Thread: making lather - like beating eggs or using a mortar and pestle?

I make über lather when I shave. With the brush loaded with soap from a puck (soap in the bristles, not lather) and cream and a squirt of glycerin in the bowl, I use circular motions and pumping action against the inside of the bowl to mix and incorporate the three ingredient into the brush. Once that's done, I continue the same motions until I've made a fairly stiff, compact lather. Only then do I start adding additional water, a little at a time. I don't add the water to the bowl, but dribble it onto the bristles near the knot. I usually end up adding at least a tablespoon of water.

The swirling and pumping motion I use while adding water is gentle. I'm not trying to make a bowl of whipped cream. I'm making a thick, wet lather in the brush. My swirling motions might reverse direction and I use them to pull what's at the top of the bowl back down into the center. But it's all done slowly and gently because I want to make a lather in the brush, not in the bowl. That's the key for me.

Call me anal but the above is what works for me. I got there through a lot of trial and error. I end up with a lather that stays thick, wet and holds up through three passes with my straight and is still just as thick and wet during my fourth cleanup pass with a Sensor 3 (I'm still a newbie -- getting a DFS but not yet BBS).

Namaste,
Morty -_-