaving and am a little perplexed on generating lather. My problem is that after applying the lather to my face it slowly becomes transparent and evaporates. To say by the time I get to my chin, where I shave last, it wants relathering. I've searched around without a difinitive answer and understand that I will figure it out with time, however.. do any of you know if this means I need more/less water in my lather? more/less water on my face? am not whipping the lather long enough in the bowl? on my face?

For reference this morning was my second wet shave, tomorrow will be my third.

My tools are Proraso cream, Merkur DE Classic (long arm), Roger & Gallet L'Homme after shave, and the recommended $35 C&E Best Badger brush. My first exposure to wet shaving was Mantic's videos (yay mantic) followed by lots of reading on this forum and a little reading on others, then visiting shops to see/feel different brushes, creams, soaps, etc.

For my first shave I heated the bowl and brush together, let the brush drip dry, a dallop of cream then lathered in the bowl. After about 4/5 passes I had something resembling a shave complete with nicks. My second shave I heated together, shook the brush, used less cream added water then lathered in the bowl. I ended up with only enough lather for 1.5 passes and a sketcy shave but no nicks. My showers are the night before. My cream is always cold by the time I'm done.

I know this might not be much to go on but if there are questions I will be glad to answer. Any advice is very much appreciated.

**ouch** · 12-11-2006, 10:53 AM

Hey, Dylan.

Try lathering half of you face at a time. If you're going at it really slowly, I can see where this could happen, but it doesn't sound quite normal to me. The Proraso is a very good cream, and gives an unctuous lather that should hold up well. If the lather seems a tad on the thin side, either give the brush a light shake before you start whipping it or add a bit more cream. A C&E best and Proraso should give you enough lather for 3-4 passes.

Hang in there, and welcome aboard!

**Jim** · 12-11-2006, 11:09 AM

Welcome Dub! hang in

**Scotto** · 12-11-2006, 11:39 AM

Try using more cream. Put a good 3/4" long snurdle in your bowl to start, and learn your way from there. You should be able to get very thick lather with Proraso without much trouble.

**Mottern Man** · 12-11-2006, 11:47 AM

Originally Posted by Scotto

Try using more cream. Put a good 3/4" long snurdle in your bowl to start, and learn your way from there. You should be able to get very thick lather with Proraso without much trouble.

Is it wrong to use a whole snurdle? I don't want to be taboo to the forum.

Lather, every man likes it the same warm and wet. To get this for me (YMMV) I soak the brush in hot water and bowl, and then shake it out put my cream in the bowl then add a little hot water, swirl the brush and BOOM! The bowl explodes. (Trader Joe has a picture of this here http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=7130)

Pay careful attention to your cream to water ratio. Then practice practice practice.

**dub** · 12-11-2006, 12:09 PM

3/4", eh? Well I've been using 1/2" and 1/3" respectively. That could certainly provide for a different experience!

Thanks for the link to TraderJoe's pictorial. Think I'll take a little more time and try Kyle's preshave as well, just to make sure I'm properly prepped. And lathering half at a time sounds like a good idea.. must learn to have patience and work away from the quick-long drags of my gel/cartridge days.

Looks like I have some new tactics for tomorrow.

Thanks again.

**prophet** · 12-11-2006, 01:33 PM

I would definitley try only lathering part of your face at a time, I do that because I like the lather as warm and thick as possible.

**jduffy** · 12-11-2006, 02:30 PM

A quick warm splash and relathering is not a problem. I do it all the time, particularly if I'm using a fresh blade and really concentrating on technique.

Hang in there man. You're doing fine. Still have your ears, nose, and lips, right?

That's success in my book!

**BroJohn** · 12-11-2006, 05:18 PM

Dub, I was thinking too much water, or too little cream. Hang in there, make several tries. You'll get it.

-- John Gehman

**vespergo** · 12-11-2006, 06:27 PM

let us know when you nail the shave.. welcome to the forum!

**Mottern Man** · 12-11-2006, 07:05 PM

Originally Posted by dub

Looks like I have some new tactics for tomorrow.

Thanks again.

No worries you will be a shave ninja in no time.

**htownmmm** · 12-11-2006, 07:14 PM

Great advice given above so I will just welcome you to the forum-you will be assimilated!

Marty

**huxley_knew** · 12-11-2006, 08:48 PM

Hey Dub! Welcome to the Boards.

