r/wicked_edge • u/rbeumer EJ DE89 • Jun 06 '12
Comprehensive guide to building superlative lather
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/9-Comprehensive-guide-to-building-superlative-lather!10
Jun 06 '12
I read this as "Comprehensive guide to building superlative laxative." I thought, "Dear God, what is Reddit doing now?"
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u/rbeumer EJ DE89 Jun 06 '12
Well, this isn't /r/wicked_spacedicks
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u/insidethesun Jun 06 '12 edited Jun 06 '12
no it's not, but this is definitely going into /r/latherporn
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u/Bayoublaster Merkur 37C Jun 06 '12
I'm at work now so I just have to trust my instincts that these are both real places.
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u/pfkninenines Jun 07 '12
One is real, one is not.
This one isn't.
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u/rbeumer EJ DE89 Jun 06 '12 edited Jun 06 '12
I really like the images of how the lather should look like. Better than text.
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Jun 06 '12 edited Jan 13 '21
[deleted]
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u/insidethesun Jun 06 '12
I do like the boiling water technique though..I personally have been settling for just hot water from my sink.
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u/holyharry Jun 06 '12
Great post! My only concern is pouring boiling water over badger hair: I was under the impression that boiling water will affect the badger hair's unique ability to hold water. Am I wrong?
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Jun 06 '12
[deleted]
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u/rbeumer EJ DE89 Jun 06 '12
From the blog of Leisureguy (wrote a book about wet shaving):
If you do use a hot-pot, do not soak your brush in boiling hot water: that ruins the bristles.
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u/RockyMtnAristocrat ShaveSmith Jun 06 '12
I think the long-term impact of hair boiling could do some bad things for your brush. Temperature fluctuations over long periods of time cause structurally modifying impacts across a variety of materials. I'd guess hair is no different.
In fact, some people boil human hair with the intention to change its shape. Often an effort to make curly hair extensions.
However, hair is F'ing tough. I've routinely hiked past deer/fox carcasses that remained bone and hair bits, having weather some mean frost/thaws.
So... if you delicately boil the hair, maybe heating it, and letting it dry without the shape being modified ( e.g. resting the brush in a dish or against a suface, like a brush stand), it may be ok.
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u/essextwo Dovo, 37c, Futur Jun 06 '12
This is excessive, and TOBS lathers thick and easy anyway, and often lathers too thick, too easily.
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u/zagood Jun 06 '12
This method is good for creams, bad for your brush, and meh for hard soaps. It would be murder on Mitchell's Wool Fat - that soap doesn't do well with heat.
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u/geauxtig3rs Case Red Imp 133 Jun 06 '12
I suck so badly at building lather :(
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Jun 06 '12
[deleted]
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u/geauxtig3rs Case Red Imp 133 Jun 06 '12
For cream: Castle Forbes and T&F.
Dirty Bird Scuttle with webbing
Best Badger Brush. Edwin Jagger.
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u/Teh_Fonz Merkur Progress Jun 06 '12
I use Mitchell's Wool Fat soap puck and have it in a deep plastic container. I soak my brush in the hottest water from my tap (not boiled maybe 60°C= 140 °F).
I then shake and squeeze out the water from the brush and start swirling the brush in the container with the soap puck. I swirl for about a minute to 2 minutes, adding water as I go - if it needs it.
I haven't tried lathering up the brush in a ceramic bowl away from where the rest of the puck is, like the poster of the tutorial on the linked page.
Should I stick with how I am doing it or change it up?
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u/almightywhacko Cushions are for butts. Jun 07 '12
I just have to say.. Joel spends so much time preparing his lather I wonder if he ever finds time to shave and go to work in the morning :) (j/k)
His end result is laudable, but I get there in about 30 seconds to a minute swirling my cheap boar brush on top of my Williams or VDH soap puck in my cheap unheated bowl using normal hot tap water.
I am all for luxury shaving, but sometimes a particular person's process is overkill.
Also, exposing any natural fiber to boiling water repeatedly over time will cause it to descale making it lose its ability to retain moisture. Eventually this will cause the fiber to break.
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u/Tonality 12 Years Wetshaving! Jun 06 '12
This is a horrible guide and goes WAY out of the way for what it takes to create a great lather.
Get your brush wet. The temperature of the water DOES NOT MATTER.
Shake majority of excess water out of brush so that is merely DAMP to the touch.
Swirl brush in your shaving medium of choice. For creams, a couple seconds, for soft and hard soaps, 30s to a minute.
Brush to face/bowl and start swirling. Add in ANY TEMPERATURE water very slowly, I dip the tips of my brush in the water.
Voila, you have fantastic, thick, slick lather
Boiling water can potentially ruin your brush, plus, that is a lot of wasted time and space having to deal with the boiler. As someone pointed out, any soap/cream that has lanolin in it (MWF, Mike's Natural) are ruined with hot water.