Quote Originally Posted by Joe Lerch
I tell newbies to get a good canned lather and stick with it until your technique is good. Then learn how to make good lather. You'll enjoy the improvement.
Canned lather, Joe? I got my worst shaves ever with them! IMHO canned lather is just a lubricant, it hardly penetrates the whiskers so it does not soften them. It is colder as well as you do not use hot water to whip it.

My option: put hot water in you basin, wet the face with a soaked brush flicked dry gently, soak the brush again and gently flick it dry once or twice, put some shaving cream on it and spread it on the whiskers. If the lather produced is too dry dip the tip of the brush into the water once or twice and continue lathering your face. If the lather becomes to wet just add a bit of cream onto the brush and continue lathering. I don't think there's more magic too it than that.
With shaving soap it works more or less the same. You whip up a lather in your mug with a brush flicked dry after you wetted your face 1st.