I'm a rookie DE and ShaveCream user. I only use creams because of hard water and because I use Clinique facial soap in the shower. I find using a shave cream instead shave soap makes better lather and it feels better if I already washed my face in mild facial soap in the shower. Regarding the lather build up. I think it depends on the softness of the cream. My Castle Forbes and Fitjar is in the middle, Truefitt & Hill & Taylor is soft while DR Harris is extremely hard. I find softer shave creams easier to face lather and harder creams easier to bowl lather. I prefer face lathering because it at the same time exfoliates my face and I have better feel for the quality of the lather. Sometimes it hard to face lather with the more dense and stiff creams like i.e. DR Harris Marlborough Shavecream. What do you prefer and do you also feel it depends on the thickness of the ShaveCream ?
When you are bowl lathering these harder creams, are you putting a snurdle of cream in the lather bowl, or are you loading the brush from the cream container? I am thinking that if you load the brush from the container that it would not matter if the cream is hard or soft. Sort of like loading a brush from a soap puck...?
I do a bit of both as a matter of fact I use 2 tubes of Penhaligon ShaveCream and here I put two daps on each side of my cheek and one larger dap in the middle of my brush When the cream is in a tub I put two daps on each cheek and then load the brush directly in the cream tub. But with the stiff and thick DR Harris it's almost impossible to load the brush that way, the cream is THAT dense and thick.
I feel for you with the hard water.. i'm a spoiled brat who just went off to college to experience the horror of hard water and i'm still trying to figure out how to get a good shave. Thank goodness I left my good brushes and other goodies home. I'll save those for some nice soft water! I'm using Art of Shaving cream now and i'm getting OK results. I'll see if i find anything new.
So that's where you have been. Nice to see you around again. Now forget about us again and get your nose back in the books, it's important!
Just a small Update on my lather building. The hard water seems to make it more demanding to create that thick lather - but once I do the work I get a very thick dense lather cream, almost to the point where it's too dense and tough to wipe off the razor blade I find it harder to get the thick dense lather once I'm in to my second pass, but yesterday with my Fitjar Citrus Kick ShaveCream the lather I worker up for my second pass was even thicker than the lather I made for my first pass ! The Fitjar ShaveCream just works really great. I had a 4 day old beard and got a 99% BBS on my second pass, so decided to pass on the third pass Problem is with the hard water in Copenhagen - it takes me 4-5 minutes hard work and adding drops of water step by step - sort of just like making a nice sauce in the kitchen - if you add too much harm can be done and you need more cream, but once I have the patience I can really work up some vicious thick dense lather - but I can't do it in 2 minutes, neither in bowl nor by face lathering. If I spend less than the 4-5 minutes, my lather is thinner and not up to par with my beloved canned Sanex Shave Gel. BUT once I give it time, the 4-5 minutes, I make some ÜBERLATHER from this Fitjar ShaveCream that's out of this world thick, dense and moisturising Penhaligon is almost as good lather wise - Castle Forbes ShaveCream not quite as great, but very very close in my view. I don't feel the DR Harris & TOBS ShaveCream is in quite the same league. Truefitt & Hill Sandalwood and Ultimate ShaveCream is almost there...... What do you think - do you also spend 4-5 minutes per pass on making thick & dense ÜBERLATHER or can you do it in 2 ?
I too have hard water & can make 2 suggestions. I've done both, both have worked great, YMMV! 1. Buy a gallon of distilled water & make your lather with that. 2. Use more product AND more water. I, too, was adding water little by little. When I started out with more water I was able to get a great lather much faster. Good luck. Hard water STINKS!
Will probably just only use Shavecream when i Shave at night and have the extra 2 x 5 minutes to create the lather for 2 passes. In the morning it's Sanex Shave gel, which by the way is very very good, so no worries
