How to load your brush on a stick?

[Ligeti]

Having used only TOBS sandalwood cream uptill now, I bought a Palmolive stick the other day just to experience soap.
In the wiki's I saw 2 techniques. Rubbing the stick on my face didn't leave any soap. Holding the top of the stick in a circle of thumb and indexfinger did work. But it felt like I was loading my hand instead of the brush. When I just held the stick in my hand, it got wet, soapy and slippery all over.

So how do you load a brush on a stick?

 

[Tanuki]

Your face and the stick should be wet. Hot rag on the face, hold the tip of the stick in some hot water or under the faucet. Then the stick should leave plenty of soap on your stubble.

The Palmolive stick is in the small format. If you really want to load your brush from a stick, the Tabac stick is practically as wide as small pucks.

 

[McBlade]

Wot he said. Wet your face. Wet the end of the stick. Keep the end of the stick lubricated with water and it should work just fine.

You don't need a lot of soap. Less than 1g will easily be enough to fill a brush for 3 passes.

I don't try to create a lather immediately. First I use a painting motion which makes a white cream on the face. Then keep adding water to the brush a little bit at a time and paint it in. Some soaps are thirstier than others but at some point the creamy soap will start to get too wet to stay on the brush & your face: *now* you splay the brush and scrub it up into a lather.

You might be able to cut corners a bit with some soaps which are easy to lather but this is guaranteed to work even with Mitchell's Wool Fat.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Applying the wet soap against the grain helps too

 

[Ligeti]

Oké, thanks. I see the mistika: I did wet my face, but not the stick.

 

[demaro]

I personally do what they call fist bowl lather with sticks . I grab the stick with my left hand also grasping the bottom of the base of the bristles and load the brush on top . It works best for me . I don't like rubbing the stick on my face .

 

[BigJ]

Your face and the stick should be wet. Hot rag on the face, hold the tip of the stick in some hot water or under the faucet. Then the stick should leave plenty of soap on your stubble.

The Palmolive stick is in the small format. If you really want to load your brush from a stick, the Tabac stick is practically as wide as small pucks.

+2! Rub the stick over your wet face, then go to town with a damp brush! That should work like a champ!

 

[BudgetShaverGuy]

The key with the harder sticks, and most in general except Tabac, it to make sure your face is wet and the tip of the stick is wet. Then do small slow and deliberate circular strokes on your beard with no excessive pressure until you have a thin coat visible. Face-lather with a very wet brush of your choice and then shave.

 

[Timeclo]

Dry hands, wet the tip of the stick, and wet your face. Then rub the stick on your stubbles and it should leave a film of lather behind. Get a damp but not dripping brush and face lather until desired consistency of lather.

 

[Ligeti]

You all seem to agree.
I'll follow the advice tomorrow morning.

 

[trentr]

I was showing the wife how to use arko right from the stick. I rubbed it on her leg. "That did not do anything" she says. Awe just wait dear. Grabbed the damp brush, rubbed around a bit POOF lather.

But yes, wet the end in some way or another.

 

[MrBeez]

I don't wet the stick the at all. I just wet my face and with a dry stick, gently rub the soap over my whiskers against the grain to pick up more soap. Once I do an AGT pass with the soap, I rub it in circles across my face. The key for me is using light pressure. No need to dig the stick into your face. Once I feel the stick is dragging a bit too much, indicating I've used up the water on my face, I stop applying the soap. Then it's just a matter of using a damp brush to build the lather applying more water via the brush as needed. Always works great for me that way!

 

[Ligeti]

Today, tried wet stick on wet face: perfect!

 

[dotKomo]

Today, tried wet stick on wet face: perfect!

Wonderful. Lot's of knowledge on this forum, for sure!

 

[nav]

I generally use the fist bowl for loading the brush. Works great without making a mess of the stick.

(I only use the stick for travel, not at home)

 

[samhain666]

Wet your face, maybe dip tip of the stick in water and with Palmolive it should be enough soap deposited to have enough for 2 shaves.

There is a review of this stick from few years ago...poster also thought no soap deposited to his face, when he started working his brush lather exploded

 

[Benzadmiral]

Wet your face, maybe dip tip of the stick in water and with Palmolive it should be enough soap deposited to have enough for 2 shaves.

There is a review of this stick from few years ago...poster also thought no soap deposited to his face, when he started working his brush lather exploded

You may have to dip the stick back into the water part way through. With my Tabac and La Toja soaps, the tip of the stick dries a bit after I do about half of my face, so I dip it again and finish. Then comes the brush.

 

[samhain666]

You may have to dip the stick back into the water part way through. With my Tabac and La Toja soaps, the tip of the stick dries a bit after I do about half of my face, so I dip it again and finish. Then comes the brush.

I do wet Palmolive multiple times, it is really hard. But with Tabac I have no need to even wet the stick. I just wet my face rub maybe 75% of whiskers and I have enough fo 2,5 pass shave

 

[Ligeti]

You may have to dip the stick back into the water part way through.

That's what I'm doing now and ir works fine.