brush loading

Whats a good way to tell if I have to much soap in the brush? Will it not spread the lather as well, have a funny feel or something along those lines. Ive taken to soaking my soap and brush for awhile before I shave which allows for good penetration into the soap. I still press and twist that brush in there a good ten plus times. My lather has good properties, is there am issue using to much?

Make all things equal in terms of the type of soap and brush. Ive only used a handful of soaps (van der hagen, williams) and the pure badger is the softest bristle I have. I figure a nice silvertip with some higher quality soap might need more loading because of the softer bristle and flopper response?

P.S. after youve began to lather, have you ever gone back to load more into the brush?

It's way easier to correct for too much soap (just add a few drops of water) than it is to correct for not enough

I've often gone back to either loading the brush more, or adding more water....this is not a zero sum gain. Feel free to play with the ratio (water/soap/air) till you get it right and are satisfied with your lather before applying or even after. For some reason, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to make amazing lather with the first attempt every time. Yes, that's a admirable challenge, but it shouldn't take away from the great overall fun of wet shaving. So, keep playing around with loading and lathering, and enjoy it!

I might add that there's nothing that says you can only make lather before you shave. Especially when you get a new soap, take a few practice runs with it before you shave with it

Do you face lather?

I bowl lather, and have a fairly easy time telling when I have added enough water to the loaded brush in the lathering bowl. I do notice a difference in my boar brushes and soft silver-tips. The boars don't hold as much water and pick up soap easier.

Both types of brush are fun to work with, as well as different soaps and creams. Just this morning, for my second pass I added more soap to the mix, because some water had splashed into my lathering bowl. Worked for me!

I do bowl lather and I think Im adding quite a bit of soap, so the reverse of the question might be more valuable. Really to much soap might be a bit dryer and bog down the razor, but to little soap thats too wet dosent coat the skin as well?

I just tried Proraso for the first time and it loaded my brush like a cream! So I just kept adding water until it became fairly fluffy, and found the bowl over flowing with lather!

More is better than less I suppose

Freemojo said:

I

More is better than less I suppose

Click to expand...

Very true.

Practice. Depending on your brush, soap, water and swirl, you will have to find the sweet spot where your will pick-up enough product for all your passes. I usually don't go back on the soap for more product unless I'm not used to it.

In the immortal words of Jim "load your brush like you stole the puck". The downside to having too much soap on your brush is simply too much lather (which I don't really see as a problem) but the downside to having too little soap can be very poor shaving or the need to charge your brush again.

I think its impossible to whip up too much lather, I think it full and thick
ken

You can never have too much soap in the brush. You can only fail to add enough water to it.