loading a brush for a minute?

I am not frugal with soap or cream, but I regularly see people saying "load brush for a minute."

This seems like just way too long. Are people loading very slowly or just kinda guessing about a minute?

I use relatively big knotted badgers and 1 minute seems excessive.

I don't mind wasting lather, but a minute load?

I just timed 60 seconds while going through the motions... I imagine tons of lather.

With my well water and soaps, if I don't load the brush for a minute my lather won't make it past 1-2 passes. I think that's why I mostly use creams.

I count to thirty, and get enough lather for four passes.

With a real soap (not a melt and pour type like VDH) I load for about 30 seconds, and then face lather.
I always have lather left over.
I suppose if you have hard water or a tough to lather soap, a minute might help.

luvmysuper said:

With a real soap (not a melt and pour type like VDH) I load for about 30 seconds, and then face lather.
I always have lather left over.
I suppose if you have hard water or a tough to lather soap, a minute might help.

Click to expand...

+1

Also, not knowing how quickly someone loads a brush, 60 seconds is a safety net. Once you charged your brush for a minute, you can then see, with your result, do you need less or more charging. Less or more water.

Most new users will charge the brush for 10 seconds or 15 seconds at most...

I count to 60. I get adaquate lather, and have some leftover. My scuttle is not overflowing most days. I have been primarily using glycerine soap lately. I am probably loading for 30-45 seconds in reality.

Phil

I'm just starting out at this but...

My first few lathers I loaded for about 30 seconds. I didn't time it or anything, but I counted to 30 slowly. Just couldn't get enough lather.

The water where I live is really hard. Like, if you boil it long enough you'll get a limestone brick in the bottom of your saucepan (just kidding).

I'm finding that I've got to be pretty aggressive with the loading, both in terms of vigourous swirling and length of time. Something closer to one minute seems about right. If I don't give it the extra time, the lather won't last long enough for anything more than two passes.

In a very hard water area, a minute is a must for me. This then gives enough lather for a 3 pass shave plus a 4th touch up. I probably do get more than enough lather but it saves time having to potentially reload my brush later.

David

Optometrist said:

it saves time having to potentially reload my brush later.

David

Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly. After a couple times having to do that, I decided that frugality is not everything. After all, soap is relatively cheap.

Depending on which brush and soap, I use to load for ~30-40 seconds, that leaves me with enough lather for 3 passes and eventually touch up.

Its probably the same people who say wet shaving has to take 20-30 minutes.

The first few times I loaded I definately spent a lot more time loading the brush. I agree that having too much is so much better than having to make new lather halfway through, or having insubstantial lather in the first place.

I agree with telling newbies to load on a soap for more than a minute for their first few shaves, then load less if they have way too much till they have just a bit too much.

Phil

So basically, hard water...

Thanks everyone

global_dev said:

So basically, hard water...

Thanks everyone

Click to expand...

Also, for newbies it's better to have too much lather than too little. They can always cut back a bit once they figure it out.

Using Tabac and a Vulfix brush as a baseline. I have to load my brush for nearly two minutes, spinning it quickly on the puck, to get two passes. I have very hard water and my brush sucks.

When I'm visiting my mother in Virginia, tucked away in the Appalachians with water filtered over stones in mountain streams and so soft it freezes like jello, the same combo and the amount of loading produced lather that violently exploded off my brush and nearly filled the bathroom around me. I only made it out alive by shaving for my dear life.

I'm assuming the water was the difference.

My mileage did vary.

For me I'll load my brush longer if I am not using any cream in the lather. Working the brush /loading for longer creates a nice creamy load of soap on my brush that lathes really well. Ill maybe spend 30 seconds at most though.

Optometrist said:

In a very hard water area, a minute is a must for me. This then gives enough lather for a 3 pass shave plus a 4th touch up. I probably do get more than enough lather but it saves time having to potentially reload my brush later.

David

Click to expand...

Same here. I have to let warm water soak on the puck for a bit or I get hardly no soap on the brush at all.

global_dev said:

So basically, hard water...

Thanks everyone

Click to expand...

I would assume that is the case for most who have to load soap for that long. I have toyed with the idea of a water softener system before, but it's just not worth the cost to me.

IronJohn said:

Using Tabac and a Vulfix brush as a baseline. I have to load my brush for nearly two minutes, spinning it quickly on the puck, to get two passes. I have very hard water and my brush sucks.

When I'm visiting my mother in Virginia, tucked away in the Appalachians with water filtered over stones in mountain streams and so soft it freezes like jello, the same combo and the amount of loading produced lather that violently exploded off my brush and nearly filled the bathroom around me. I only made it out alive by shaving for my dear life.

I'm assuming the water was the difference.

My mileage did vary.

Click to expand...

Iron John:

Thanks for the chuckle. I could imagine a visual of you Code 3 shaving to eliminate all that lather. Enjoy your shaves . . . and lather.

Don

global_dev said:

So basically, hard water...

Thanks everyone

Click to expand...

I load a soap for a minute (I time it). If I don't I will still have to go back to it and re-load for pass 2. Hard Water has become the bane of my existence.

IronJohn said:

When I'm visiting my mother in Virginia, tucked away in the Appalachians with water filtered over stones in mountain streams and so soft it freezes like jello, the same combo and the amount of loading produced lather that violently exploded off my brush and nearly filled the bathroom around me. I only made it out alive by shaving for my dear life.

Click to expand...

I'm assuming the water was the difference.

My mileage did vary.

Click to expand...

It does indeed.

I mainly night-shave. My puck of Williams is "just barely" covered in the hottest water I can get out of my tap while I relax in the bath. My brush soaks in equally hot water while my scuttle is warming up. I load my brush, do a prep-lather, and reload my brush without rinsing it off. I then rinse my face, relather and reload the brush again. So all told I probably spend over 1 minute building lather. I don't do it all at once, but I'm finished before I put a blade to a whisker.

I easily have enough lather for four passes , by which time my face is "well and truly over the idea of shaving".