Lather Help?

So, I did my first DE shave today. It went much better than it could have, I suppose. I had been working on my lathering and shaving with my cartridge razor as I'm making the transition to this brave new (old) world, and I had been getting ok results, better and better in fact, until push came to shove today. Long story short, my issue shaving today was not so much with how to operate the razor, but the fact that my lather A) Dried out very fast on my face as I was taking my time shaving (flaking off into snowflakes); and B) Gooped up my blade to such an extent I couldn't get the residue off.....It was so tacky I had to take out the blade and physically scrape it off....Since I didn't do this until the end of the shave, it drastically affected through the duration.

For those experienced folks out there, how do I adjust my lather considering these factors? I kept trying to add water, but not sure it helped at all. Brush overloaded/not loaded enough? Too much/not enough h20? For more info, I was using AoS Unscented (non-tallow) soap. Any help would be appreciated!

T

Not enough water. You might try making some practice lathers: soap is cheaper than a bad shave.

Sounds to me like the lather is to dry. Add water just a few drops at a time. It should be wet, but not thin and runny, with soft peaks that droop.

Spend some time practicing your lather and you be surprise what you can get out of your soap and brush. I did that just recently even though I thought I knew what I was doing. I was surprise at how much lather I can actually get out of my VDH deluxe soap. I proved myself wrong and learned a lot more than I expected.

As a bowl latherer who uses VDH Deluxe soap I find that swirling my brush in the bowl doesn't do much except smear the lather around. When I use a whisking motion (like beating eggs) the runny, bubbley lather quickly explodes into a rich, creamy lather that last a long time.

I had the same problems at first and I just couldn't get the water down right, it was always too thick. I saw this post for Marco's Method and I now use it for just about any soap I use, it works great in a bowl, on your face, howver you choose to lather. You should really try this and see if that helps you out.

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...th-Italian-soft-soaps?highlight=marcos+method

+1 to Marco's Method

+2 on Marco's Method; real pearls of wisdom there.

More water, and you may even need a little more product too. I struggled with making a good lather at first too. I think everyone does at first. Those cans of goo had us all spoiled. At some point I made the decision to switch to face/head lathering, mainly hoping to save time. After about a month or two of doing that, I just realized that I wasn't having any trouble with my lather anymore. There wasn't any magic bullet for me, and I can't even tell you exactly when it happened. I think it just took some practice and experimenting. I try to always do a fingertip test. Rub a little lather between your thumb and pointer finger. You'll eventually start to get a good feel for when it's not properly hydrated.

Thanks for the help everybody. I'm going to practice lathering on non-shaving days. I'll check out Marco's method, but I think Garrett's wisdom will ultimately prove most helpful....just need to friggin' practice. I'm very impatient with things.

I'm still relatively a newbie (about three months of DE shaving now), and making a good lather was probably the element I had to put the most practice effort into. It also surprised me that it took the sort of learning and practice that it did; there really is a knack to it. Now I can whip up a good, if not great, lather from all my soaps and creams, but that's after a lot of trial and error.

Two general things I learned that helped: different brush hairs hold different amounts of water, so a badger brush, for instance, usually does better with a good shake or even a light squeeze lest you initially overwhelm the product with water (note that wet loading off a soap, as in the Marco Method, is an exception here since you're adding product in the process). This is especially true with creams where you're starting with a fixed amount and where the product already has water incorporated. The other was that a good, slick lather is essential to a good shave. It's half the battle, as they say, so putting the time into mastering your lathers, including doing practice lathers in your palm or in a bowl, will pay off big time. And each brush and product deserves its own practice, especially in the beginning.

I have a few coworkers who are also DE shavers (actually, more than just a few!). One told me he thought D.R. Harris soap was tough to lather. I have the soap myself and get good lathers from it, so I had him bring his soap and boar brush into the office so I could do a lather demonstration. He and several others gathered around in our office kitchen while I whipped up a nice, slick, yogurty lather. Everyone "ooh-ed" and "ahh-ed" actually, since a few guys were about to try DE shaving and had never seen good lather in person!

More tellingly, that particular coworker, who'd been DE shaving much longer than me, said "Hey! I never bothered getting my lather like that! I didn't know you could do that!" All this time he'd been shaving with coarse, underworked suds. This would explain why he'd come in in the morning complaining of yet another nick-laden rough shave, and why he was convinced his Proraso pre-shave was a miracle-worker; the pre-shave was making up for his poor lather!

I've demonstrated lathering in person to several friends and coworkers now, and I'll continue to do so when it comes up. I figure fathers used to show their sons in person in the same way, and that's something many of us missed out on (thanks, canned goo). It's certainly possible to learn by relying on online tutorials and videos, but that's the HARD way. Still, that's the position most of us are in, so keep practicing, keep checking in on here, and know that when your lather is good, it feels GREAT: rich, luxurious, slick, holds up for multiple passes, and, more important than anything, lets your razor and blade do their best work. It's a big part of what makes wet shaving so satisfying!

+4 On Marcos method . Game changing especially when using soft Italian soaps.

too much product not enough water..never thirst your soap...

In a lot of cases like this more water is needed but it's not just a matter of increasing one thing as the ratios matter. To support more water you need more product. Insufficient loading is typical with most of these problems.

+5 on Marco's method. Just tried it for the first time last night on Col. Conk Bay Rum - a soap I had been having a hard time getting a good lather with. Whipped up a ton of great lather, and actually ended up having to wash some down the drain as the brush was still loaded after 2 passes plus touch-up.

I'm fairly new to de shaving but I've been using a brush and soap for about five years. All I can recommend is don't underestimate the amount of brush loading. It takes quite a bit of swirtling and dabbing. I know my brush is loaded when the lather spilling out of my soap cup looks like it will harden back in to soap if I don't wash it off.

I have found that getting the lather 'just right' is a skill acquired from practice. I also believe that some soaps may take more water than others.

On a side note, I have learned that using bottled water yields a much creamier lather than tap water here in Garland. I have also used clean rain water for making lather. For some reason, which I don't understand the basis for, rain water yields an even creamier lather than I obtain with bottled water.