My road to palm lathering.

[blade08]

When I first started out in wet shaving I used to bowl lather mostly creams. Kept on doing this for a year or so but got tired of the extra gear that was needed, a.k.a. a bowl. Furthermore it made the simple act of creating a lather, a bit complicated imho.

Then I discovered face lathering and did that for over 15 years and it worked fine. At some point I started to develop 'brush rash' for no particular reason so I had to find a way to somehow limit my brush-to-face-time.

That's when I discovered palm lathering where you basically build the lather in your palm, clean your hand and apply the lather to your face with the loaded brush using only painting strokes (because you already have a finished lather on the brush).

With this technique I can now make the best lather I've ever made. The big advantage is that you can really fine-tune your lather because you can feel the slickness with you fingers. There's lots of feedback that I never got with either bowl or face lathering. And it doesn't matter whether I use a hard soap or cream, it all works great with the palm lathering technique I described.

So there you have it, my road to palm lathering.

 

[dbeedle]

I started with the combo palm/face lathering because I didn't have a bowl! I now do have one and use it but, as you note, due to extra gear, I palm/face lather while traveling. No need to carry extra stuff. Palm lathering works great! Certainly on par with the bowl.

Ironically, a thread about collapsible bowls caught my eye this morning! That would be handy for travle and, being a gadget geek, I had to consider it. But then again, I think I'll pass!

 

[thombrogan]

@Alum of Potash is another palm-latherer on this forum.

Glad to read it works well for you

 

[PolishDawg]

hybrid lather works good for me...wet brush load up with soap, work brush in bowl...add more water to brush, work in bowl, then squeeze out the big boar knot, smack it on the face...

Why do we get brush burn? Is it the chemicals in the brush or just the exfoilating of the brush it self? I seem to raise the whiskers and hydrate them better using soap on the palm to face.

 

[blade08]

Why do we get brush burn? Is it the chemicals in the brush or just the exfoilating of the brush it self?

I'm fairly sure it's the latter.

 

[Alum of Potash]

What's great about palm-lathering from my perspective is that it allows one to use scritchy and smaller knots for cheap to build the lather in the palm followed by a painterly application onto the face without any irritation. Really, the bridge between bowl- and face-lathering and the best of both worlds as far as I'm concerned.

 

[H Brad Boonshaft]

Try cleaning your brush, 5-minute soak in cup of warm water with an ounce of white vinegar, then a dollop of shampoo in the palm and build a lather aggressively in the palm.

Rinse in warm water, working the brush in your hand, dry by tapping on a microfiber.

Depending on the brush and how caked it is, you may need to repeat. The brush should dry in a nice full bloom and lather much easier.

I soak and shampoo my brushes about 3 times a year. Some soaps and creams load up more than others, Martin de Candis and Mitchell’s Wool Fat.

I mostly face lather, to work the lather into the beard and skin. Lather is all about bringing moisture to the beard, slickness is secondary.