For the life of me, I just cannot seem to get the hang of bowl lathering.... I've tried creams, and soaps, I've tried boar, amd badgers, I've tried holding the bowl upside down and even thought about standing on one leg to see if I can make it work. I typically just go straight to a face lather, but would like to learn how to face lather. So any and all advice is welcome and appreciated.
For me the big difference was finding a bowl large enough to comfortably lather in that had some ridges to help create air pockets. The difference between this type of bowl and a smooth one are substantial. For me, generally after 10 or so swirls I knock the built up lather back to the bottom and start over. Depending on the soap I will usually do this 4-7 times. Another thing I do is after lathering my face I'll barely run the brush tips under the running water and place the brush back in my bowl. This step adds a little water allowing the lather to not dry out. You'll need to experiment with this but it really made a difference for me. Good luck!
Start with more product on the brush than you think you need. Think double. Start swirling in your bowl, I leave my faucet trickling and will pass the brush under it then swirl some more. This adds water slowly to the mix and allows good control. When the lather becomes the glossy, meringue, whipped peak lather you are looking for you can get to shaving. You can whittle back the amount of soap/cream as you figure out how much a double loaded brush will explode into. In the beginning I found it best to have more lather than to have to reload.
when you figure it out it will become like second nature. ARGH post above pointed out a good method to try. I love bowl lathering, like it better than face lathering myself. Believe it or not a good lather bowl is also nice (not to deep of sides and some agitation bumps or lines help) this just helps makes things go well. Happy Shaves All, Bill G
What size, shape, texture is your bowl? Many artisan custom ceramic bowls have ridges or bumps inside. I found a suribachi bowl at my local Asian market. It's meant to be used to grind spices. Fine ridges do a wonderful job of introducing air into the wet soap. Sometime the answer is to use more soap.
Purchased on esty.com from www.etsy.com/shop/symmetricalpottery. I hope this helps, when you get there just put in the search lather bowl or lather bowls. All types of different custom bowls will come up to look at. Happy Shaves, Bill G
I'm going to revisit bowl lathering at some point but face lathering works so well I not sure I need another step.
I started by face lathering. As my equipment began to fill in I acquired several mugs. Kind of disappointed with OS mugs. Everyone wants one, but they don't work up a good lather for me. My best unit is a textured bowl and it does very well. I've found that I like to load my brush and face lather while I've got stubble. For second and third passes my beard reduction is enough that I get better lather in a bowl. So I face lather, then I go back to a bowl for the next two. Humm?
I agree with this, but OS mugs are great for storing pucks. The newer OS mugs fit the OS pucks and the earlier OS mugs fit the Arko pucks. Soap up the brush, transfer to a dimpled bowl and you have nice lather. Greg W.
If I had a SWMBO, she's be cranky about me mashing samples into all the little bowls. So OS mugs are good for that. Living in a southern state, and a swampy one at that I've been putting my soaps in containers with lids. I hate to loose soap when scraping a dead bug out.
Everything said above plus IMV you don't need anything fancy. This salad or dog bowl came from the thrift store for a buck. I put a sheet rock knife to the bottom of the bowl to help with agitation. Of course some soaps seems to be easier than others but I think patience is the key. Don't be in a hurry and add water slowly. It's easier to add water than soap. Have you tried watching a video? Sometimes it's easier to watch someone do it rather than to read how to. I'm pretty much a Stirling guy but one other soap that I do use that I find real easy to mix is Route 66. If you can face lather you can bowl lather. It's like learning how to ride a bike. Just keeps trying and wham! You'll just get it. Then you'll wonder what all the fuss was about.
