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Shave soap bowl question

I'm a relative newbie to wet shaving, and I have a question about the function of the soap bowl. If you keep your soap in the bowl, are you supposed to create the lather on top of the puck, or do you load the brush and then move to a different bowl for lathering? Thanks.
 
With a puck, I normally swirl my brush on the puck while I say the ABC's 2-3 times. Then I build my lather on my damp face. I have a scuttle, I use it for creams, and have used it to build lather. But I have face lathered for years. Before I got a scuttle, I submerged a coffee cup in the sink of hot water to warm my lather.
Johnnie
 
Many of us made our lather on top of a cake of soap in a tallish mug in the old days but I think it's easier to load the brush from the container that holds the soap or cream and move to a separate bowl to build your lather. You use a bit less and have more room to work up your lather.

Other posters, like the guy above, will tell you to face lather. Try that too. Personally, I don't care for it.
 
Lathering in the mug on top of the puck is my preferred method. Most consider it to be wasteful of product, but I have so many products stockpiled it doesn't really matter.

Most people load the brush (utilizing a fairly dry, well shaken out brush) for about a minute or so, and then either move to a different container to build their lather, or lather directly on their face.
 
You can load your brush in your soap bowl then take it to your face to build your lather (called face lathering). IF you take your loaded brush to another bowl and whip a later to "paint" on your face this is bowl lathering.

Go over the lathering info in the shave wiki for more details:

http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/Category:Lathering
 
I load the brush then move to a different bowl. I can get some lather that is thick enough to coat your face with a 1/4 inch carpet.

Later,
Richard
 
This was exactly the thread I was looking for (and sorry to necro). I've been using a puck at the bottom of my nice shaving bowl (a custom piece that was gifted to me - handmade with spiralling grooves to help build lather) for a while now and it just doesn't work well. I can't really build the lather "around" the puck, and instead try to sort of face lather after loading the brush but it's a partial effort.

I'm going to move the soap puck into a separate bowl and go back to properly warming/soaking my brush for my next shave. My wife won't be happy with the additional bathroom counter real-estate I take up, but I'm pretty confident this will pretty drastically improve my lather.
 
I'm going to move the soap puck into a separate bowl and go back to properly warming/soaking my brush for my next shave. My wife won't be happy with the additional bathroom counter real-estate I take up, but I'm pretty confident this will pretty drastically improve my lather.
A mug or small bowl that a puck fits in snugly should be able to nest inside a slightly larger dedicated lathering bowl when not in use. That should save a lot of real estate.
 
Many of us made our lather on top of a cake of soap in a tallish mug in the old days but I think it's easier to load the brush from the container that holds the soap or cream and move to a separate bowl to build your lather. You use a bit less and have more room to work up your lather.

Other posters, like the guy above, will tell you to face lather. Try that too. Personally, I don't care for it.

+1
 
I wouldn't recommend lathering in the soap bowl because you're going to keep picking up more soap, add more water, pick up more soap. I go back and forth between lathering on my face and a separate bowl.
 

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The Instigator
As described. I load the brush, then whip it to fluffy lather in this dimpled (left hand) bowl:




AA
 
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One case to build lather on top of the puck is WMS, usually in a mug, with everything drenched in tons of hot water. Most modern soaps though would get used up too fast with lots of lather going down the drain if you did this.
 
I have switched it up recently. I would typically load my brush on the soap in the container it came in, then face lather.

Last week I received a new Crown King scuttle from PAA. The one with the "rubber stopper". I fill it with scalding hot tap water and plug it closed. I then use a tung depresser to scoop or scrap soap soap from my croaps or pucks and smear it in the dry scuttle bowl. I then add a bit of hot tap water on the soap scrapings. I then prep my face and let the soap warm up in the scuttle. I then begin to load and whip up the lather in the scuttle with my brush. It lathers strong, loads the brush, and is nice and warm for up to 3 passes. Over all this method has been working great for me. It keeps my soaps dry and my lather warm. I think it is fairly efficient once you get used to the amount of soap you need to scrape out of your tubs. I error slightly on the excessive side because like michiganlover stated previously, I have enough product that I don't care if I use a bit extra. Besides, load and lather like you hate it, then enjoy and paint your dense lather on your face! I also have a cheap crappy Perfecto brush that tends to shed a hair now and then. This method keeps hairs for contaminating my soap tubs and keeps anything that comes loose in the scuttle.

To each is own, as long as you get a good lather on your face. There are so many ways to achieve the end goal, that you should just find what works best for you and your gear. Happy shaving!
 
I need a good metal lathering bowl, I keep breaking my glass/ceramic ones :tongue_sm

Search on eBay for "copper shaving bowl". The $7 ones are as good as the $12 ones. They come in several sizes, so make sure you are getting one the size you want.

If you drop it on the counter you can usually push the dent out with your fingers.
 
Before I got a scuttle, I submerged a coffee cup in the sink of hot water to warm my lather.
I do that with bowls and large mugs, in the sink with not quite enough water for them to float.
I have a thin silicone heat resistant pad that I appropriated from the kitchen to go in the bottom of the sink. It keeps the unglazed bottom of the bowl or mug from scratching the porcelain basin.
 
Search on eBay for "copper shaving bowl". The $7 ones are as good as the $12 ones. They come in several sizes, so make sure you are getting one the size you want.

If you drop it on the counter you can usually push the dent out with your fingers.

Thanks, I'll take a look. Too clumsy for glass/ceramic
 
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