My wet face is diluting my lather between passes!!

Mike Smart said:
never think the lather in the bowl is the finished article.
Also spend a bit of time whipping it up,
don’t think it’s ready in 30 seconds,
Get used to it, enjoy doing it rather than doing it just for the sake of it,
Take your time it’s not a race.

What type of brush are you using
Animal or Synthetic ?

Once you’ve soaked your brush,
i’ll assume it’s badger
give it a couple of shakes and start lathering up,
once you get it to the desired consistency then apply to the face,
Try get the lather like meringue when you lift the brush of your face you have peaks of lather.
if you find it a tad dry lightly dip the tips in water and reapply,
if it’s to wet, just keep building the lather for a further minute or two in the bowl,
if it’s still to wet then add a little more soap,
Always start with your brush to dry rather than to wet, it’s easier to add more water rather than more soap.

After every pass i just give my face a quick splash & away i go for a second pass,
Never do i totally wash it off.
Hope that helps.
Oops Welcome & Enjoy
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Thanks for this, it's very helpful.

I have a small Kent brush that is synthetic (I'm veggie so didn't want to get a badger one though they look lovely!!).

I will def be putting these guidelines into practice!! I think I am probably guilty of not whipping for long enough.
 
Out of interest, what soap are you using @Ian5?

When I came to traditional shaving, I bought a cheap badger off eBay and didn't really like it. I replaced it within a very short time with the Kent Infinity Silvertex, which I used exclusively for well over a year before buying a further brush. It's a good 'un!

We could introduce you to the notion of face-lathering ...

Simply wash your face with hot water and optionally bar soap, nothing special. With a still damp face, wet the brush and flick once to remove the excess water. Load up on the soap and maybe add a drop or two of water to encourage a good loading. Then, the fun part ... lather up on your face. First, you kinda run it all around the area to be shave so as to incorporate all the water on your face. Lather and add small amounts of water as necessary until you get a thick and over-paintable lather. Second and subsequent passes can then be painted on.

No need for an exfoliating product, either.
 
pjgh said:
Out of interest, what soap are you using @Ian5?

When I came to traditional shaving, I bought a cheap badger off eBay and didn't really like it. I replaced it within a very short time with the Kent Infinity Silvertex, which I used exclusively for well over a year before buying a further brush. It's a good 'un!

We could introduce you to the notion of face-lathering ...

Simply wash your face with hot water and optionally bar soap, nothing special. With a still damp face, wet the brush and flick once to remove the excess water. Load up on the soap and maybe add a drop or two of water to encourage a good loading. Then, the fun part ... lather up on your face. First, you kinda run it all around the area to be shave so as to incorporate all the water on your face. Lather and add small amounts of water as necessary until you get a thick and over-paintable lather. Second and subsequent passes can then be painted on.

No need for an exfoliating product, either.
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Hiya. It's quite a posh Floris one. No 89 I think. I really liked the smell.

Your face lathering guide is very helpful. Does anybody actually squeeze their brush before loading? Or would that make things too dry?
 
Ian5 said:
Hiya. It's quite a posh Floris one. No 89 I think. I really liked the smell.

Your face lathering guide is very helpful. Does anybody actually squeeze their brush before loading? Or would that make things too dry?
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Have you got a picture of the ingredients list?

I'm not sure to be exact but it could be one of the new formulations where the lather dissipates.

@pjgh do you have this soap?
 
donnie_arko said:
Have you got a picture of the ingredients list?

I'm not sure to be exact but it could be one of the new formulations where the lather dissipates.

@pjgh do you have this soap?
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I don't ... but yes, my question was loaded. I wondered if it was indeed the soap that was dissipating.

@Ian5 there are some (ironically highbrow) brands of shaving soap that don't actually function well as shaving soap, not producing a thick and stable lather. Some versions of Floris, Crabtree & Evelyn, Trumpers ... and more; a few batches of Mitchell's Wool Fat.

You can try face-lathering your existing soap and see if there's an improvement. At worst, you'll produce the existing thin lather but you'll get better control on the consistency directly on the face.
 
Ian5 said:
I will take a photo when I get home!! I think it might have shea butter in it if that means anything
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Some shaving soaps have formulations that are heavy on sodium compounds with no Potassium ones. Some of those can be prone to dissipating.

pjgh said:
I don't ... but yes, my question was loaded. I wondered if it was indeed the soap that was dissipating.

@Ian5 there are some (ironically highbrow) brands of shaving soap that don't actually function well as shaving soap, not producing a thick and stable lather. Some versions of Floris, Crabtree & Evelyn, Trumpers ... and more; a few batches of Mitchell's Wool Fat.

You can try face-lathering your existing soap and see if there's an improvement. At worst, you'll produce the existing thin lather but you'll get better control on the consistency directly on the face.
Click to expand...

Cheers for the info Paul. I think it was a good observation.

A lot of these Culmak made soaps right?
 
pjgh said:
I don't ... but yes, my question was loaded. I wondered if it was indeed the soap that was dissipating.

@Ian5 there are some (ironically highbrow) brands of shaving soap that don't actually function well as shaving soap, not producing a thick and stable lather. Some versions of Floris, Crabtree & Evelyn, Trumpers ... and more; a few batches of Mitchell's Wool Fat.

You can try face-lathering your existing soap and see if there's an improvement. At worst, you'll produce the existing thin lather but you'll get better control on the consistency directly on the face.
Click to expand...
Thanks, this is very interesting. You'd think they'd put the effort in when it costs so much!! It generally looks OK to me sitting in the bowl but I'm probably not qualified to tell you if it's dissipating or not
 
Ian5 said:
Does anybody actually squeeze their brush before loading? Or would that make things too dry?
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Yes, I do ... gentle squeeze. I also use pure bristle boar brushes. With synthetics, I'll often just splash a bit of water onto the soap itself and then go straight in with the dry brush. This way, the soap is loaded onto the brush but will start out quite dry and need more water adding as you lather.
 
Ian5 said:
Thanks, this is very interesting. You'd think they'd put the effort in when it costs so much!! It generally looks OK to me sitting in the bowl but I'm probably not qualified to tell you if it's dissipating or not
Click to expand...

Some boar brushes are prone to "drinking" the lather ... so much so that there's nothing left for a second pass, but you already said you're using synthetic. By dissipating, we mean it kinda goes bubbly and then disappears.

@donnie_arko I can't remember the name of the company, but recall it's in Glasgow ... they make for a number of the British big name shaving brands.
 
pjgh said:
I don't ... but yes, my question was loaded. I wondered if it was indeed the soap that was dissipating.

@Ian5 there are some (ironically highbrow) brands of shaving soap that don't actually function well as shaving soap, not producing a thick and stable lather. Some versions of Floris, Crabtree & Evelyn, Trumpers ... and more; a few batches of Mitchell's Wool Fat.

You can try face-lathering your existing soap and see if there's an improvement. At worst, you'll produce the existing thin lather but you'll get better control on the consistency directly on the face.
Click to expand...
The more you pay for a soap, the worse the performance of the soap. Fancy shit be damned!
 
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