I experience dry lather fairly often, probably because I'm still quite new to the game, and partly because I live in Southern California. Lately it's been super super dry, and I can't even do a full pass without one end getting dry. Just re-lather and go for it again. Best of luck!

Joe

**rikrdo** · 12-12-2006, 12:35 AM

Less Water and
add a matta of cream....
That'll do ya !
Good luck.

**ouch** · 12-12-2006, 06:06 AM

Originally Posted by rikrdo

Less Water and
add a matta of cream....
That'll do ya !
Good luck.

What's a matta?

**Mottern Man** · 12-12-2006, 06:16 AM

Originally Posted by ouch

What's a matta?

I belive 3 of them = a snurdle?

**AaronP** · 12-12-2006, 06:30 AM

Originally Posted by ouch

What's a matta?

I don't know - what's a matta with you?

Sorry, couldn't resist an opportunity for some 5th grade humor.

**dub** · 12-12-2006, 07:40 AM

Third shave today. (yay)

Step 1, I tried as advised 3/4" length of Proraso and stricter adherence to TraderJoe's method. To say, I started out with a well shaken brush and very little water in the bowl. Whipped up the lather which seemed to take slightly longer then I remember but it was coming in nice and thick. And I had plenty enough for maybe 3 good passes. Then I thought, hmm, what if I just add a little more water? And BOOM there was 50% more lather in the bowl, nice and creamy. The stuff was loving my brush. Looked like a really great product.

On to step 2, the pre-shave. I'm not sure how much of a difference it made because I'm still very new to this but I did follow Kyle's pre-shave idea of applying lather (I had much more than I needed at this point) then holding a hot washcloth over my face.

Then for step 3, the shave. What I have done before is to try to apply the lather to my face - which is hard to describe other than I wasn't really using the brush. Today I actually used the brush, pushing the whiskers into my face and trying to work the lather into my skin/beard. Took my time at this too (hey, it felt good

). I found that I actually needed less lather because the brush was, seemingly, creating more on my face. Fascinating. I decided to do my whole face so I could tell if this product would stay for the whole shave and it did! No more disappearing lather!

As a side note I think I will regularly end up re-lathering my "goatee area" every pass because it gives me the most trouble by nature, and having a warm fresh product on there seems to work best. Also I used a smaller bowl this time so I could keep it immersed in warm/hot water throughout the shave. I had a warm thick creamy lather to the end, really got it this time.

Cheers to all the advice, you guys steered me right.

**ouch** · 12-12-2006, 07:45 AM

Originally Posted by AaronP

I don't know - what's a matta with you?

Sorry, couldn't resist an opportunity for some 5th grade humor.

I owed Rick that one.

**Jim** · 12-12-2006, 07:48 AM

Originally Posted by dub

Third shave today. (yay)

Step 1, I tried as advised 3/4" length of Proraso and stricter adherence to TraderJoe's method. To say, I started out with a well shaken brush and very little water in the bowl. Whipped up the lather which seemed to take slightly longer then I remember but it was coming in nice and thick. And I had plenty enough for maybe 3 good passes. Then I thought, hmm, what if I just add a little more water? And BOOM there was 50% more lather in the bowl, nice and creamy. The stuff was loving my brush. Looked like a really great product.

On to step 2, the pre-shave. I'm not sure how much of a difference it made because I'm still very new to this but I did follow Kyle's pre-shave idea of applying lather (I had much more than I needed at this point) then holding a hot washcloth over my face.

Then for step 3, the shave. What I have done before is to try to apply the lather to my face - which is hard to describe other than I wasn't really using the brush. Today I actually used the brush, pushing the whiskers into my face and trying to work the lather into my skin/beard. Took my time at this too (hey, it felt good

). I found that I actually needed less lather because the brush was, seemingly, creating more on my face. Fascinating. I decided to do my whole face so I could tell if this product would stay for the whole shave and it did! No more disappearing lather!

As a side note I think I will regularly end up re-lathering my "goatee area" every pass because it gives me the most trouble by nature, and having a warm fresh product on there seems to work best. Also I used a smaller bowl this time so I could keep it immersed in warm/hot water throughout the shave. I had a warm thick creamy lather to the end, really got it this time.

Cheers to all the advice, you guys steered me right.

Excellent!

It only gets better.