As time passes time runs faster on you, thus for a while I have been doing face lathering ... vs. bowl lathering. And I must say that face lathering can be quite tricky and deceiving sometimes: 1) I have been loading my brush quite thoroughly and applying the cream on my face until what looked like nice lather formed. But most of times the blade kept pulling, and I had no idea why ; until I checked the lather with my hand, and here's where I have been deceived - while the lather looked good, it actually was sitting right ON TOP of my beard not hydrating any hair/stubble (since the hair felt quite rough... but the lather looked really nice in the mirror !). 2) Thus, the way to solve this ... throttle the level of water and test with your (quite dry hand) the slickness of lather on your face ... when you feeling your stubble and the hand feels slippery on it -> then you know it's time to put the blade on your face. Did you have problems when going from bowl lathering to face lathering ? Hope this may be of some help to someone ... Good luck
I've never enjoyed face lathering, not that I get bad shaves face lathering I just find it messy and it's not any quicker than bowl lathering IMO..
I have a couple if times felt that the blade tuggs and doesn't slice off the stubble as I want. I at the moment thought it was bad prep. I'm gonna try this sometime. It might have been bad lather =)
I've been face lathering for years. Do you use circular motions or do you paint? Circular motions, I've found, are good for getting the lather deep to the skin. As you get more used to face lathering, you will get more in tuned with what a good lather looks like and how much water gets you to your nirvana.
Since I've made the switch over the FL side (face-latherers) this summer, I've come to really appreciate the appeal of this process. I found face lathering initially more challenging than bowl-lathering, and if your soap is temperamental, one can really struggle at first to match the dense lather from a bowl. I use vigorous circular motions under the chin, throat and jawline initially, and eventually paint it out across the cheeks, upper lip—until I have a thick even application across my mug. Boar brushes seem to excel at stimulating the skin as well as churning up good lather. Come the Winter Chill time, I may revert back to a scuttle. But in the meantime, I'm enjoying the cold-water face-lather shaves most mornings...
It is tough to get a good face lather with a very soft brush, I do prefer my brushes with a lot of backbone for face lathering. Like Kevin said with the boar and lots of vigorous circles. It works well for me.
Well said. What a way with words! You beat me to it. Couldn't say it any better. I will continue cold water shaves as long as I can though. (for now)
