Face Lather, or Bowl?

[Bumpymacaroon]

Purely depends on how I feel at the time, was exclusively a bowl latherer when I started however after recently being gifted a stick of arko and now following a purchase of tabac stick i quite enjoy the odd face lather using an Omega synth
I do find however when using soaps a Bowl can help to produce the consistency I like

 

[karacha]

The best artisan shaving soaps today are so good, I always make enough to put an extra lather on my face at the end of the shave, just like you do. Also like you , I leave it on while I clean up my gear. With some soaps, I can continue to feel the moisturizing and conditioning for 24 hours.

I often do this as well.

 

[Merle]

I've found there's something about the Simpson Persian Jar, size 2. It works really well for face lathering. The density is a bit less than some and the bristle that is there is long enough to splay gently and still mop up a lather. This works really well for my non-lanolin soaps like the Barrister Reserves... just keep filling the brush as it needs.

 

[ShaverAZ]

It depends on my choice of soap. Pucks & creams get bowl lathering. There's a certain charm and satisfaction derived from building that perfect lather in a bowl. I have several bowls that work really great - only one is an actual shaving soap bowl & I rarely use it.
I do have several stick soaps and a couple of loose pucks I use for face lathering. I simply wet my face, dampen the tip of the stick/puck then rub my face. It always seems like magic how a nice dense lather builds (without messily slopping soapy water about as the video shave guys do).
Before I stuck it to a bowl, I grated about 1/2 the thickness of my current Williams puck and made both a blend of soaps as a puck, and also another blend (with Arko) to use as a stick. It works just fine and the shave is exceptional.

 

[dmshaver]

Face lather 99.9% of the time.

 

[AshleyQ]

Face lather 100%


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[Rather Lather]

1. Use brush to apply hot water to face.
2. Apply soap stick to face.
3. Lather with brush.

Funny enough I just tried Cella for the first time in a bowl. My very next shave I formed it into a stick to face lather.

 

[Mark Brandon Read]

Bowl for creams, face for soaps.

 

[RayClem]

Bowl for creams, face for soaps.

Interesting. If you like face lathering, why don't you smear the creams on your face using your fingertips and then face lather?

 

[Mark Brandon Read]

Interesting. If you like face lathering, why don't you smear the creams on your face using your fingertips and then face lather?

Because I like bowl lathering as well. This way I get the best of both worlds. I also prefer larger brushes for face lathering and smaller ones for the bowl. And I also get to use all my gear. Works for me but as in all things YMMV.

 

[PeteVK]

Face > bowl for me.

 

[warman2012]

I am a cheapskate, so the soaps that I use are primarily Van Der Hagen and soon to be Williams mug soap. Van Der Hagen deluxe soap for me, does not take a lot of water so I will stir on the puck to get a paste consistency. Then, its an exacting science to add just enough water so that the soap doesn't become too thin, so its a face lather for me mostly. I've used Proraso green and that is more of a bowl lather, though it does take more water than Van Der Hagen in my experience.

 

[Bumpymacaroon]

I am a cheapskate, so the soaps that I use are primarily Van Der Hagen and soon to be Williams mug soap. Van Der Hagen deluxe soap for me, does not take a lot of water so I will stir on the puck to get a paste consistency. Then, its an exacting science to add just enough water so that the soap doesn't become too thin, so its a face lather for me mostly. I've used Proraso green and that is more of a bowl lather, though it does take more water than Van Der Hagen in my experience.

Williams is awful, smells like mosquito repellent, I prefer haslinger offerings for a good quality cheap small puck the schafmilch and aloe Vera a particularly good. YMMV

 

[eottavia]

I like bowl, but my skin prefers face!

 

[emwolf]

If the question is "face or bowl lather?", then the answer is "yes".

me too. I generally face lather only when traveling, but even when I bowl lather at home, there's a good deal of face lathering as well. The lathering is the most time consuming part of my shave.

 

[JoWolf]

I have always bowl lathered, but this thread has convinced me to try a face lather. Does it work with large synthetic brushes (Yaqi 24 mm or Silver Tip Fibre 25 mm)?

My Yaqi 30mm barber pole tuxedo is a beautiful face lathering brush.

 

[Duke of Buckingham]

I palm lather and scrape the excess for subsequent passes onto the side of the sink. Reading this tells me that I really need to improve my ways.

 

[warman2012]

Williams is awful, smells like mosquito repellent, I prefer haslinger offerings for a good quality cheap small puck the schafmilch and aloe Vera a particularly good. YMMV

To each their own. I got into this type of shaving mainly because I was just tired of paying insane prices for blades. This shaving was to be cheap and its gonna stay that way for me. A lot of guys will end up splurging on extra gear that end up collecting dust, which is not what I want. The brush and soap aspect appeals to me mainly because I don't have to touch shaving goo and works to my advantage by providing an actual layer of protection on the face as opposed to the false protection offered by canned foam. I do hear that Williams can be hard to lather, but I will do further reviews before I pop on a puck or two. Might even just skip the VDH for ordinary bar soap, which I get anyways.

 

[James Duval]

...smear the creams on your face using your fingertips and then face lather?

That is exactly how I do it. The cream lathers up quickly that way. I add a little cream between passes rather than trying to load it all up at the start.

Just add water and stir.

 

[toma.honfoglalo]

Some interesting methods here guys.

In my case the method changed over the time for 100% bowl lathering to something more in between. What I do is to create the 90% of the final lather on the soap itself with a fairly wet brush. It may take some time in smaller soap containers but it is still a lot faster than picking up the right amount of soap with a dry brush and water later. I'm adding some water to the puck if needed.
Once the lather is almost perfect I bring it to the face and set the final water/soap ratio by light scrubbing and painting. Since my face can't handle a full blown face lathering this is what is a, the most time efficient for everyday shave, b, suits my skin the most. A light scrubbing to get the silky smooth lather in between the hairs and lift them up a bit.

What I found is that my lather is also improved a lot using this method because the brush will hold a lot of very dense lather for multiple passes what I can paint on and thin up for a silky and very slippery lather on my face with a touch of water. If I wanted to use a thinner lather my brush will be mostly empty after 2 passes, or it would be more airy with bowl lathering and I had to dive in to the bowl again filling the brush for every pass which I didn't really like.



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