Lathering: Bowl to Face and Back?

[ailevin]

I started out bowl lathering, and with only a little bit of initial difficulty moved to face lathering probably around week five or six of my DE shaving adventure. This was about the time I started experimenting with soaps and both loading and the ratio of product to water were mysterious to me. I haven't looked back and have been strictly face lathering for the past six months or so. I think my real breakthrough was using a shave stick and getting enough product on my face.

Tonight, I decided to dig out my old latte cup and bowl lather again. I have been testing (and strictly in the name of science acquiring) too many new brushes lately, and I was concerned that in my enthusiasm I was lathering myself raw. My first surprise was how much easier it was to get the hydration and consistency that I wanted now that I have a little more insight into how to load up product and now that I have an inkling of what I am shooting for. Also, I found that with my prep, minimally working the lather into my beard is sufficient, so long as I give it a couple three minutes on my face before I start the shave. I noticed during that initial three minutes I had no drying or thinning of the lather, so I didn't even have to resmooth it. I also had more consistent lather pass to pass and a thoroughly pleasant shave.

I still prefer face lathering, but my question is, have any of you gone back to bowl lather after having been a long time face latherer?

Thanks,
Alan

 

[MrDink]

Early on I tried bowl lathering because it seemed cool whipping up lather in such a way. I found I couldn't get it right. I tried face lathering and was able to improve my lathering technique over a few years that way. I recently tried bowl lathering again and while I whipped up some great lather , it just didn't perform on my face as well as face lathering, so back to face lathering I went and I am happy with that method as it works best for me.

 

[Senshi]

I started bowl lathering and have found that I really enjoy face lathering. I think it's the best, YMMV.

I do use a bowl with some shave sticks though. Applying the stick to my face, lathering on my face with the brush and then bringing it back to a bowl and finishing up the lather. Got this idea from the Soap forum's sticky.

 

[captaincaveman]

I have a similar story to you, ailevin. At this point probably face lather more, but I do choose based on mood/what experiments I want to try. Often I'll do both at the same time, face-loading one soap and bowl-lathering another for a superlather. I even face-loaded and brush-loaded the same one once recently before bowl-lathering and then face-lathering. Doing stuff like that does produce a soap-rich lather that can take and hold a lot of hydration.

 

[Niles]

I've always face lathered.

 

[KyMash]

I started out with using creams exclusively and bowl lathering, but that changed to face lathering only when I started to use soaps only. I have recently shifted back to integrating some of my favorite creams, but find that I still face lather most all of the time. I use my old bowl to reshape the brush if it gets too splayed out when I face lather, however.
When I make uber lather for the LOTH, I have to use a bowl to do, so there's that.