What to do with Left-Over Lather?

I have been wet-shaving all my life with cartridge blades, but have been using a mug and boar-hair brush for the last 20 years, building up lather on my face.

After reading a few tutorials, this morning I soaked my brush and an old Old Spice shaving mug in hot water while I showered and used conditioner on my beard. After showing I started to build lather, and it worked like charm!

After I got done shaving (still using cartridges, waiting for DE razor to come in the mail) I still had extra lather in the mug. I simply left it in the mug this morning.

What do most people do with extra lather? Won't it stay in the mug and make it easier for more lather tomorrow? Or will the tried lather inhibit lathering the next time. Just wondering what most people do.

I can't speak for others, but I wash mine down the drain.

I also wash mine down the drain

When I use a mug, there are two ways I might do it. Method #1 is to fill the mug with hot water from the tap. I then let it sit for about 10 seconds - just long enough to heat up the mug and soap. I pour out the water into the sink. I then vigorously swirl my brush on the damp puck to create lather in the mug. This results in a little more lather than my other method (#2), which is to just apply a damp brush to the soap puck in the mug and load my brush. In both cases, I face lather for about two minutes.

I decide on which method to use based on the soap - does it require more water or does it lather well with a dryer brush - and the season. In the winter, the mug might be very cold in the morning, producing only cold lather, so I heat it up using method #1.

If I have an abundance of lather still in the mug, I sometimes rinse the excess out or scoop it out with a finger. If there is only a small amount, I let it sit. No need to waste it.

I have refined the process, such that I just have the right amount for my five pass shave. OK, not perfect, but I find that a 20mm knot-50mm loft is an excellent brush for the way I shave, and delivers the amount of lather I need without wasting too much

I lightly swipe my brush over whatever lather is left in the mug to distribute the lather evenly over the soap and walls of the mug. Whatever is left after this I just leave in the mug and thus there is a thin coat of dried lather over the soap for next morning's shave.

Any soap that got picked up by the brush gets washed down the drain when I rinse out the brush.

I wash it down the drain without remorse; the faster it's gone the sooner I can justify replacing it with something else.

Hi, I'm Bob and I'm a soapaholic.

If your using the same soap everyday then I don't see a problem. Where I change mine every time I shave I wash my bowl out and send what's left to the murky depths.

Osborn Cox said:

Hi, I'm Bob and I'm a soapaholic.

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....... cool avatar

gorgehiker said:

If your using the same soap everyday then I don't see a problem. Where I change mine every time I shave I wash my bowl out and send what's left to the murky depths.

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To be clear, I never wash out the soap container. I bowl lather, and I rinse out any leftover lather from the bowl down the drain. I load the soap using a relatively dry brush, and whatever protolather is left over after I load the brush I just leave on top of the soap.

Rinsing out the soap container just wastes soap, IMO.

I have read barber manuals that suggest cleaning your strop with left over lather. I have read that some barbers used nothing else on their strops. Lather is also great for lubricating water hones when sharpening straights. Of course neither of those options are much use to a DE shaver.

I wash the rest of my face with the leftover soap/cream lather. Leaves it clean, moisturized and smelling great

bruno1 said:

I wash the rest of my face with the leftover soap/cream lather. Leaves it clean, moisturized and smelling great

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Never thought of that!
Nice tip.

I've always just dumped the extra down the drain and rinsed out the bowl, but then I change soaps and creams every other shave as well.

Smear it onto your mirror and then wipe of any excess with a dry cloth. This prevents the mirror from fogging up. Repeat this once a week and you will have a fog-free mirror forever (until you clean the mirror, obviously).

put it in a baggie and throw it in the freezer.

no not really. if it's in my bowl I wash it down the drain.

usually I use all the lather when I make it in my soap mugs.

*shrug*

to get good lather sometimes you make too much..

Mine gets washed down the drain and I will try to make less next time if I made way too much. But a slight surplus is good because making too little leads to a crappy shave.

bruno1 said:

I wash the rest of my face with the leftover soap/cream lather. Leaves it clean, moisturized and smelling great

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Yup, that is what I do too. I almost always shower shave, and always face lather, so this is a great way to use the excess in my brush.

I use my mug with soap in it to load the brush and face lather. Any leftover lather on the brush after the 2, 3, or 4 passes goes down the drain when the brush is rinsed, any left over soap / lather in the mug stays until next use.

Some people do not like to see the build up of dried foam on the sides above the soap and rinse it out. I feel rinsing it out only takes away more soap on the puck, reducing the amount of shaves per puck… some desire to get through a puck faster in order to get to the next puck sooner… YMMV

I just wash extra lather down the drain. It still takes me the better part of a year to kill a puck (sometimes longer) and I've got several in reserve.

charismata said:

I have read barber manuals that suggest cleaning your strop with left over lather. I have read that some barbers used nothing else on their strops. Lather is also great for lubricating water hones when sharpening straights. Of course neither of those options are much use to a DE shaver.

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Tallow based lather is indeeed excellent for conditioning strops. But you only do it rather infrequently.


I squeeze any excess lather back onto the puck, no problemo.