Lubrication at the contact between soft substrates is central to determining the sensory perception of foods and the performance of personal care products. Many food systems are modeled as aqueous hydrocolloid solutions such as polymers or polysaccharides, in that their soft lubrication behaviour is influenced not only by the viscosity of the bulk solution but also their adsorbing properties. Here, we systematically modified the structure of glycol chitosan (GC) by grafting with poly(2-(methylsulfinyl)ethyl acrylate) (PMSEA) of different molecular weights to form brush-like side chains, so that the different side chain lengths achieve an incremental change in the adsorption to the PDMS substrate. Polydopamine (PDA) was integrated into the GC-PMSEA to facilitate strong adsorption. While the systems of strongly-absorbing polymers show generally low friction across the range of speeds tested, the solutions of less absorbing polymer only demonstrate a reduction in friction at relatively high speeds and retain the behaviour of water-like fluids (distinct transition between boundary and mixed lubrication regimes, see Figure 1). This suggests that, in the fluid entrainment to the interfacial contact, the hydrodynamic condition (high shear rate) promotes the adsorption for the non- or weakly adsorbing polymers and increases viscosity in the localised area [1-2], making the transition to mixed lubrication occur at a lower speed. This investigation provides a mechanistic insight into the mutual interaction between soft lubrication systems and the adsorbing properties of polymers. The findings provide a framework for characterising the soft lubrication of hydrocolloids with applications to foods and synthetic bio-lubricants