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Face Lather, or Bowl?

Im becoming a face lather convert.
I started as a bowl lather student 5 months ago. Searched for the perfect bowl. I have 6 bowls/mugs/scuttles and a variety of brushes, boar, badger, synthetic. I can make a nice lather with most soaps and I like my Etsy artisan bowl and the Timeless bowl the most. (I’m not sure that my huge PAA scuttle actually makes any warm difference.) Sure, I enjoy the process and “challenge“ of whipping up a great lather.
Recently, I began face lathering. Still experimenting with different brushes, different shapes, different size knots, from Razorock Monster to a Semogue boar to a new Oumo badger fan brush.

The process:
float the tub of soap in HOT water
soak the brush
preshave oil or PAA tube
squeeze out the brush
load the brush
apply to face
add HOT water, little by little to the thick face paste and scrub it to a lather.
finish by painting with the brush
shave, repeat.

Now I’m a convert. I only use my Fendrihan mug to soak the brush. I get a more enjoyable, much better AND warmer lather.
Of course YMMV! SO?
Why would do you bowl lather? Just the aesthetics of using a bowl?
 

EclipseRedRing

I smell like a Christmas pudding
I face lather almost exclusively and for me whatever advantages that may exist for bowl lathering are totally outweighed by the fact that face lathering simply feels great. I use scrubby Simpson Manchurian and Semogue LE two band brushes with hard soaps and I favour swirling and mashing them. If in so doing I damage the knots then I will have them reknotted since they exist solely to give me pleasure and not to be preserved for all eternity. Building a lather in a bowl and painting it on somehow takes the joy out of the experience for me, I may as well use canned shave gel. To each his own.
 

Whilliam

First Class Citizen
I alternate now and then as the spirit moves me. In fact, this morning I will likely warm up the scuttle as it has really gotten cold here.
 
I've tried bowl from time to time using a Fine Accoutrements bowl. However, I find it takes ages compared with face lathering. I love the feel of lathering on my face, and know that when it feels silky smooth and velvety, it is ready and will give me a really good shave.
The bowl is used to soak my brush nowadays.
 
Yes, both.

I build lather in bowl to work with. depending on the soap.....I may add a little water to the brush to develop/change lather on the face.

or I may not fiddle with it. you just never know?

camo
 
I am in the face lathering corner. I do however use bowls to hold my brush between lathers.

Both methods work equally well. I just like the feeling of the brush scrubbing on my face building Lather.
 
So if one smooshes a scoop of soap in a bowl to load a brush then are you a bowl latherer or face latherer? If however, you load off the puck in a mug you're a face latherer. These techniques seem the same to me, ie face latherer and how I shave.

So bowl lathering is loading off the puck and further developing lather in a bowl devoid of soap before applying to your face?
 
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So if one smooshes a scoop of soap in a bowl to load a brush then are you a bowl latherer or face latherer? If however, you load off the puck in a mug you're a face latherer. These techniques seem the same to me, ie face latherer and how I shave.

So bowl lathering is loading off the puck and further developing lather in a bowl devoid of soap before applying to your face?

Think of it as, “am I loading the brush” or “am I lathering the soap”.

If you are loading from a puck and then building lather on your face, you are face lathering.

If you are loading from a puck and then building lather in a bowl, you are bowl lathering.

Another approach is to scoop a single use amount of cream or soap into a bowl and you’re both loading and building the lather in the bowl.

The key difference is loading vs. building. Make sense?
 
I find using a bowl allows me to focus on making sure I have a good quality lather before applying it to my face. So, for soaps I'll load my brush directly from the tub, then move to the bowl, slowly adding dribbles of water until I get it to my prefered consistency of yogurt like lather with soft peaks and a nice sheen. Then I move to my face where I take my time working the lather into my beard for a couple minutes. I finish by painting a thick layer of lather on before picking up the razor. I do have sensitive skin and find that if I spend too much time working the lather on my face, it feels a little irritated. For creams I just scoop out an almond sized dollop and put it in the bottom of the bowl with a few dribbles of water to start and then do the same thing as I do with soaps. So, for all these reasons I prefer bowl lathering. It's worked for me for about 4 years.
 
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