Adding water.

Human said:
Hello all,

When you make your lather, how much water do you personally add? Do you have a particular method?

I use a slightly wet brush, just wondered if anyone does anything different.
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I use soap and a lathering bowl, damp brush, load for 15-20 seconds then into bowl whisk adding 3-4 drops of water at a time, keep whisking, keep adding 3-4 drops of water at a time untill you have the correct consistency, don't drown your lather, just a few drops off the ends of your finger tips is all that is required. Job done! :)
 
Human said:
Hello all,

When you make your lather, how much water do you personally add? Do you have a particular method?

I use a slightly wet brush, just wondered if anyone does anything different.
Click to expand...
With most creams I start with a wet but not dripping wet brush, once the lather starts to form and get nice and thick I start dipping the tip of the brush into water and then carry on lathering. So from this point it is lather, add a bit of water and lather, I just keep repeating until the lather builds nicely.

For example this week I have been using Proraso Blue cream and I will dip the tip of the brush to get extra water between 4 to 6 times while building the lather, I palm and/or face lather with cream usually but I guess this would work with a bowl. Basically I am adding a few drops of water as I lather, if that makes sense.
 
Blademonkey said:
I use soap and a lathering bowl, damp brush, load for 15-20 seconds then into bowl whisk adding 3-4 drops of water at a time, keep whisking, keep adding 3-4 drops of water at a time untill you have the correct consistency, don't drown your lather, just a few drops off the ends of your finger tips is all that is required. Job done! :)
Click to expand...

I use a similar method but sometimes I know pretty well how much water I need so I begin by adding enough bloomed water to my scuttle / bowl - it looks very watery to begin with but after a minute or so I begin to get the consistancy and sheen I'm after.

For SR shaving I find that more water in the soap works better for me..... it would be interesting to know if other people add more water when SR shaving ;)
 
Merkurologist said:
I use a similar method but sometimes I know pretty well how much water I need so I begin by adding enough bloomed water to my scuttle / bowl - it looks very watery to begin with but after a minute or so I begin to get the consistancy and sheen I'm after.

For SR shaving I find that more water in the soap works better for me..... it would be interesting to know if other people add more water when SR shaving ;)
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I don't have my lather any thicker than a thick yogurt anyway and seems to work well with all my razors. Adding the water at the begining is ok if you are used to that particular soap and know how much water it will need but if you are using different soaps that require slightly differing amounts of water I find adding as I go the best method ( for me ) YMMV :)
 
Blademonkey said:
I don't have my lather any thicker than a thick yogurt anyway and seems to work well with all my razors. Adding the water at the begining is ok if you are used to that particular soap and know how much water it will need but if you are using different soaps that require slightly differing amounts of water I find adding as I go the best method ( for me ) YMMV :)
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Absolutely, I only do it with soaps I know well. The others I add water as I go along.

Kypros Christodoulides said:
The above are all great advise. Last shave I ruined my lather by having too much water on the brush. It was a cream I used for the first time and the shave was pretty bad as the lather was too runny.
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Yeap, I've done that mysef.... although it's not difficult to add more cream to the brush.

I try to shake off all the water from the brush and add water to the scuttle / bowl instead . ... I find I'm much more in control that way.
 
I tried just shaking my brush dry, rather than squeezing, which seemed to make a much better lather. It did become dry on my way neck, but that's probably because I'm slow at shaving.
 
First I wet my face with hot water and I squeeze some cream on my fingers and put on my face on different spots like right and left chin and some under jaw and neck and create the lather with brush that I shake the water off. I dip the tip of the brush in to hot water if/when I need to add water.
Like this I get the correct water to cream ratio easier and quicker. It's just a matter of trying and discovering which way works best for you.
 
All good advice above. I'd only add that it's much easier to add a bit more water to your lather than it is to take it away*, so add a very little at a time.

*unless you add more soap/cream, to anticipate the pedants.
 
Like above I generally add water with droplets from my fingers, it's not an exact science and your lather is affected by several variables from location, brush, amount of cream and so on.

When I first started I did use cooking measuring spoons, so that I could consciously see how much water I was adding, gave me a rough idea of how much I needed. Now I just add a few droplets until it's my desired consistency.
 
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