Okay, so disregarding my butterfingers moment in posting a single letter... My first shipment of wet shaving goodies came in today, I gave it all a shot and didn't exactly get good results and wondering if anyone might be able to spot my potential mistakes. What I'm working with: Van Der Hagen Luxury, a ceramic mug about 1/2" to 3/4" deeper than my brush is tall and probably about 3 1/2" inner diameter, a Classic Brand super badger brush (considering the reviews of a lot of their other products probably actuall somewhere between a pure and super rather than a "true" super). So I stuck my brush in my mug to soak, filled the mug and sink with hot water. I took my shower, got out, splashed a little extra water on my face since I had accitentally dried my face while toweling off. Drained the sink, dumped the mug, and squeezed the brush out just enough so it wasn't dripping. I put a few drops of water on my soap and started loading the brush. Did it for probably just under a minute and only stopped then because I was starting to build lather in the little dish I put the soap in. I moved to the mug to later (wanted to try the method least likely to cause a mess first since I do share the bathroom). Did that until I had a decent looking lather going (no holes visible, ends of thr bristles barely visible in a few places). When I went to putting brush to face it was going on thin. Not runny thin, but like I hadn't built much of a lather. It also felt sticky and started to feel like it was drying out pretty quickly. So I added a little water, relathered in the mug for a bit, and went back to the face. Had to do that a few more times and the improvement from the first brush to the point it started to get runny was minimal. when it started to get a little runny I could still tell the difference between skin and stubble through the lather. On the second pass lather it was so thin I could see skin in places, so I tried to reload, relather, and reapply. It was about the same as the first except that I managed to stop wetting it before it got runny at all. Third pass was prrtty much the same except that I didn't have to try to reload the brush (been doing WTG+XTG+ATG since I saw a professional barber talk about it on some talk show a few years ago and decided to stick with it for this). Finished up with hot/cold water and some witch hazel. Could the brush being new and not broken in have played a part in the problems I had? Beyond that can you guys think of what I might have done wrong based on my results? Thanks for any input you can offer. Going to go back over Mantic and some other folks' lathering videos and see if I can solve the mystery myself in the mean time.
Put some water in the dish too while you shower. Let the water soften up the soap. a bit and the brush will actually load. If memory serves, VDH is pretty firm. I put a tablespoon or so of water on every soap I use.
+1. And use more product, Do not be afraid to LOAD that brush. I wanted to be frugal and then after watching a Vid by @SRNewb I said I'm going use more product, and it worked. Remember though that there are different brushes out there so maybe you will like Boar, Synthetic or Horse more. I myself prefer Boar. An Omega can be had for under 10 bux. Give it a few more tries but if you cannot get it try another kind of brush.
Hur many Times have you tried to lather that soap? You might just need to practice a little bit and get to know that particular soap =)
Now that you mention it I remember reading about that somewhere, but totally forgot when I was shaving. Thanks. Yeah, I had considered going with an Omega boar for my first brush, but kind of glad I didn't now. I know it might soften after some use, but as of right now the super badger is almost too stiff/coarse/whatever the word I'm looking for is for my taste. I may still get a boar later on, but for now I don't think I would enjoy it on the old face skin. Oh, I definitely need more practice, this was my first tike ever using a shave soap of any kind. If you keep practicing making the same mistakes, though, you can't expect much progress, and I wasn't quite sure what I might have done wrong.
@RazorZombie - You would be surprised. I found Boar to not be coarse at all and it has plenty of backbone, but then again I lather directly on my scalp. The word you are looking for might be Scritchy?
