Evaporating Lather

I

imnotCrazy

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31
Location
Tyne and Wear, England
I've just re-read the Lather Tutorial, and think I need to try a lotlot less water.

I thought I'd post anyway though, to see what insight you guys can offer.

I just switched from a boots soap bowl to D R Harris Windsor. I'm getting it to Lather ok, but then the Lather seems to vanish over time. It's drying, and sometimes vanishing completely from my face and from the bowl. It literaly seems to evaporate. There are probably a million things that could be doing this, but it did not happen with my old boots stuff.

I usually use a dolop of glycerine along with the soap, but this morning I tried it without as well and it was exactly the same.

I can post pics if this helps. I'm pretty sure my lather isn't up to scratch anyway, because it's not building as much as in the pictures.

Thanks
 
Agreed - load the brush for a bare minimum of 30 seconds (I need to load for a full minute due to very hard water), work it on your face, and add water in small amounts, thoroughly working the lather on your face each time to assess whether you need to add any more. Once you get it right, lather from a triple-milled soap is usually very thick and stable - your problems are consistent with insufficient loading, insufficient lathering on the face, and too much water added too quickly.
 
DR Harris is one of my favourites what works for me, is I add hot water into the wooden soap dish, this warms up the soap and softens it, then with a hot wetted brush which I shack 3 times to get rid of the surplus water, work the brush into the soap thereby loading the brush. Then I use a warmed tea cup and work the brush into a thick lather. If it too dry just add a few drops of hot water. It's works for me and with a little practice it makes a fantastic lather. All the best Ian:icon_razz:
 
I only have DR Harris Marlborough, but really like this soap.

Interestingly its the soap that takes the least amount of loading for me, and accepts the most water.

I use a soaked brush, dripped, then lickly flicked once, load on a dry puck. In the beginning it will produce very large bobbles. When the soap reaches halfway up the bristles, and the froth closest to the puck seems like OK-ish lather, I take it to the bowl. This is about 10 seconds for me.

After this it accepts quite a lot of water.

Another thing for me with DR Harris soap is, that it is quite forgiving. Even if the lather is slightly too wet or dry, it is still very good to shave with. Other soaps are far more sensitive.

/Max
 
Interesting I had the same last night with MWF it's the first time I used it. I know now the problem load the brush on the puck for far more time ! I lather in a bowl. My shave was ok but the lather very thin.
The Colonel in my avitar got its first lathering so that could also be a reason ?

Brian
 
782sirbrian said:
Interesting I had the same last night with MWF it's the first time I used it. I know now the problem load the brush on the puck for far more time ! I lather in a bowl. My shave was ok but the lather very thin.
The Colonel in my avitar got its first lathering so that could also be a reason ?

Brian
Click to expand...

lathering is simple really



thin lather = too much water/not enough soap

thick/dry lather = not enough water/too much soap to amount of water
 
shanky887614 said:
782sirbrian said:
Interesting I had the same last night with MWF it's the first time I used it. I know now the problem load the brush on the puck for far more time ! I lather in a bowl. My shave was ok but the lather very thin.
The Colonel in my avitar got its first lathering so that could also be a reason ?

Brian
Click to expand...

lathering is simple really



thin lather = too much water/not enough soap

thick/dry lather = not enough water/too much soap to amount of water
Click to expand...

Thanks for your advice :) I had mountains of rich lather when I shaved last night very pleased. I've learned alot about shaving in the last few weeks from this forum.

Brian
 
Although I understood the too dry v too thin lather thing I couldn't get it just right for every soap I had without a fair bit of practice. Very rewarding when you do though
 
NotTheStig said:
Although I understood the too dry v too thin lather thing I couldn't get it just right for every soap I had without a fair bit of practice. Very rewarding when you do though
Click to expand...

the problem is how much soap you need is also affected by the water.


varies per soap it seems as well, some people add glycerine,mix cream and soap or only lather parts of face at a time

its finding what works best for you.

when i started for the life of me i couldn't get lather to stop evaporating so i started by shaving smaller areas then re lathering.


if you havent already its worth hand lathering and try to get it too thin, then ideal being thick but not too dry. doing it on one hand allows you to check this variable which you can then transfer over to face/bowl lathering

i found when i tried palm lathering i found that the consistency i was aiming for was too dry so i didn't have a chance in hell of having a very good shave, i just wish id seen some of those youtube videos earlier
 
Turns out my enormous bowl was causing the problem. I have a giant scuttle from Steve Woodhead (highly recommended btw) but because it was so big i wasnt working the Lather properly.
I've tried in a smaller bowl and Lather is coming out great!!
So, a size 1 Woodhead Scuttle will be going on my Christmas list.

Anyone want a bigger bowl and want to buy my scuttle?
 
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