I almost got a good lather the last time I tried to face lather, but I'm tired of trying to face lather - I can't get the slick and yogurty lather I get when I bowl lather.
As it happens, I stumbled across one of the many tutorials on this site after posting yesterday. It covered a lot of methods, including face lathering with a shave stick. A quite simple point it made was to get a really good volume of soap on your face. Really give it some coverage. So, I got out the humble Arko stick this morning, went to town on application, and produced a simply fabulous lather. I considered the following during my shave: a) Even with a relatively humble inventory of soaps/creams (about 7 items), I have enough software to shave every day for about three years without buying something more; b) I can get an Arko stick for about aquid; and c) Even with a serious effort to increase the amount of Arko soap on my face, you could barely tell that I’d used the stick. So, I’ve resolved to not spare the horses when lathering. Give it a decent dollop/load/snurl. Enjoy the shave. We’re talking about fractions of a penny here. Oh, I think filtered water helps as well, even on a face lather.
So, yesterday I tried face lather for the second time for real with a synthetic, only without shaving. Lather seemed much better than first time using the Bestshave boar but it only mimics my results when using a bowl - synthetic is just vastly superior and easier to use IMHO. Can't wait to try it out later today during a real shave.
I enjoy a face lather every morning. Microwave hard soap or press my Cella croap into my bowl. I soak my brush, then give it a good shake, swirl a healthy amount of soap on my brush and apply to face, dipping brush in water as needed till I have a nice lather. As for brushes I use either Horse Hair, Pure Badger or Boar. Cella likes the Horse Hair and Badger, Hard soaps like VDH likes the Boar.
Yep, I do that too. The only time I use a mug is when I'm beating this puck of Williams to death to get it to wake up. Other than that, it's pretty much all face, even though I do have a few bowls laying around. And yeah, old nylon bristles (which I no longer have) were fantastic for face lathering...nice and scrubby but whippy too. Come to think of it, I think we had a poll a few years ago and a surprisingly high number of guys said they face lather.
When I was just starting out and trying to do everything all at once Bowl lathering didn't work for me. Face lathering has a tendency to use more product or at least put it where I need it. Since then I set the OldSpice mug aside and have used a bowl with a texture inside. Check your local Asian Market, or online for a 5 inch suribachi bowl. Made to grind spices, it has fine ridges that help introducing air into the soap.
The only time I use a mug is when I'm beating this puck of Williams to death to get it to wake up. Years ago Williams was a great soap and gave a good easy lather, as of now I have to work it to death to get a decent lather but now I think I can get a better lather with my wife's Dove soap (witch is not bad in a pinch., when traveling)
I do both - bowl lather to get that really rich whip cream type lather then continue to face lather for the first pass. For the second and third pass I usually just paint the lather on. I never run out of lather doing this - no matter what soap I use.
Over a period of 40+ years of using soap and brush I have used every imaginable way of getting a lather on my whiskers. Bowl lathering is the one method I don't find particularly effective...unless I have a cream in a tub, like Simpson Shave Cream. But even with that cream I prefer to scoop out a small dollop, work it between my palms with a bit of water, slap it on, work it in with my fingers and then break out the brush and build a full lather. Bowl lathering just seems like a wasted step to me and it defeats the goal of really working the soap into my whiskers. 99% of the time I face lather with a brush. It provides me with the best lather. In years past, when I was pinching pennies or when I either lost my brush or my brush didn't have enough bristles to lather effectively, or if I was backpacking or travelling I would just rub a soap puck on my face directly and then work it in with my fingers until it was slick. Same with shave cream out of a tube. And if I didn't have a shave soap or cream I would use hand soap, shampoo or hair conditioner. Anything works really. Get creative!
The only time I bowl lather anymore is when I do a first lather with a new brush. Here's the one I did with JR#132.
