Since my first wet shave, I have been a build-the-lather-on-the-face kind of guy. It's a hands on method, and one that I wholeheartedly believed was the best way for me. On the few occasions that I did try building my lather in a bowl, my results were never nearly as good. Over many shaves and months, I managed to reach a very pleasing level of lathering skill and have been happy with the corresponding shaves. That is until...
Last night I was having trouble falling asleep, so I came downstairs and started looking through our forum. There weren't many folks on-line (very few members, mostly guests) and I had already read all of the new postings for the day, so I decided to review some of the older posts. After a while, I stumbled back across Joel's Comprehensive guide to building superlative lather! I vaguely remembered having read this post back when I was a non-member lurker, but my knowledge level at the time was so low that I wasn't able fully process the value of this post. Upon first opening the thread I couldn't help but think, "Poor Joel. He has an excellent knowledge of shaving, but the guy is using a bowl to lather. He just doesn't know what he's missing." I read the post, then read it again, and finally read it one more time. As stated before, my much improved shaving knowledge was finally allowing me to really appreciate the quality and attention to detail shown in this article. I enjoyed the read, but still had no intention of making my lather in a bowl like a girly-man.
This morning, while standing in front of the bathroom mirror, I performed my shave prep, removed my brush from its hot soak, loaded it with cream and began to swirl it on my face. About three swirls in, with the smell of Taylor's Avocado radiating out from my steamy brush, I involuntarily reached for my shaving bowl and decided, what the hey, I'll try bowl lathering this morning. Like an idiot savant of lather building, I created a lather so beautiful that upon completion I shed a single tear. It was huge and billowy but still thick in consistency and not even remotely dry or airy. Every good thing that you have ever experienced in a lather was in my bowl this morning, and the shave achieved with it was better than punching a mime.
For the rest of the day my thoughts were consumed with how absolutely stupid I have been. I realize when performing a new activity, people will usually stick with the first method used that achieves satisfactory performance, but damn. I'm thrilled that I've had this moment of epiphany, and at the same time, I'm disgusted that it has taken me so long to quit being an idiot (very similar to how I felt when I first discovered wet shaving).
So to all of the posters in this forum, thank you for your posts. Day by day your cumulative knowledge is helping to stomp out my ignorance. For all of you out there who haven't tried bowl lathering, read Joel's post and give it a shot.
Last night I was having trouble falling asleep, so I came downstairs and started looking through our forum. There weren't many folks on-line (very few members, mostly guests) and I had already read all of the new postings for the day, so I decided to review some of the older posts. After a while, I stumbled back across Joel's Comprehensive guide to building superlative lather! I vaguely remembered having read this post back when I was a non-member lurker, but my knowledge level at the time was so low that I wasn't able fully process the value of this post. Upon first opening the thread I couldn't help but think, "Poor Joel. He has an excellent knowledge of shaving, but the guy is using a bowl to lather. He just doesn't know what he's missing." I read the post, then read it again, and finally read it one more time. As stated before, my much improved shaving knowledge was finally allowing me to really appreciate the quality and attention to detail shown in this article. I enjoyed the read, but still had no intention of making my lather in a bowl like a girly-man.
This morning, while standing in front of the bathroom mirror, I performed my shave prep, removed my brush from its hot soak, loaded it with cream and began to swirl it on my face. About three swirls in, with the smell of Taylor's Avocado radiating out from my steamy brush, I involuntarily reached for my shaving bowl and decided, what the hey, I'll try bowl lathering this morning. Like an idiot savant of lather building, I created a lather so beautiful that upon completion I shed a single tear. It was huge and billowy but still thick in consistency and not even remotely dry or airy. Every good thing that you have ever experienced in a lather was in my bowl this morning, and the shave achieved with it was better than punching a mime.
For the rest of the day my thoughts were consumed with how absolutely stupid I have been. I realize when performing a new activity, people will usually stick with the first method used that achieves satisfactory performance, but damn. I'm thrilled that I've had this moment of epiphany, and at the same time, I'm disgusted that it has taken me so long to quit being an idiot (very similar to how I felt when I first discovered wet shaving).
So to all of the posters in this forum, thank you for your posts. Day by day your cumulative knowledge is helping to stomp out my ignorance. For all of you out there who haven't tried bowl lathering, read Joel's post and give it a shot.
