When building up lather on a soap, how do you keep the bristles on the soap itself?

[GarageBoy]

I keep making a mess using the wooden bowl. The bristles will ride over the edge and build lather when I'm still loading the soap. How do I evenly load the brush?

[yomuppet]

I keep making a mess using the wooden bowl. The bristles will ride over the edge and build lather when I'm still loading the soap. How do I evenly load the brush?

Some tips from experience:

-smaller brush
-fan shaped brush
-"twist" the brush instead of "swirl"

Best of luck.

J

[ScottS]

I don't build up lather on the puck. I intentionally keep the lather down while just loading the brush, and develop the lather on my face. Less soap, less mess, better lather, better shave.

[GarageBoy]

Not trying to build lather on the puck, it just happens.
BTW: why get a brush that can hold a lot of water if you have to squeeze it out?

[Handy]

Choke up on the brush. Start with your fingertips almost at the end of the bristles, load up, then move you fingertips halfway down the bristles, loadup, finish with fingers removed from bristles and load up.
Hope that made a bit of sense.

[OldSchoolYoungin]

Choke up on the brush. Start with your fingertips almost at the end of the bristles, load up, then move you fingertips halfway down the bristles, loadup, finish with fingers removed from bristles and load up.
Hope that made a bit of sense.

+1

[tom myers]

Not trying to build lather on the puck, it just happens.
BTW: why get a brush that can hold a lot of water if you have to squeeze it out?

You do want to use plenty of water, just not at the point that you are loading your brush with soap.

I would suggest shaking or squeezing the brush to a point of being wet but not saturated. If you have it right, it will pick up a lot of soap on the brush without making a lot of lather.

At this point you want to use the brush to distribute the soap rather evenly over your wet face. Then either sprinkle some more water onto the brush or dip the tips of the brush into the hot water in your washbasin and then start actually building the lather on your face. Add more water if necessary.

I know this sounds like a lot of steps, but actually, it doesn't take any longer, if as long, as if you were to build lather in a bowl or in your palm. No matter where you generate the lather, you want to, in the long run, work that lather into your beard. In my opinion, building the lather on your face simply adds that much more time that you are working the soap/water into your beard.

Regards,
Tom

[scoopster]

You do want to use plenty of water, just not at the point that you are loading your brush with soap.

I would suggest shaking or squeezing the brush to a point of being wet but not saturated. If you have it right, it will pick up a lot of soap on the brush without making a lot of lather.

At this point you want to use the brush to distribute the soap rather evenly over your wet face. Then either sprinkle some more water onto the brush or dip the tips of the brush into the hot water in your washbasin and then start actually building the lather on your face. Add more water if necessary.

I know this sounds like a lot of steps, but actually, it doesn't take any longer, if as long, as if you were to build lather in a bowl or in your palm. No matter where you generate the lather, you want to, in the long run, work that lather into your beard. In my opinion, building the lather on your face simply adds that much more time that you are working the soap/water into your beard.

Regards,
Tom

Tom is right on. Check out the tutorial for photos: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=21136

[galopede]

My methos is simple. Being a bit tight, I buy refill pucks and grate them into the little, round plastic Tupperware style tubs with lids. They don't fill the tub so there's a wall around the top of the soap which keeps it all in! I have a few like Erasmic in the original bowl and it's a real pain next to the little tubs! Actually, I prefer the Erasmic shave shicks, which I've grated into a tub.

Gareth

[masonjarjar]

I keep making a mess using the wooden bowl. The bristles will ride over the edge and build lather when I'm still loading the soap. How do I evenly load the brush?

maybe your brush is too wet. that was my problem at first.

I lathered right on a puck-in-a-mug for so long, it took me a few tries to learn how to load a brush with soap instead of "making lather"

definately use less water.

[ScottS]

Not trying to build lather on the puck, it just happens.

Go slower. Do your best to load the brush without starting a lather. It's like crossing a big sheet of rice paper without leaving a footstep.

[lamontqsanford]

I had the same problem for a while. I found that giving my brush a good squeeze and then shaking it a couple of times remedied my problem. The bristles need to be a little moist so that you don't risk breaking them off of damaging them. But if they are too wet you end up with pre lather instead of good soap to build lather with. I tried everything until someone here mentioned the squeezing and shaking to get the majority of the water out of the brush. Good luck.

[mantic]

Plopping in this video in case it might help :
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd7Aj9vwrtc[/YOUTUBE]

--Mark

[RoadKing99]

All these instructions in this thread! It' really not so complicated.

Remember that you don't want to waste time and effort by lathering anywhere but on your face, where the process will scrub off oil, saturate whiskers with water to soften them, and feel wonderful to boot.

1. Use hot water in the brush (experiment to find the amount for your brush and soap combination).

2. Swirl brush on the soap puck (experiment to find out how much swirling works best).

3. Swish brush all around your whiskered face to make lather (experiment to find out if more hot water is needed.

Yes, there is some experimenting involved. But you will quickly figure everything out.

[moto]

for me,
soak brush, turn upside down, don't shake or squeeze just let it drip to a stop, then turn soap at angle over bowl, start swirling brush. any overflow will go into bowl, then after 30-40 swirls move to bowl and keep swirling, will be watery at first but keep swirling and then go to face and swirl some more.

[ratcheer]

I like cakes of soap that are not fixed inside their containers. I put them into my large, ceramic lathering bowl and whip up a storm.

Tim

[TonyJ]

Not trying to build lather on the puck, it just happens.
BTW: why get a brush that can hold a lot of water if you have to squeeze it out?

It's much more easier to set the correct amount of water by good brush. If you have a brush than doesn't hold water you have to add it all the time by hand or from a tap and risk to get it too much is obvious. Of course you can build a lather with a cheap $1 brush but IMO it's a pain in the arse job to do and relaxing and enjoying is far away from.
In harder soap I leave more water to bristles than softer soap. It helps to soften the soap's surface and the bristles soak to the soap much easier. I can notice immediately if I have too much water in the bristles because lather starts to build up on the bowl almost immediately.
I can still squeeze the brush and go on or just wait a second and swirl slower and let the soap absorb the water. No panic.
If the lather still happens to build up too much on the bowl I just turn the brush on it's side and soak the lather into the bristles vertically. That usually dries the bowl enough and story can go on to the happy ending.

P.s God, I love the Mantic's videos they have given me a lot of fun and information

[jpkunst]

This is what I do.

1. soak brush in sink with hot water
2. squeeze & shake brush until it's only damp, not wet
3. swirl dry brush on soap puck until brush is loaded with dry-ish soap paste (not with lather)
4. apply soap paste evenly on face
5. dip brush in sink, use wet brush to build lather on face, repeat until lather is satisfactory

Basically: lather is build on my face and nowhere else.

[sklegg]

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread. I have been whipping up a complete lather in the bowl before applying it to my face. It makes much more sense to just load the brush with the your soap/cream and finish lathering on your face. (Why else do we spend so much on fine brushes if they're just used for smearing foam across our chins? ) From now on I will be trying all of the tips listed above. (Special shout-out to mantic/Mark for the videos! Your production skills and information are appreciated!)

[MAK]

I don't build up lather on the puck. I intentionally keep the lather down while just loading the brush, and develop the lather on my face. Less soap, less mess, better lather, better shave.

Agree with this. Most bowls that soap comes in are designed to hold the soap, not build a lather. I also tend to smear the brush with soap and then lather on my wet face. It works pretty well and probably does a better job at getting you beard to stand up.