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Bowl lathering vs Face lathering

Alacrity59

Wanting for wisdom
Two pages in . . . I don't think we have been privy to the brand of soap you are using. There certainly differences. Did you ever try Proraso? For me, and I'm holding up the shield because I'm going get rocks, it is a gold standard.

We all live in different places have different levels of water hardness etc. I like what you said about trying different things. That really is a part of the fun.
 
very interesting, I will try
Whiskers are stiffer than copper wire, and short which adds to the stiffness. I don't believe long soft badger hair lifts or lays them down. What they do is work moisture into the whiskers causing them to swell up thereby becoming less dense.
It seems to me.
 
That is very good lather. It might be a issue of how much time the lather is on your face. Perhaps try Kyle's prep. I'm not quite as obsessive but really the idea is to let moisture get into your whiskers so that your razor can more easily cut them.

Link here

Also Ackvil mentions Noxzema in that thread. That to me feels so so nice.

The barber I mentioned used a product that looked like Noxzema. It came in a jar and he would massage it onto your face and neck. A barber I went to as a teenager would put his mixture of a pre-shave oil on a customer's face and neck and rub that in.
 
Two pages in . . . I don't think we have been privy to the brand of soap you are using. There certainly differences. Did you ever try Proraso? For me, and I'm holding up the shield because I'm going get rocks, it is a gold standard.
We all live in different places have different levels of water hardness etc. I like what you said about trying different things. That really is a part of the fun.
IMG_1923 (1).jpg


These are soaps that perform very well for my beard growth. Funny that you mention Proraso, it was my very first soap when I started wet shaving :) It's a soap that I always will have in my collection and it is the soap I return to when I need to be reminded how it was first time i started with DE safety razor. Proraso White is a bit difficult to describe but for me, it is a lovely mild and clean scent that cools the skin, especially at the 2nd pass.

The soaps that surprise me are the red little devils "Arko" and "La Toja" Fantastic performance and a nice smoothness. Using the stick on the face and painting with the brush before i start massaging ... boom and the soap explodes in a short time.
There are so many good soaps that perform really well, but if there is one that might stand out a little extra, it must be Stirling Deep Blue Sea. It gives an incredible yogurt performance and it's very slick. It's the soap I used from the bowl latherin-picture on the first page.

I just wish I could get an equally amazing feeling with bowl lathering as I get with face lathering:)
 

Alacrity59

Wanting for wisdom
I like Arko too. I bought a 12 pack and parked it out of smell range for a while. It does fade quite a bit with time. One variable I didn't think about is that I use a boar brush which, due to being stiffer, might be better at getting the lather into my beard. Other than that I've got nothing left. :)
 
Bowl is best. I find that it’s a lot easier on my skin. I wouldn’t strop my straight razor in my face either. I’m sure it would work but I have a piece of leather for that task.

The other advantage is that you can make plenty of lather for three passes and aren’t left squeezing the last bit of lather out of you brush for touch ups like a hobo picking cigarette buts out of an ashtray. YMMV Everyone has their preferred way of doing things.

I do tend to fine tune the water content on my face but most of the grunt work is in the bowl.
 
The other advantage is that you can make plenty of lather for three passes and aren’t left squeezing the last bit of lather out of you brush for touch ups like a hobo picking cigarette buts out of an ashtray. YMMV Everyone has their preferred way of doing things.
Yes, it's quite interesting to see so many with different approaches :) I don't know how it works for others but for me it is very easy to build a lather on my face that lasts for 3-4 passes without squeezing
 
When I started this hobby it was fun learning to make a lather in a bowl. After a couple months, I started face lathering with a brush.
Now, I am experimenting with just using my finger tips to apply the lather to my face. I have better feedback from my fingers as to the amount of moisture content and lather coverage.
 
Still new to this hobby but bowl lathering when I have more time to play with my soap and face lathering when I need to do quick 2-pass and go.
 
I have mostly been doing face lathering since I started wet shaving. It works very well because I can control the consistency while building the lather to the perfect finish.

But with bowl lathering, it's different. I can make a perfect lather in the bowl, but the lather changes completely when I start face lathering. I have tried two methods.

1. I paint the lather on my face with a little pressure on the brush, but the lather can't get through or between the beard growth ( two days growth)
2. I put more pressure on the brush in circles, but then the consistency changes completely, which means that the perfect lather I built in the bowl is wasted. I don't know what else to do.

What are your experiences?
I take a hybrid approach (typically use hard soaps). I partially create the lather in my apothecary mugs right on top of the soap and then finish via face lathering. Works well.
 
Taking this thread in a slightly different direction - do any of you face latherers use a soap stick, and if so, have you had any difficulties? I recently went back to an old stick of Tabac that I found in one of my drawers. I have many fond memories of Tabac and find it to be a pleasantly scented and a wonderful performer. In this last go around, however, I've had difficulty activating the soap with much of it getting matted into my beard growth. For some context - I shave every day and always prep well with a warm shower beforehand, soaking my brush in warm water for the duration of my shower and blooming the soap. Sometimes, I will use a few drops of pre-shave oil. I always use a boar brush when face lathering from a stick for the stiffer bristles. More often than not I complete the entire shave using cold water but given this problem I've alternated water temperatures with more or less the same result. Prior to lathering, I apply the soap in a circular motion to my face concentrating on larger flat surface areas like cheeks and sides of neck so the brush can make the best contact. I then remove the brush from the water, give it a very light shake, and using a soft touch (not splaying the bristles), agitate the soap in an even circular motion taking the time to cover all areas of my face. As the lather thickens and I get the consistency I want (after a full minute or so), I switch from circular to a back and forth motion, painting my face. On commencing my shave, however, there is usually a thick layer of soap caked on my skin, camouflaged by the good lather on top of it. I've tried prolonging my lathering but it doesn't make an appreciable difference. Any thoughts or similar experiences?
 
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