That's logical =) the advice given in the thread sounds good. In the beginning I had trouble too, I was using to little product. Load the soap more. When in the shower out some water on top on the soap so the brush can load easier
Load more. Hard to describe in writing(at least for me), but you want to load the brush until the lather in the soap mug starts to look thick, and the brush seems like it's grabbing onto the puck. Put some water in your lather bowl, put some on top of the puck, soak your brush and shake it two or three times. The brush should not be so wet it is dripping with water. a little dry is better than too wet. Pour water off of puck. Build lather in the mug as per above. Don't worry about too much lather in the soap mug. Let sudzy stuff flow over the sides if you need to. You're looking for what I described above. When you are ready to transfer to the lather bowl, pour out the water from the lather bowl. The residual moisture left in the bowl will help you. Transfer lather to lather bowl. Begin whipping up your lather. Watch the bubbles, when they start to disappear and your lather starts to thicken you know you're getting somewhere. If the lather ceases to build and you need more, add a few drops to the bowl, or moisten the tips of the brush. A little water goes a long way here. You can always add water, it's hard to take it away. When most of the bubbles are gone and your lather has a bit of sheen or shine to it, it's ready. IMHO the best thing you can do is take that puck of VDH(or another puck; it's cheap), step up to the sink, and repeat this process over and over until you burn through the puck. It will take a few tries, but somewhere around halfway through that puck it'll start to click for you. This is what I did starting out, and it was key to learning to lather soap. VDH is a good soap that will produce good lather for you, very easily. But you have to put the time in to learn it. Best advice I can give you, fwiw.
Scritchy may be the word. Thanks for that. I wasn't completely sure how to tell if the brush was loaded well enough beyond there being soap all over the bristles.
I find that it helps load the brush if you add a few up and down pumping motions every now and then while swirling. It really pushes the lather up in the brush and releases the water that's trapped up near the handle.
Badger brushes tend to be softer than their boar counterparts, and of course the hair much finer. This can be a problem to those just starting out. Especially when you are making lather from a puck or cake of soap. What the others are telling you here is certainly true in my opinion. Your description of the thin, wispy lather fits in exactly with not having enough soap loaded into the brush. At your next opportunity, I would remove the soaking brush and give it 2 brisk shakes. The idea is to remove 80% of the water from the brush and leave it damp, but not wet. Soak the soap in water for a few minutes just like you do the brush. It won't hurt anything at all, and it will definitely help a soft badger to pick up more soap quicker. Dump the water from the soap mug immediately before you begin loading the brush. I agree with Mike. (SRNewb) Loading soap into the brush is separate process, and you should think of it just like that. Loading should be a combination of swirling, pumping, and push/pulling. All three of these actions should be done whilst applying moderate downward pressure on the brush. You won't hurt it at all. What you should look for when loading soap into the brush is a rather thick, creamy goo and not lather or bubbles. If you find that lather is building on top of the puck, you started with a brush that was too wet. You'll need to give that badger another brisk shake or two to get rid of the excess water. Van der Hagen (the deluxe type) is easily in my top 3 soaps of all time. It's just that good. The luxury soap is (in my opinion) quite a step down in quality. It can be made to lather well, but it's a chore compared to the cheaper deluxe. This was another strike against you when you started. It would be well worth your time, to invest some effort into making test lathers. (and I would use a bowl, not your face) Practice loading soap into the brush, then move to the bowl to build lather. You'll get valuable practice in each step of the process, and at the most it will cost you about $1.00. What you learn doing this however will save you much time if you shave each morning before work. And, I think it's just fun to work up that thick lather and smell the goodness! Give it go and tell us how you're doing! Best wishes and Happy Shaving!!
I practiced building lather a lot, and with every kind of soap in the house, not just shave soap! Ivory, pears, Irish spring, the foofy stuff that the wife got for Christmas 5 years ago, whatever I could get my hands on. Spend some time with your shave soap, and when you've got a good lather whipped up, spread some on your forearm to see how it goes on, put some between your thumb and fingers and feel the slickness, compare that when the lather is thin or when its thick. Whomever you share your bathroom with will think your nuts, and you'll be much better prepared to enjoy subsequent shaves.
Thanks again for the tips everybody. I spent some time practicing lathering with one of the freebie Classic Brand pucks saturday. Given the reviews I didn't expect a good lather out of the stuff (and it did not disappoint), but figuring out how to apply everyone's advice to get the best lather I could out of it helped immensely when I made my second attempt at shaving with shave soap yesterday. I still ran into a little trouble on the second and third passes, but I think that just comes down to finding the right amount of water and practice. That first pass lather was a thing of beauty, though.
Don't worry just practice and give it time...It took me a little while to get my first decent lather. Your doing fine soon you'll be an old pro..
