Nothing beats a nice thick layer of shaving foam on your face
Many wet shavers swear by a nice thick and creamy layer of shaving foam on their face. Such a full lather on your cheeks just feels good and comfortable. The soft and warm foam caresses the skin. The dull soft thumping sound of your shaving brush and foam gives you a calming feeling. The released scents of your favorite shaving soap or shaving cream smell familiar. Then you hear the light rasping sound of the razor and feel the razor glide softly over your skin. After shaving, you are wonderfully smooth and fresh. For a brief moment, you have your own zen moment in the morning in front of the mirror.
Why is shaving foam good?
Your skin is simply not made to be shaved with a sharp razor. You need to protect your skin well. The fuller and greasier the shaving foam, the better. Beard hairs are the toughest hairs on a human. For some of us, these hairs are as tough as copper wires. To shave comfortably and smoothly, you first need to soften the beard hairs. The combination of shaving foam, warm water, shaving brush, and a little bit of time ensures that beard hairs become softer and softer. The longer you whip the shaving foam on your skin, the softer the beard hairs become. We recommend applying and lathering the shaving foam on your face for at least 1 minute. The softer the hairs, the smoother the shaving result.
A good shaving soap or shaving cream is packed with various nourishing or moisturizing fats and oils, such as Jojoba oil, Castor oil, Shea butter, and/or Argan oil. These ingredients nourish and care for your skin while shaving. This ultimately leads to less shaving irritation and a comfortable feeling after shaving.
Shaving foam retains water and stays on your skin. This allows beard hairs to soak up water and become softer. It also creates a protective film while shaving.
How do I make the perfect shaving foam?
For the perfect shaving foam, you obviously need a shaving soap or shaving cream plus lukewarm water, a shaving brush, and possibly a shaving bowl.
The warm water helps dissolve the shaving soap or shaving cream. You need the shaving brush to apply and whip up the shaving product. What we see with our customers is that one half applies the shaving foam directly to the skin. The other half first whips the shaving foam in a shaving bowl. Everyone has their own shaving ritual.
The preparation
First, wet the shaving brush with lukewarm water in advance. Optionally, place the shaving brush in a bowl of water. The hairs of the shaving brush soak up the water. Water is needed for your shaving foam. Make sure not to use too little or too much water in your brush. With too little water, your shaving foam dries up too quickly. If you use too much water, you get a too watery shaving foam.
Clean your face with a pH-neutral cleansing gel and wet it well with lukewarm water. Optionally, apply a preshave cream or oil beforehand for extra protection during shaving.
The next step is to lather the shaving product, apply it to the skin, and spread it over the area to be shaved.
Making shaving foam with shaving soap
Shaving soap has a hard composition. With shaving soap, you first need to swirl the shaving brush a few times in the shaving soap. This will create lather. Usually, the shaving soap starts to produce foam after 20-30 seconds. It can help to wet the hard shaving soap with a little water beforehand. This will slightly dissolve the soap. This makes lathering easier and faster.
If you have enough foam on your shaving brush, you can of course continue lathering in your shaving bowl or apply and lather directly on your face.
Making shaving foam with shaving cream
Unlike shaving soap, shaving cream has a soft or creamy composition. If you stir too vigorously with your shaving brush, you often use too much. And that is of course a waste. With a small amount of shaving cream, you often have enough for one shave. It’s better to dip the wet shaving brush into the shaving cream so that a little bit sticks to the bristles of the brush.
In recent years, we have seen that artisanal shaving creams are becoming increasingly popular. An important characteristic of these shaving creams is that they have a firm compact composition. They are not as hard as shaving soap but also not soft and creamy. With this type of shaving cream, it is best to swirl the shaving brush a few times to produce enough foam. Many artisanal shaving products usually come in a large pot with a considerable diameter.
Then you can continue lathering in your shaving bowl or apply and distribute it directly on your face.
Making and applying shaving foam
The longer you whip the shaving foam in your shaving bowl, the nicer and fuller the foam becomes. Our experience is that after 20 to 30 seconds, the foam becomes nice and thick and fluffy. At one point, it resembles whipped cream. If you apply the foam directly to your face, you will also notice that after a few seconds, the foam becomes thicker and thicker. Our advice is to apply and spread it over the face for at least 1 minute. This will give you a good distribution of the foam and make the beard hairs softer and softer.
A shaving brush made of badger or synthetic hair works best when you further lather the foam with a light tapping back-and-forth motion over the face. Optionally combined with a swirling motion. You can compare it a bit to the back-and-forth stroking of a paintbrush. Be careful not to press the shaving brush too flat against the face, as this is not good for the bristles of the shaving brush. A shaving brush with slightly stiffer boar bristles is best used with a swirling motion over the face. Back-and-forth stroking is a bit more difficult with this type of shaving brush.
Making shaving foam in a shaving bowl
We often receive the question: 'Do I need a shaving bowl?' Whether or not to use a shaving bowl is, of course, a personal choice. Some of our customers find it too much hassle. Others find a shaving bowl super handy.
The big advantage of a shaving bowl is that you can make a lot of foam with a little shaving product. Whipping up the shaving foam is easy and quick in a shaving bowl. After all, you always have enough foam at hand while shaving.
