Face Lathering Week 1/21-1/27

VDH soap with my Redleaf badger.
Still not impressed. I do notice I'm using much less soap.

 

Still same amount of lather from the Arko stick today. Ok shave but nothing spectacular. The Arko is certainly no "lather bomb" for me, at least not when I face lather with it. Tomorrow I'm going to try and bowl lather the Arko and see what happens......

 

Man...today I held the Arko Stick under hot running water for maybe a minute...after splashing hot water on my whiskers for close to a minute I rubbed the stick in a tight little circular motion on my whiskers....I did this til my whole whisker area was white with soap...Then I held my Omega Baby-Pro under hot running water for maybe 20 seconds...shook it and hit my face scrubbing with it...Boom!! maybe I loaded too much soap on my whiskers....I added more water to my brush and the lather was almost out of control...ha,ha,ha....I have a vision like from a Chaplin movie of my wife opening the bathroom door and a mountain of lather flowing out with me sliding out in the middle of it..!!

Obviously this is YMMV...and I probably did load way too much soap, but man...I had a great time...followed by a 2 pass BBS...
I will say...the process took me noticeably longer than when I bowl lather...but I did enjoy it...I had more than enough lather in the brush for 3 passes, but when it came time for my second lathering, the lather was cold....hmmm...maybe its time for a scuttle in my immediate future...

 

Mikes Natural Soap and the Merkur Futur brush.
Not a bad combo for a second timer, although it got a little runny on the second and third pass.

 

I guess it was Sunday, I tried face lathering with VDH and it was incredible. Probably the best lather I've ever had. Today, not so much. It went right from too thick to runny after I dipped my brush tips in the water. Oh well, I'm going to blame it on a shortage of sleep and try it again tomorrow.

 

Face lathered today using Arko Citrus.

 

Monday: SOC & Proraso Green
Tuesday: SOC & RazoRock Chianti Laveder

 

Tried bowl lathering the Arko today pretty much the same results as yesterday. My man Bird Lives has given me some pointers I'm going to use tomorrow. I still have hopes.. I'm hoping it's using the stick thats messing me up as opposed to a puck. Oh well Time,Technique,Practice and Patience will see me through....

 

Face lathered with VDH again today. Didn't get the lather explosion I got the first time but still better than yesterday. Just a little more water left in the brush I think will get me there again though. I guess the good thing about beginner's luck is you know that great result is possible. The bad thing is it's harder than you thought to get consistently.

 

The Fat/DB Brush Scuttle/Rooney Stubby 3xl

 

Mon: Face lather CO Bigelow cream with my tweezerman brush
Tues: Face lather arko pressed into a bowl with the tweezerman
Wed: Face lathered some new RR Don Marco with my brand spanking new spec Proraso brush. *sigh* I'm in love.

With soaps, I always use a super wet brush and build and build on the soap until the watery stuff builds into a creamier lather then work it the rest of the way on my face. Creams I just rub into my beard and work them with the brush.

 

Wednesday - Vulfix 406, The Burlington, and TSD SOTQ C2 Indonesian Teakwood.
Still not seeing what the fuss is all about. May resort to the bowl tomorrow.

 

Hump day.
Palmolive stick & Omega travel boar. Hmmmm!

 

Got my new haul. The Chubby has been behaving and put my faith back in Simpsons, so in all honesty I'm hoping this Muhle STF will not be enjoyable, but I have a feeling it will be wonderful and leave me with more issues :/

 

Face lathered with the Omega Boar and Proraso sandalwood. I guess I wasn't expecting how much lather and product the Boar was gonna soak up but there was barely enough for 2 passes. Had to reload it for a third pass. It might have something to go with it not being broken in since its been sitting neglected while its Badger brothers are hogging (pun intended) the limelight.

 

Thursday

Rooney Heritage Stubby 3xl/DB Brush Scuttle/La Toja Stick

 

I tried doing it a little more like this today and got a great lather from VDH Deluxe. I've been using my '52 Super Speed for about a week now and I'm really enjoying it. Still not sure I'll become a permanent face-latherer but it's been fun to try and I'm sure I'll do it once in a while at least.

I like the theme weeks. They're a great nudge to try something new. I'm going to try to participate in as many of them as I can.

 

Well my Muhle Synthetic impressed me today but I have to be honest - I'm missing my scuttle a lot. Hopefully I can make it to Sunday without not using it.

 

As I often encourage, "It's your shave. Enjoy it your way."
I took my own advice today. I honestly do not enjoy face lathering, so I pulled out the bowl, grabbed my 24mm silvertip set in red mallee burl, picked up the TSD Leather soap, and loaded up.
I took what I had gathered and proceeded to the bowl. I was rewarded with enough creamy lather for 5-6 passes.

Yes - I enjoyed my shave immensely!!