by scottfieldstein


The purpose of shaving lather is to lubricate between a shaving blade and your skin. What I’ve found is, regardless of whether you’re using a shaving cream or soap, there’s a definite sweet spot you want to hit when mixing up your lather.

This spot obviously varies between soap/cream manufacturer but once you get it right for your particular brand you’ll know because, assuming your blade and razor choice is right, you’ll have the heavenliest shave experience of your life.

Let’s have a look at the factors that make up the ‘ingredients’ in creating a perfect wet shave lather:




How much shaving soap or cream to use

You shaving soap users have it rather lucky in this department as you don’t have to measure out your soap before mixing it with a brush. If you are using shaving soap and you find yourself falling on either side of the perfect lather scale, simply take your brush and swirl it around on the soap for some more lather goodness.

For shaving cream users like myself we need to be a little more precise. One morning a few weeks ago I was on more early morning auto-pilot then usual and came dangerously close to ruining a tub of shaving cream by swirling my wet shaving brush directly into the cream tub itself.

I only stopped myself literally with the brush centimeters away from the tub before I realised what I was doing!

When measuring out shaving cream, the idea is that after experimentation you want to be able to easily re-measure the correct amount without any fuss. For this reason I don’t recommend using the brush itself to ‘scoop’ out some shaving cream into a bowl.

A commonly recommended starting point is an ‘almond’ sized scoop of shaving cream. I found this was slightly too much cream but served well as a reference point. To measure I initially started off by just using one of my kitchen teaspoons but later switched over to a small plastic spoon from a jelly cup.

I’ve found the sweet spot for my current shaving cream, Taylor of Old Bond Street in the Sandalwood, that roughly half a spoonful is perfect for a great lather.

Of course depending on what cream you’re using and the size of the spoon you measure with your own amount to use will vary. What’s important here though is that once found, the right amount is easily reproducible. When I wake up half asleep and head into the bathroom I don’t even need to engage my brain, I know exactly how much cream to use and how to accurately measure it.

That’s basically what you should aim for when you’ve found the ‘right’ amount to use.




How much water to hold in the shaving brush?

The second largest ‘ingredient’ in making up a great shaving lather is the water held in the brush. Again, there’s kabillions of shaving brushes out there which will all hold varying degrees of water so I can’t emphasise enough the need to experiment.

Whilst experimenting with how much water to leave in the brush before mixing it’s a good idea to keep the amount of cream you’re using consistent. This way you’ve only got one variable in the mix.

The amount of water you leave in the brush directly affects your shaving lather in two directions.

Too much water means you’ll wind up with slimy lather that just runs off your face and drips everywhere.

Too little water and you’ll find that after applying the lather to your face, in 20 seconds or so you’ll stare in disbelief as it rapidly breaks down leaving nothing but a thin soapy residue behind.

Unlike measuring out shaving cream, the method for judging water in a brush is far less accurate. Personally I’ve found the best method (and arguably only method) is to ‘flick’ the brush back into the sink after you’ve filled it with water.

When I say flick don’t touch the bristles with your fingers but rather flick the brush whilst holding it by the handle bristles down towards the sink water and then up again. This way excess water freely is discarded.

I’ve found after saturating the bristles with water, two sharp flicks is all I need to leave the brush with the right amount of water to mix with the cream.

Mind you I use the Men-u Premier Synthetic shaving brush which has a reputation for holding a ridiculous amount of water. If you’re brush doesn’t hold lots of water (boar brushes or some of the lower end badgers) you mightn’t need to flick the brush at all, or at the very least only once gently.




How to tell you’ve hit that shaving lather sweet spot?

Apart from having a great shave there are some pre-shave checks you can do to see if your in the ballpark for great shaving lather or if you’re miles off.

Note that no matter how little or much shaving cream/soap you use it is still possible to create great lather. All that changes is the amount of water required. For this reason and I stress again that when experimenting with the brush water it’s important to keep the amount of cream used each time consistent.

If you do find yourself running out of lather before the shave is over, increase the amount of cream used slightly until you don’t run out and then continue with trying different amounts of brush water.


The finger test

One of the easiest things you can do to feel the differences in lather consistency before you shave is to simply pick some up between your forefinger and thumb and rub it gently. When rubbing the lather gently between your fingers,  you should find your fingers easily gliding from side to side.

If your fingers have friction you’re not using enough water in the mix.

If the lather feels too slimy and/or is dripping everywhere creating a mess, you’ve used too much water.

What you want is the smoothness of say a *ahem* personal lubricant but in a much lighter texture. Otherwise we’d all just run around pouring tubes of KY jelly all over our faces before a shave.


Bubbles

A good lather has little to no air bubbles in it and should have a texture leaning towards the thick side.

Even the thickest of lathers is still going to have tiny tiny little air bubbles in it but what you want to avoid are the larger easy to see air bubbles. Air doesn’t lubricate and if your lather is full of air pockets, when the razor glides over your skin these air pockets burst leaving nothing between the blade and your skin.

This then of course leads to irritation and red skin.

Note that when initially mixing your lather it is common to see bubbles and this doesn’t mean you’ve got the mixture wrong just yet. What I find is that these bubbles eventually dissapear after 30 seconds or so of twirling leaving a thick but soft lather.


Lather breaking down

I had this happen to me a few times while I was experimenting and whilst slimy drippy lather is a sign of too much water, a lather that breaks down and disintegrates into nothing is a sign of too little water.

The usual way you realise this is after applying lather to your face with your brush, about halfway through doing a pass on your face you notice the lather has practically disappeared from areas you haven’t shaved yet.

The other way is halfway through a shave you realise the lather in your bowl has mysteriously vanished.

If this happens the lather isn’t really salvageable and you’ll have to start again, or take the risk and finish up with what lather is left if you’re almost done shaving. Adding water to broken down lather doesn’t really do much except create more dilute broken down lather.

Note that another cause of lather breaking down can be the use of water that is too hot in a shaving scuttle. This is easy to diagnose as the lather will be fine on your face but broken down in your scuttle.


It’s a great feeling once you’ve got your lather mixture right and really adds to the wet shaving experience.

Whilst there’s fair bit of information to absorb, what you’ll find is after a few preps where you’re actually paying attention to the consistency of the lather itself you’ll soon learn what it is you’re looking for and what you’re trying to avoid.

Once you’ve hit that sweet spot (you’ll know) of lather mixing with your particular soap/cream it becomes even easier as you then know exactly what it is you’re aiming for.

As always, happy shaving!

Related posts that might interest you:

1. Proper Wet Shaving Preparation: How to do it fast
2. My first fortnight of double edged razor shaving
3. DIY: Making your own shaving scuttle for $20
4. The preservation of man: My first double edged razor shave
5. Shaving with a double-edged razor: Taking the plunge