Thread: Shaving soap lasting lather

Hey all, my col conk lime shaving soap arrived today...i'm VERY new to straight razor shaving...not even a week yet, always manage to get myself a small nick every time...i'll learn one of these days that i'm not supposed to cut myself!

Anyways...soap arrived and just got in a shave with it, been shaving at night so i'm not rushed. Being the first time..it was definitely different. I had some issues getting a really thick lather, or when i did it seemed to 'disappear' as i was shaving the other side of my face. Do i just need to lather for longer, or is this normal. Didn't seem to be an issue as i'd just grab my brush, spin up some new lather and apply it. I'm coming from shaving cream in a can for the past 10+ years so if its just something i have to get used to then that's fine!

Thanks guys!

Hello mellman,

First, you may want to ask a mod to move this thread to the soap forum, where it will get the proper attention.

Anyway, usually when soap lather disappears on your face it means that the brush wasn't loaded with enough product and, of course, gets diluted even further when water is added. After soaking your brush shake out the excess water and load up your brush really well on the cake. It doesn't really matter whether you lather on your face or in a bowl, slowly add more water until the lather has a fluffy whipped cream consistency.

It may seem like a lot of work now, but trust me onece you get the hang of it you'll wonder why you used the canned goo for all those years.

Ryan hit the nail right on the head. I wholeheartedly concur with his diagnosis. Load your brush with more soap and ONLY add water drop wise and when needed. You will find that different soaps 'bloom" with different amounts of water. You need to find the sweet spot for each one you use.

Don't worry...just keep at it and I have a feeling by the time you finish reading 10 posts, your lather will be 100% better .

Thanks guys, i'll give it a shot, probably too much water now that I think about it..give it another go in the morning, even with all the nicks and new things to keep track of straight razor shaving is so much more enjoyable than my safety razors!

Cheers!

Some soaps just tend to built a thicker lather than others anyways.

I know when I first switched from "the can" I was kind of stressed out that the lather wasn't as thick as my old Barbasol. You *can* get lather that thick, and thicker, but you don't HAVE to in order to get a really good shave.

I'm trying to think of how to describe "thick enough". It's hard to do that, and it'll be a personal preference anyways.

So, if you're stressing out about it, don't. Get it thick enough you can't see skin or stubble through it, and go from there.

The biggest trick I've learned, that as helped on all 4 soaps I've tried (Yeah, I'm still a newb...but col. conk lime was one of those 4) is to get some hot water running and let it set in the cup for a little while. It'll soften the soap and makes it easier to "load" the brush.

Dig in and enjoy! ....er...the forum, not your face!

An easy little tip is build your lather to the point you think you have it right and then apply it to your face then go about stropping your razor or if you like having that done already wait a min or two. If when you look in the mirror again the lather has already started to go away/dry add just alittle more water to your mug and build the lather a bit more and you will probally be right on the sweet spot then. I find that most shave soaps will give you what looks like good thick usable lather before it is actually ready. I like to think of it as false lather, like the false dawn to every day.

It's all a matter of that soap to water ratio and experimenting and has been said soap are different and some lather quickly and easily and give copious rich lather and some are more difficult and give thiner lather.

I used the Conk Amber when I first started out. It was my move up from Williams and VDH and it was better but as I recall was still on the thin side.

I enjoy Crabtree and Evelyn soaps, but by the second pass they start to disappear and, if I persist, I get a rough shave.

If I add about an inch of Real Shaving Co. cream (it comes out very thin, so it's not much) at the start, I get a great, thick, luxurious lather -- enough for 4 shaves.

Some might call this cheating, others "superlathering." But it is the catholicon for soaps without the legs to carry it through a shave, I find.

Any cream works, BTW.