I've experimented here and there with lathering in a bowl. By this I mean, I load my few-times-shaken brush with a few swirls of soap or dispense an almond-sized dallop of cream into the bowl in which I'm going to whip up my lather. I then start mixing and mashing, and as the lather is invariably dry at this pt, I add a bit of water and proceed. I keep this up until I've created a rich lather. At this pt, is there any reason for swirling the brush on my face to get the lather on it, or should I just use painting motions? ... Ordinarily I face lather, which necessities brush swirling. With the bowl, though, I don't see a point to swirling - feel like painting is all that should be done. What do you guys say?
Both ways,painting and swirling would work.On my first past I used to swirl for at leats 30 seconds or more, and for the second and so on just a painting motion on 10 seconds.
I usually wind up painting the lather on. I typical use a Kent BK4, B&BE, or a custom which is similiar to the Kent. They are floppy enough that painting is usually the way I go. I am only bowl lathering about 20-30% time now. I use to do it all the time but realized face lathering was so easy and works great. I do however bowl lather all my creams.
+1. First pass I do ~ 1 minute of swirling to get the lather good and worked in. Subsequent passes it is a quick swirl to get the lather on the face, then spread it around in a painting motion.
The lather already made, I feel like the swirls are a waste. Another thing, don't you guys find it messy? My brush handle gets lather all over it. I somewhat like the concept but face-lathering is the way to go!
Swirl it if you wish. If not don't swirl. What ever floats your boat. As for swirling and getting lather on the brush handle. I gotta tell ya, the lather will not hurt the handle and the lather does come off easy with a whisk of a towel.
Teiste, do you always gloss over my SOTDs - I've more sticks than you! I know the lather doesn't hurt the brush handle; I just find it messy. I just don't see any benefits to bowl lathering...
K, if you just paint it on and not work it into your beard, like you do with a can, essentially the only reason then not to use a can would be because the freshly made lather is better than the canned, on any number of levels. Now when you use a can, do you find that a gel has certain benefits over a foam? Or that a dense foam is better than an airy foam? That's because it gets deeper into the beard and into your pores better. Same with a swirled in lather instead of a painted on one. If you're making a mess with the bowl try a shallower one; the English wooden bowls for example won't allow you to make as much of a mess (but you also can't bring as much water to the party as they are very shallow). A large deep bowl, for example, you can't help but get lather all over your brush, it's all on the sides of the bowl and such. best, Zach
Ditch the bowl. But if you insist on using it, I feel that swirling would provide better coverage than painting. But ditch the bowl.
Ya, I've only tried it a few times. It works but it's pointless when I can go straight to face with a brush holding hot-hot water.
Zach, great tip on the shallower bowl - for mess and for function. I felt like only doing painting motions because my brush was full of lather in its outer hairs. When I face-lather, my lather's concentrated in the inner regions of the brush, thereby necessitating the swirling - which I enjoy.
Face lathering doesn't quite work for me. I only shave my lip and chin areas, and that doesn't provide enough area to build a nice lather from. I could build the lather on my cheeks, but that would seem rather pointless, and I risk causing some irritation. With my new brush (that less prickly), it's not so much a problem, but I figure that since a bowl does the job, I should just stick to that. From the bowl to the face, I usually apply with a painting motion. I'm not too worried about exfoliation because I use a green clay mask regularly (every other day). Again, the conclusion appears to be YMMV.
Part of the reason behind using a shaving brush is to work the lather into the pores, along with the scrubbing motion of the bristles helping the beard to stand up. And that is time well spent, because it also gives the lather time to soften the beard for a better shave. You need to give the lather a couple of minutes to do it's work.
This brings up a question I have: Does face lathering actually have an advantage, in that the time the lather spends on the face prior to shaving is longer (in general) than when bowl lathering? It just seems like face lathering would result in better beard and skin conditioning, prior to the first pass, at least.
I think it does. You get 2-3 minutes of the lather on you face softening your beard, as opposed to 30-45 seconds of applying lather from a bowl. Just my opinion...
hear, hear the lather is thair to soften the beard open and smooth the skin and let the blade glide along the skin and cutting the softend bristle, the second pass yes i do paint it on as hopefully thair is less beard to move,
I use a big bowl. So after I've created a lather, I simply bury my face in it. So I get a full application in one swift motion. It's wonderful
