Thread: Rubbing lather in with fingers/hand.

Still relatively new and made job harder than I had to by learning to hone at the same time (still learning). Have a couple of hatzicho honed razors to show me really good edges, feel mine are getting good most of the time but definitely not as good as his.

Have been experimenting with different prep recently. I tend to bowl lather, wash face with warm water, apply lather, rub it in with my fingers (or leave this out), apply hot towel for a minute, re lather and shave. When I leave out the rubbing in, even with hatzicho honed blades, I get some irritation, more with my own honed blades of course. When I rub it in, I get much easier shaves and less irritation.

Wondering if many people do this and find the same?

Or am I making up for bad prep elsewhere by doing this?

The is a video by Glen (gssixgun) where he does a test shave demo and uses the same method. He washes face, applies lather, rubs it in, hot towel then reapplies lather. From what I've read that's the method old time barbers and even some barbers today used when you went there for a shave.

Shave soaps are designed to be used with a brush to develop the lather which is partly air. The reason the hand lather works is because you have pure soap on your face so it should be really slick.

Old time barbers used a mug and brush. Probably from the 1950s maybe 40s they started using the Lather King Machine which dispenses hot lather and they just applied that with their fingers. Barbers pretty much universally used that because it was fast and time was money for them. Additionally using the same mug and brush was not looked upon favorably by laws as time went on. Some barbers in the old days kept separate mugs and brushes for each client.

Think you may have misunderstood me if I'm reading correctly bigspendur. I make lather in bowl, lather face with brush and circular motion, then rub in with fingers, hot towel and reapply with brush.

Good info about the barbers though. May have to find a barber willing to keep brush, bowl and razor for me.

Hey, I'd be willing to keep your brush, bowl, and razor for you.



I rarely bother with the finger rub or the hot towel but do so occasionally when I'm trying to make a bit of an extra effort. I'm not certain that either extra option truly helps all that much given that I only shave right after a shower but it certainly provides a nice placebo effect!

Only if you're going to shave me too? ��

Hot shower, face lather, shave!

I don't shower prior to shaving, but do give my face a good wash, leaving the water on until I move to hot towel then follow Glen's method.
Post shave I aways rub an alum block over my wet face, feel the sting, leave it on for a minute then wash off with cool water and apply aftershave balm. I've never had an issue with shaving rash or irritation.

Some get by with a splash of water, lather application and shave. I am not one of them.

The first lather application is a cleanser. If you just showered it is probably not needed. I shower at night and shave in the morning.

Over the past year I have added Noxema as part of the prep. I rub it in with my fingers and give my face a good massage. This action also is a cleanser and helps the hair to absorb more water later.

I pre-lather, let it soak, rinse and then apply the shaving lather.

The softer the hair the more comfortable and close the shave. YMMV.

That's interesting that you use noxema.

Have you ever tried adding glycerin to your lather?