I made an effort to get a good lather today. It worked out well. I had a great shave. Lesson learnt, don't skimp on the shaving cream.
I have been learning the same lesson. The last time I used the LEA puck I got a terrible lather, but times before that it worked just fine. I think it was because I under loaded the soap.
Something that I've learned about lathering is that it is easy to load up a boar brush, but you need to keep adding some water to get that nice luxurious foam. I think this might be true of a lot of brushes, including badger, for the new wet shaver. It really doesn't take a whole lot of soap to make a good lather. Since, I've been bowl lathering with a nicely broken in boar brush, I don't seem to have a lot of trouble filling my soap bowl with great suds. But, if in doubt add a little more soap.
Sorry a newbie here. I face lather using Proraso Red and always have more than enough lather so why use a soap if getting lather is an issue ?
Some people have the same issue with creams. If they just use a dab of cream, they won't get enough lather. Soaps aren't a problem if you load enough on the brush.
The problem I believe most newbies have with soap is not getting enough soap on the brush. And that problem I believe stems from people saying one only needs so many seconds on the puck or just x number of swirls. That may work for the one giving the advice, but the newbie may have a different brush of a different size, a different idea of what a "slightly damp" brush is, a different soap, and more importantly water that is of a different hardness. So what's a newbie to do? Take all the advice, try different methods, experiment, and learn what works for them.
Agreed. Personally, I think a big part of it is that no two soaps perform the same and, indeed, there are some so-called shaving soaps which probably shouldn't be. The classic complaint is lather that is frothy and quickly dissipates. This is often a sign of too much water-to-soap, either from not loading enough soap or from having too wet a brush. Unfortunately, no too soaps require the same amount of loading time. I've also been finding that I have to move away from a lot of the conventional advice regarding soaking the brush prior to lathering. Instead, I've had to move more to just getting the tips wet and shaking it out well. YMMV.
Yep. Also, if person A has a 20mm brush, and person B has a 27mm brush (everything else being the same, hair type, loft, etc.), person B will require approximately 3x the amount of product to produce the same lather as person A.
+1. ^^ I think too many newer people read posts which say "I swirl my brush for 15 - 30 seconds to load....." What brush? Is it super dense? Is it going to suck up that soap and trap it deep inside there, or is it not dense at all, and the soap just oozes out from all over? Is it a badger or a boar? Triple milled soap or croap? For me there is really only one constant: Load it like you hate it. When you think you have enough? Load more. Then do it one more time. When you are wasting soap, you can back off a bit the next time.
The only problem with that is when you then end up with too much soap. Then starts the balancing act that is adding enough water so as to not end up shaving paste.
True for sure, but I would rather have too much lather in a bowl, or have it running down my arm face lathering, than not enough. Plus, it isn't like it goes on that way forever. Eventually you just get the hang of how much to put into each brush with each soap etc.... I meant it more for people who are having lathering troubles, for whatever the reason.
I am afraid that many new wetshavers read too much (conflicting) info, and watch too many videos. Having learned the "art" of wetshaving in the 'dark ages' (pre internet), I am a strong believer in learning by feel. It doesn't matter what your lather looks like, or how long it takes to build it; what matters is how well it works on your face. Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
