Red herring: Soap brushes v. Shaving-cream brushes
I posted the following on wicked_edge, but it has not proved popular. I believe that the notion (that some brushes are soap brushes and some are shaving-cream brushes) is strongly embedded in some of the forums, in the “not to be questioned” category. If anyone knows a brush for which the claim is made that it cannot get a good lather from soap, I’d like to know.
Here’s what I posted:
A persistent but (in my opinion) wrong-headed belief is that some brushes work well for soaps but not so much for shaving creams, and some work well for shaving creams but not so much for soap.
So far as I can tell, any brush will work equally well (or badly) at shaving creams and soaps once you learn how to use the brush. That’s the tricky bit, of course, and it involves:
a. Making sure you are using sufficiently soft water
b. Loading the brush with sufficient soap or shaving cream
c. Working up a good lather (in bowl or on beard)
Shaving creams are easier to lather, I assume because of their formulation, and they may be less affected by the hardness of the water. But show me a brush that does a good job with shaving cream, and I will use that brush to get a good lather from shaving soap.
The common misconception is that a “soap brush” must be stiff and scrubby to scrape off enough soap (presumably the way the beard scrapes soap off a shave stick). Some even put water on top of the soap to help in this effort—so far as I can tell, a completely unnecessary step.
Obviously, getting a good lather from soap works better if the water is reasonably soft. You can test this by buying a gallon of distilled (aka “purified”) water at the drugstore (about $1, sold for use in steam irons, vaporizers, steamers, and the like) and using that for a shave. If your lather is noticeably better than usual, your tap water is probably hard and you might want to consider getting a water softener if your circumstances permit. (Water softeners that regenerate based on volume of water used rather than time work best and automatically accommodate temporary changes in water usage—as when you’re on vacation or when you have house guests. Twin-tank softeners provide uninterrupted soft water.)
Make sure the brush is sufficiently loaded: wet the brush (boar brushes require soaking immediately before use; synthetics, horsehair, and badger don’t), then rub the tips briskly over the soap for 30-60 seconds. For Creamy Lather, continue working the brush on the soap until the lather is fine-bubbled and thick; for Frugal Lather, stop loading the brush once the lather starts to form. In either case, continue working up the lather, in a bowl or on your beard.
“Soap brush” v. “Shaving-cream brush” is a false dichotomy. Examples of true dichotomies: “Good brushes” v. “Bad brushes” (actually those are extremes from a continuum); “Good lathering technique” v. “Bad lathering technique” (two points from another continuum).
That was the post. One comment talked about “subjectivity”, but of course the post is not on subjective matters. A subjective issue would be whether you like lather from a soap vs. a shaving cream—purely a matter of personal preference, and no one would deny that is subjective. OTOH, when one states that a given brush cannot generate a good lather from a shaving soap, the discussion has left the subjective realm and the statement can be submitted to objective testing. And if I can make a good lather using the brush on shaving soap, the statement is found to be false, not “subjective.”
I agree with you 100%. A stiffer bristle may pick up a little more soap and thus require perhaps less effort in working it up, but even the softest brush will do the same with a little extra effort and time. For me, bristle length, and stiffness are issues primarily related to how they feel on the skin, e.g. I prefer a scrubbier, more massaging brush than a ultra-soft luxurious one.
I gave up on forums a long time ago….right after the legendary Treet Black Beauty debacle.
Steve
16 August 2011 at 10:41 am
Yeah, that one was weird. But it did prove me that the idea (that how a shaver responds to a blade is unpredictable) is extremely difficult to internalize. But, oddly, my Wicked_Edge post on blades went over without a hitch. But the brushes apparently are a more sensitive topic.
LeisureGuy
16 August 2011 at 10:55 am
Shaving creams are easier to lather because they’re already in cream form; with soap, you eventually want to end up there (having cream) but must work to achieve that result.
Soap + water + work = cream for lather.
A scrubby brush logically will remove more soap faster than a soft or floppy brush; so, to some, this added speed means better, as Steve already stated.
I agree however that you can achieve great lather with any brush once you know the characteristics of that brush. If compensating for those characteristics annoys you, then you might call this a ‘bad soap brush’ and that might be true for you, but not for everyone, and therefore, not *the* truth.
Zach
16 August 2011 at 12:24 pm
The usual statement is along the lines of “this is not a good soap brush because when I use it with soap I never get good lather, but I don’t have that problem with cream [which, as you point out, is already halfway there], so this is a shaving-cream brush.” That is: the brush does not make good lather from soap.
But, as you point out, brushes don’t make lather, people do. And it turns out that the brush makes perfectly good lather from soap if good technique is used and the water is sufficiently soft. And the difference is not just time—I bet I get a good lather from MWF with an Omega puffy silvertip as fast as someone using the scrubbiest of brushes, with the proviso that “as fast as” means “within 10 seconds.”
LeisureGuy
16 August 2011 at 12:46 pm
It seems likely that people have stronger responses to claims about brushes than claims about blades, due to the financial considerations that attend learning a new brush. Someone may lay out $140 for a Thater, or more for a Rooney, Plisson or Kent and then find themselves frustrated that such a high grade brush isn’t an automatic upgrade to the lathering ritual. When my lather is substandard, I try first to identify where I neglected my technique. That said, I’ve found that I simply don’t care for horse as much as I do for boar. Based on that, I think it will be quite some time before I venture any money whatsoever on a badger. I’m sure they’re fine brushes, but I’d rather not frustrate myself now that I’ve got a working technique for a brush with lots of backbone.
Dirty Texan
16 August 2011 at 4:32 pm
@Dirty: Exactly right, and in the area of personal preferences regarding brush type (and allied technique), every man is the best judge of what’s right for him. But to worry about whether a particular brush is a soap brush or a shaving-cream brush is a waste of time.
Next week is my week of boar brushes, and I have quite a few from which to choose.
LeisureGuy
16 August 2011 at 5:05 pm
Maybe I am wrong but I notice that boar brushes work well with soaps and badger brushes are good for both soaps and creams. I never get good results with boar brushes and creams (maybe because of a bad technique….).
reynald p
16 August 2011 at 5:54 pm
Great article, my lather was hit and miss a few times then i found out our water is hard now i just use rainwater (in UK we have loads of the stuff) i was blaming soaps and brushes
Anonymous
16 August 2011 at 8:38 pm
I live in a town with very hard water. I put a pinch of baking soda or washing soda (sodium carbonate) in the basin of water that I make my lather with, it seems to help.
In the 40+ years that I’ve been shaving, I’ve never seen the need for a badger brush, but your enthusiasm for horse hair prompted me to order one last weekend.
N. Osmo King
16 August 2011 at 9:11 pm
It took me a while to realize what a good job my horsehair brushes were doing. I somehow didn’t expect it—unconscious acceptance of badger superiority, I imagine—so actual experience made slow headway against expectations. But I finally tumbled to the fact that the lather was really quite good when I used a horsehair brush, and it couldn’t always be coincidence.
LeisureGuy
17 August 2011 at 4:58 am
Great tip on the baking soda!
There is no substitute for experience!
Zach
17 August 2011 at 7:16 am
As a vendor if somebody wants to buy a soap brush & a cream brush i’m in hog heaven
BUT you are absolutely right. With a little patience & practice one can whip up a lovely lather with soap or cream with about any brush
the truth is out there
Hyperwarp
17 August 2011 at 7:52 am
And the funny thing is that, like many skills, patience is needed mainly while you’re learning. Once you know the technique, it doesn’t require patience because you know what you’re doing and where you are in the process. Plus, once you get the technique down, it’s really quite fast.
LeisureGuy
17 August 2011 at 8:00 am