Ive been conducting an experiment for the past few days to try to improve my prep. Bearing in mind Kyles prep instructions [URL="http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=9745"][/URL]
and my own experience using AOS cream without a brush, I tried the following:
1. After washing my face and holding a warm wet towel to it for a minute I apply a layer of shave cream and work it in with my wet fingers. I let that sit while I work up some lather in a bowl (Ive been building lather directly on my face the past few months). I then wash off the layer of cream and apply the lather, working it around with my brush. Wait another minute, then shave.
Id forgotten how luxurious to apply a lather built in a bowl is, though Im not sure it works any better for shaving than a lather built directly on my face. I did find that AOS unscented cream worked better than some recently acquired ToBS almond. To be fair, I only tried the ToBS this way once; using more of it might make a difference.
2. It occurred to me that since I already had a fair bit of cream on my face perhaps I could just use a wet brush to build that cream into a lather instead of washing it off and applying lather from a bowl. I tried that today. As a means to distribute water and cream around the bathroom this technique worked pretty well. Much better, in fact, than for lathering, at which it earned a failing grade.
End of experiment. I proceeded to build some lather in a bowl, wash off my face, lather up and shave.
Im not sure why I got this result, but feel no pressing need to repeat this experiment even a second time
.
and my own experience using AOS cream without a brush, I tried the following:
1. After washing my face and holding a warm wet towel to it for a minute I apply a layer of shave cream and work it in with my wet fingers. I let that sit while I work up some lather in a bowl (Ive been building lather directly on my face the past few months). I then wash off the layer of cream and apply the lather, working it around with my brush. Wait another minute, then shave.
Id forgotten how luxurious to apply a lather built in a bowl is, though Im not sure it works any better for shaving than a lather built directly on my face. I did find that AOS unscented cream worked better than some recently acquired ToBS almond. To be fair, I only tried the ToBS this way once; using more of it might make a difference.
2. It occurred to me that since I already had a fair bit of cream on my face perhaps I could just use a wet brush to build that cream into a lather instead of washing it off and applying lather from a bowl. I tried that today. As a means to distribute water and cream around the bathroom this technique worked pretty well. Much better, in fact, than for lathering, at which it earned a failing grade.
End of experiment. I proceeded to build some lather in a bowl, wash off my face, lather up and shave.Im not sure why I got this result, but feel no pressing need to repeat this experiment even a second time
.
