What Are the Best Ways to Lather Soap?

Whether a person is using shaving soap, body wash, or bar soap, there seems to be one common quality everyone loves: lather. It is luxurious, feels good on the skin, and helps a person feel as if they’re really getting clean. When shaving, knowing how to lather soap is necessary to help lubricate the skin and prevent cuts. In the shower, lathering soap can be a form of pampering oneself. There are several lathering techniques that can be applied to different kinds of soaps to ensure a nice, thick, silky lather almost every time.

Many men and women view shaving soap as one of the most difficult soaps to lather. It usually comes in the form of a flat, round cake that must be applied with a brush. The brushes typically look like large, fat paintbrushes. One of the keys to being able to lather soap for shaving is having a wet brush. The brush should be saturated with warm water and then gently squeezed between the fingers and thumb. After squeezing, it should still be thoroughly wet but not dripping.

The next step when trying to lather soap for shaving involves pressing the tips of the bristles down against the soap cake and moving them in a circular motion. When the brush is fully loaded with soap, it should be white and feel heavy in the hand. Men may then rub the loaded brush over the face and chin, while women can apply the soap from the ankles upward. The brush may need to be reloaded to coat the entire area to be shaved.

After the area is coated with shaving soap, the person should soak the brush again and rub it in a clockwise motion all over his or her soapy skin. The additional water should create a thick, foamy lather all over soaped area. Women may want to lather soap this way in stages, while men can generally lather their entire face at once because it is a smaller area.

Bathing soap, be it body wash or bar soap, typically produces lather with a simple technique. This usually involves adding some soap to a wet washcloth, pouf, or bathing brush. For body wash, users should squirt a coin-sized dollop onto the accessory. Those using bar soap should wrap it in the washcloth and rub it vigorously between the sides of the cloth, or rub it onto the pouf or brush. When the soap is spread evenly over the accessory, users should add a little more water, and rub the accessory to make bubbles. Knowing how to lather soap in this way should help produce enough suds to cover most of the body without adding more soap to the cloth, pouf, or brush.