Ok, I'm looking for some of you that are considered more experienced at lathering to try something totally different. I'm asking for a week of shaves (or longer) if you'd like to try something that I believe to be completely new. I need more than just one shave trying this because it's going to take you a few shaves to get used to the lather as it basically goes against everything you've been taught. It's a struggle to get the lather dry enough and to resist the temptation to add water and lather it.
I've been speaking with Marco at PannaCrema discussing various lathering techniques and he asked me to try something. It was familiar because I've done this before by mistake. I remember when I started shaving and had a lather that was way too dry. I shaved with it anyway on the first pass however, I adjusted the lather (added water) for the next pass changing the lather to a more traditional state and carried on with my shave. I remembered the shave to be excellent and figured I'd gotten away with something on the first pass. Marco at PannaCrema had been messing with this as well and challenged me to use this type of lather for all my passes. I've been really impressed with the results so far.
So here's what it comes down too. With our current methods we take some shave soap which is inherently protective and pack it with a ton of water and air. Basically fluffing it into a completely different state. The question is... what if we don't pack all of that air into it and water it down so much? I suspect that this fluffy wet lather is the way it is due to it's role in straight razor shaving but what if there's a better way? Possibly a better lather for de shaving?
I've been trying this for the past couple weeks and getting excellent results. I'm challenging you to do the same and report here about your experience after trying it several times. I haven't tried this with a straight razor (I'm not sure that would go quite as well) but I know it works well with a DE razor as well as a single edge razor.
Here's what I've been doing...
I've been taking my brush after soaking it and shaking just about all of the water out of it. There's not much water left in the brush at all. I've then taken that brush to the soap to collect as much soap as I can with the dryer brush. I usually end up with a thick paste like soap covering the bottom 3/4 of an inch of the bristles. This soap contains no air and very little water. The thick gel like paste is then brushed onto my face for the first pass. I wet my face but as I brush the soap on it doesn't turn into a traditional lather but more of a thick dry soap like gel. If you have too much water you won't get this. In looking at this on my face I wouldn't suspect I'd get a decent shave from it. However the results of the pass are outstanding. As I prepare for the second pass I wet my face and apply more soap from the brush getting the same dryer non fluffy lather. The results after the second pass are a near bbs shave. Pretty much a two pass bbs shave every time. With the same razor and a fluffy lather I have way more touch up to do to get to the same point.
I've been adding a third pass for touch ups (mostly just one area on my lower right jawline) but I've been getting exceptional shaves even with some milder razors that wouldn't usually perform as well without some touch up.
This method is giving me some of the very best shaves I've ever had and making some of my razors more efficient. I do recall after trying this method with each of my razors thinking that that's the best shave that razor has ever given me. The after shave face feel is a bit better than normal as well.
I've tried this for the past two weeks with 4 different razors (BBS-1, ATT M1, Mongoose and Gillette Fatboy) and about 14 different soaps. Some soaps work better than others but I've found this to turn a good soap into a great soap and a great soap into an exceptional one. I did try a couple soaps that I wouldn't normally use and the results were better, but my standards are high so it didn't make a really poor soap acceptable for me.
I even got some really nice results from Nancy Boy Signature cream by doubling the amount of cream and using a really dry brush.
This goes against everything that we've been told a great lather is, you'll likely use a bit more soap, there will be no great lather pics and this is far from glamorous, however the proof is in the shave and I'm finding the results to be outstanding.
If you're up to it please give it a go and share your results after a few shaves.
I've been speaking with Marco at PannaCrema discussing various lathering techniques and he asked me to try something. It was familiar because I've done this before by mistake. I remember when I started shaving and had a lather that was way too dry. I shaved with it anyway on the first pass however, I adjusted the lather (added water) for the next pass changing the lather to a more traditional state and carried on with my shave. I remembered the shave to be excellent and figured I'd gotten away with something on the first pass. Marco at PannaCrema had been messing with this as well and challenged me to use this type of lather for all my passes. I've been really impressed with the results so far.
So here's what it comes down too. With our current methods we take some shave soap which is inherently protective and pack it with a ton of water and air. Basically fluffing it into a completely different state. The question is... what if we don't pack all of that air into it and water it down so much? I suspect that this fluffy wet lather is the way it is due to it's role in straight razor shaving but what if there's a better way? Possibly a better lather for de shaving?
I've been trying this for the past couple weeks and getting excellent results. I'm challenging you to do the same and report here about your experience after trying it several times. I haven't tried this with a straight razor (I'm not sure that would go quite as well) but I know it works well with a DE razor as well as a single edge razor.
Here's what I've been doing...
I've been taking my brush after soaking it and shaking just about all of the water out of it. There's not much water left in the brush at all. I've then taken that brush to the soap to collect as much soap as I can with the dryer brush. I usually end up with a thick paste like soap covering the bottom 3/4 of an inch of the bristles. This soap contains no air and very little water. The thick gel like paste is then brushed onto my face for the first pass. I wet my face but as I brush the soap on it doesn't turn into a traditional lather but more of a thick dry soap like gel. If you have too much water you won't get this. In looking at this on my face I wouldn't suspect I'd get a decent shave from it. However the results of the pass are outstanding. As I prepare for the second pass I wet my face and apply more soap from the brush getting the same dryer non fluffy lather. The results after the second pass are a near bbs shave. Pretty much a two pass bbs shave every time. With the same razor and a fluffy lather I have way more touch up to do to get to the same point.
I've been adding a third pass for touch ups (mostly just one area on my lower right jawline) but I've been getting exceptional shaves even with some milder razors that wouldn't usually perform as well without some touch up.
This method is giving me some of the very best shaves I've ever had and making some of my razors more efficient. I do recall after trying this method with each of my razors thinking that that's the best shave that razor has ever given me. The after shave face feel is a bit better than normal as well.
I've tried this for the past two weeks with 4 different razors (BBS-1, ATT M1, Mongoose and Gillette Fatboy) and about 14 different soaps. Some soaps work better than others but I've found this to turn a good soap into a great soap and a great soap into an exceptional one. I did try a couple soaps that I wouldn't normally use and the results were better, but my standards are high so it didn't make a really poor soap acceptable for me.
I even got some really nice results from Nancy Boy Signature cream by doubling the amount of cream and using a really dry brush.
This goes against everything that we've been told a great lather is, you'll likely use a bit more soap, there will be no great lather pics and this is far from glamorous, however the proof is in the shave and I'm finding the results to be outstanding.
If you're up to it please give it a go and share your results after a few shaves.
A lather experiment - I need some experienced DE shavers to give this a try
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