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Shaving bowl question

First of all, welcome to B&B! This type of bowl is intended to keep the puck in, and can serve both purposes. Start building your lather right on the puck, and move to your face (or another bowl, if you'd like) at whichever point you choose. There's no "right" or "wrong" way - there's only "your" way. Do whatever works for you.:001_smile
 
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So you're saying I can keep the puck in there and build up the lather right there with the puck in the bowl? Hm, hadn't tried that. I've only used it twice thus far and I soap up my brush on the puck and move over to another bowl to create my lather.

Oh, and thanks for the welcome. :)
 
I agree in that there is no right or wrong way. I would just do what feel nice to hold and use. You can biuld the lather up and then finish with face lathering. Good luck and welcome
 
I'm sure someone else may come up with facts, but I can offer personal; experience, only. I've always kept pucks of shaving soap in shaving mugs, and when creating lather, built it right there in the mug, with my brush. I used shaving creams in tubes somewhat more often when developing personal techniques for shaving. I had no lovely resource such as B&B at my disposal during the late 1950s through mid-1960s.

I often spread a thin layer on my wet cheeks, and then face-lathered with my brush, but I also sometimes carried a cereal bowl to the bathroom and used it with a dollop of cream and my brush. Experimenting for the first time with assorted soaps, recently, I've found some that don't lather well in a mug, but will work better transferred to a bowl or to my face to build its mix consistency further.

Recently, I came across a cheap "Salsa Bowl" made of textured plastic that I'm going to try out.
 
Ok, thanks for the tips.

@Kiwi - the other bowl I've been using for my lather is the textured plastic salsa bowl. Works great. :)
 
Salsa bowl will work great just don't dip your nachos in there afterwards! Ha

I currently use a glass teacup to whip up my lather (take a dollop of proraso cream for its own pot). The teacup works ok but I think I'd benefit from something with a slightly wider circumference like a cappuccino mug which I'm on the lookout for.

Don't like the idea of a cereal bowl incase I get it mixed up and end up with proraso in my weetabix ;-)
 
Salsa bowl will work great just don't dip your nachos in there afterwards!
I tend toward a casual hosting standard, being a bachelor/divorced, and set out the entire jar of store-bought Salsa with a spoon, for guests to transfer a heap of it at a time to their plates. I could assemble a home-made, more-fresh version, but my own results have always been uneven, whereas we all know what to expect from the local brands (we're right where Salsa moved off the ethnic-oriented shelves and restaurants and into mainstream homes, here in my part of Texas, 30 years or so ago).

This bright yellow critter, with its stubby little legs, is the first of its kind that I've owned. On the rare occasions I wanted to put on the dog for a new acquaintance, and served Mexican-style meals or snacks, I got out one of the ubiquitous Corelle cereal /dessert bowls to serve it in.
 
I love it. Here are my bowls. The big one holds the rocks that normally sit in the sink. The medium one I lather in.
A friend is making me a bowl with lid to hold my soap. All three bowls nestle inside one another.


Two Mango Wood bowls - Mango wood soap dish is on the way.
$Bowl Set.jpg

I originally was lathering inside a hot chocolate mug (wide and deep) with my soap inside, but realized that I went through the soap super quick. Now I load my brush and lather in my bowl and the remnants of the soap have lasted almost as long as the soap did while I was lathering in the same cup, (not the Col. Conk's is very expensive, but I can't run to a store and pick more up).

Enjoy!
 
For creams and soft soaps I like to use a bowl which has some "ripples" on the bottom, to help the lather to develop (I have a Muhle):
$b%u002526b-9.jpg

For harder soap, I like to wet the soap and do bowl-lathering :001_rolle
 
I love it. Here are my bowls. The big one holds the rocks that normally sit in the sink. The medium one I lather in.
A friend is making me a bowl with lid to hold my soap. All three bowls nestle inside one another.


Two Mango Wood bowls - Mango wood soap dish is on the way.
View attachment 243721

I originally was lathering inside a hot chocolate mug (wide and deep) with my soap inside, but realized that I went through the soap super quick. Now I load my brush and lather in my bowl and the remnants of the soap have lasted almost as long as the soap did while I was lathering in the same cup, (not the Col. Conk's is very expensive, but I can't run to a store and pick more up).

Enjoy!

Are those river stones in the sink some kind of hair screen? Interesting
 
Welcom to B&B, King!
I'm completely new to DE razors and for my birthday my wife bought me a shaving set similar to: http://www.amazon.com/Shaving-Merkur-Safety-Husband-Boyfriend/dp/B0010Y1KYA
That's a very nice set that should serve you well and make a nice display in the shave den.
Well, there was no description included in the box so I assumed the bowl was to store the soap in. I use another bowl to whip up my lather. So, if this is a lather bowl then where should I store the soap while creating the lather?
For my tastes, and this is truly YMMV, that bowl with a puck of soap in it would seem to be small for both holding soap and making lather on top of it. I prefer a larger shaving mug, especially with some of the thicker soap pucks, for lathering directly on the puck. I think I would probably use the metal bowl to hold the puck I am loading my brush from and do any lathering elsewhere.

I like the idea of the roughly textured salsa bowls for building lather. A lot of scuttles and mugs have ridges, webs, spirals, and other textures to help the lathering process. The salsa bowl should work similarly.
 
You can do what ever works best for you. I keep my soap puck in a plastic bowl with a screw on lid, this allows me to toss it in my luggage when I'm on the road. I load my brush directly from the puck, and this generally generates some lather. I move on the may face from there and face lather. You can easily add a second bowl or scuttle to your lathering if you want.

You can keep the puck in the bowl you have, move it to a different bowl, or a mug or just set it on a soap dish between shaves, and you can make the process of lathering up as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. Enjoy.
 
Lot's of good tips here (and elsewhere in this forum)! Thanks!
@sgtbash999 - don't mix-up and use with my nachos...check! :001_tongu
@PugslyCat - I thought the bowl seemed too small to do the lathering as well. I think I'll keep my routine with the included bowl for holding and use another for lathering.
 
....wow.....those are beautiful mango wood bowls.........

..........where did you buy those?
I purchased them on the island of Kauai at a local market (artist's stand) to go with my mango shave set a friend made for me. (Same friend is making a mango soap dish for me to match the bowls.)

Are those river stones in the sink some kind of hair screen? Interesting
Not so much of a hair screen, but yes. The idea is to control what goes down the drain, (a feng shui principle as water is the element for money). They are decorative and effective.
 
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