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painting on lather?

i just tried today to paint on my lather instead of the old way of face lathering by splaying the brush. is there a way to get a thicker lather without splaying., i got a nice yogurt looking lather by painting on but it was rather thin and less slick than usual. can i suppliment for that by using a preshave oil or soap? im not wanting to splay and swirl the brush cause with some of my soaps that causes more irritation than what its worth
 

Chef455

Head Cheese Head Chef
I don't get it. For me it's not a choice between splaying or painting. I do both. I load then I splay to work up a good lather and get those whiskers attention in order to hopefully stand them up. Then there's painting, figure eights, contemplation of my life, maybe another splay, possibly a figure 6 or a pirouette. It's fluid and never the same. In my face lathering routine one stroke only would never suffice. YMMV.
 
I don't get it. For me it's not a choice between splaying or painting. I do both. I load then I splay to work up a good lather and get those whiskers attention and hopefully stand them up. Then there's painting, figure eights, contemplation of my life, maybe another splay, possibly a figure 6 or a pirouette. In my face lathering one stroke only would never suffice. YMMV.

This^^^

Splay, scrub, paint.

If your skin is sensitive, bowl lathering is a way to mitigate the irritation by eliminating the scrub.
 
a lot of scrubbing irritates my face badly with some soaps bowl lathering is out for other reasons. maybe a very very light scrubbing? i meanb what im doing now seems to work. it looks right ill give some of these suggestions a shot
 
a lot of scrubbing irritates my face badly with some soaps bowl lathering is out for other reasons. maybe a very very light scrubbing? i meanb what im doing now seems to work. it looks right ill give some of these suggestions a shot

Understood, and I'm not making light of your condition. I've read a lot of members who experience irritation or "brush burn" when face lathering. They often choose to bowl lather.

In my experience, synthetic brushes have the softest face feel, almost luxurious compared to a stiff boar. Even though natural bristles will soften a bit with use I've not found one as soft as a synthetic.

An inexpensive synthetic can be had for under 15 bucks. I'm partial to Razorock, but there are many others.

Lastly, it is possible that you make be forced to use only certain soaps or creams. Again other members have reported that they can only use unscented soaps because of their sensitivity to some soaps. In severe cases, a visit to a dermatologist may be in order.
 
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One option I use during test lathers when evaluating a new soap or brush is to hold the puck in your non dominant hand and build the lather in your hand or load the brush and build the lather in your hand and then apply To your face. The upside is that your fingers are pretty good at evaluating lather quality and slickness and your hands aren’t as sensitive as your face.
 
If your soap.is causing irritation and it isn't razor burn, toss it.

Put some lather on your face, let is sit the length of time you would shave, then rinse it off. Repeat for as many passes as you do (should be 2 but a max of 3 is all anyone needs). If you get redness, it's the soap. If you don't, it's your razor technique.
 
I now prefer bowl lathering to face. Once you make the lather to your liking, I continue a bit on my face with painting strokes and results are excellent. Now painting seems natural and comfortable.
 
build the lather in your hand
I always forget about palm lathering. It's a good method I ought to use more often when I'm trying to avoid brush irritation.
members who experience irritation or "brush burn"
I think I've had problems with this in the past. I recall a puck of AoS Lavender that regularly gave me a lot of trouble. My issue is that my whiskers don't get sufficiently enrobed in lather or lifted when I bowl lather, but I can probably just use a more persistent but lighter hand when I apply the lather to the face, to ensure it's thoroughly applied.

I think that sufficient agitation with the brush is necessary to form the proper "foam" that constitutes lather, painting is more of an application strategy. I am finding that my newer boar brush is tending to "paint" because the tips aren't quite softened yet.
 

JCarr

More Deep Thoughts than Jack Handy
I use a pre-shave before the first pass. I simply paint the lather over the pre-shave. Pre-shave is just the first pass though.
 
I always forget about palm lathering. It's a good method I ought to use more often when I'm trying to avoid brush irritation.

I think I've had problems with this in the past. I recall a puck of AoS Lavender that regularly gave me a lot of trouble. My issue is that my whiskers don't get sufficiently enrobed in lather or lifted when I bowl lather, but I can probably just use a more persistent but lighter hand when I apply the lather to the face, to ensure it's thoroughly applied.

I think that sufficient agitation with the brush is necessary to form the proper "foam" that constitutes lather, painting is more of an application strategy. I am finding that my newer boar brush is tending to "paint" because the tips aren't quite softened yet.
Whiskers do NOT get listed by your brush. That is a myth.
 
If your soap.is causing irritation and it isn't razor burn, toss it.
There's no point trying to salvage a bad soap no matter the cost; i.e., for me that was AoS Sandalwood soap and balm... I loved the Sandalwood scent and it was long lasting, but it left my skin warm and red for about an hour afterward. That, and any tiny nick or weeper that had stopped bleeding the balm would open up and start them bleeding all over again and usually worse. The other issue was I didn't like the face feel afterward as the AoS products left my skin "over-moisturized" to the point that it felt sticky. I gave the pre-shave oil, soap puck and balm to my son who has no issues with it... I did keep the cool wooden bowl that the soap came in and use it to hold samples or smaller pucks.
 
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