Nothing beats a lot of shaving foam on your face
Many wet shavers swear by a nice thick, full, and creamy layer of shaving foam on the face. Such a full foam collar on your cheeks just feels good and comfortable. The soft and warm foam caresses the skin. The dull, soft, tapping sound of your shaving brush and foam gives you a calm feeling. The released scents of your favorite shaving soap or cream smell familiar. Then you hear the light rasping sound of the razor, and you feel the razor glide softly over your skin. After shaving, you are wonderfully smooth and fresh. For a 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 the skin well. The fuller and richer the shaving foam, the better. Beard hairs are the toughest hairs on a person. For some of us, these hairs are as hard as copper wires. For a comfortable and smooth shave, 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 the face for at least 1 minute. The softer the hairs, the smoother the shave.
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 during shaving. This ultimately results in less shaving irritation and a comfortable feeling after shaving.
Shaving foam retains water and stays on your skin. This ensures that beard hairs have time to soak up water and become softer. It also provides a protective film during shaving.
How do I make the perfect shaving foam?
For the perfect shaving foam, of course, you need a shaving soap or shaving cream plus lukewarm water, a shaving brush, and optionally a shaving bowl.
The warm water ensures that the shaving soap or shaving cream dissolves. You need a shaving brush to apply and foam up the shaving product. What we see with our customers is that half apply the shaving foam directly to the skin. The other half first whip up the shaving foam in a shaving bowl. Everyone has their own shaving ritual.
The preparation
First, wet the shaving brush with lukewarm water beforehand. Optionally, place the shaving brush in a bowl of water. The hairs of the shaving brush soak up water. You need water for your shaving foam. Make sure you don't put too little or too much water in your brush. With too little water, your shaving foam dries 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 thoroughly with lukewarm water. Optionally, apply a preshave cream or oil before shaving for extra protection during shaving.
The next step is to foam up the shaving product, apply it to the skin, and spread it over the area to be shaved.
Making shaving foam with shaving soap
A shaving soap has a hard composition. With a shaving soap, you first need to swirl the shaving brush vigorously a few times in the shaving soap. This causes it to foam. Usually, the shaving soap starts producing foam after 20-30 seconds. It can sometimes help to wet the hard shaving soap with a little water before shaving. This causes the soap to start dissolving slightly. This facilitates and speeds up the foaming.
If you have enough foam on your shaving brush, you can of course further lather it in your shaving bowl or apply and lather it directly on your face.
Making shaving foam with shaving cream
A shaving cream, unlike shaving soap, has a soft or creamy texture. If you stir vigorously here 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 is better to dip the wet shaving brush into the shaving cream so that a small amount sticks to the hairs of the brush.
In recent years, we have seen that artisanal shaving creams are becoming increasingly popular. An important visual characteristic of these shaving creams is that they have a firm compact texture. They are not as hard as shaving soap but also not soft and creamy. With this type of shaving cream, it is best to rotate the shaving brush a few times to produce enough foam. Many artisanal shaving products usually come in a large jar with a considerable diameter.
Then you can further lather it in your shaving bowl or apply and spread it directly on the 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 nicely thick and lumpy. At some point, it even resembles whipped cream. If you apply the foam directly to the face, you will also notice that after a few seconds the foam gets thicker and thicker. Our advice is to apply and spread for at least 1 minute. This ensures a good distribution of the foam and the beard hairs become softer and softer.
A shaving brush made of badger or synthetic hair works best if you further lather the foam with a light tapping back-and-forth stroking motion over the face. Possibly combined with a circular 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 on the face because that is not good for the hairs of the shaving brush. A shaving brush with slightly stiffer pig hairs is best used with a circular 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 regularly get 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 great advantage of a shaving bowl is that you can make a lot of foam with little shaving product. Creating the shaving foam is easy and smooth in a shaving bowl. After all, you always have enough foam at hand while shaving.
