Thread: To bowl lathering - Don't we all FACE LATHER anyway??

I guess I'm in The FBL (Face & Bowl Latherers) Club!!! I do both and enjoy doing both...I lather-up in the bowl (Target dipping bowl) so I can have a warm to hot lather and lather on the face to massage it into every bristle.
Reguards,
Mack

In it's strictest sense if you are a bowl latherer you do all the building in the bowl and use the brush to simply apply the lather and work it in. If you are a face latherer you just load up the brush with soap but develop the lather on your face.

In fact few of us are strictly one or the other, more hybrid. We really do both.

Im about half and half

Originally Posted by BladeRunner001

I love building lather in the bowl, but also enjoy the after joy of spending a couple of minutes rubbing it into the stubble...call me crazy, but I guess I like the BEST of both worlds (bowl & face lathering)

Same here.

I started out DE shaving as a face latherer. I liked a fairly dry mix then, thin and very dense. Bowl lathering made no sense to me - why waste time building lather in a bowl, when I could build better lather right on my face?

Mitchell's Wool Fat turned me into a bowl latherer. I just couldn't face lather with it, and hated it. I got the same thin. bubbly, disappearing lather that many complain about with MWF. I have sensitive skin on my face that can actually get "sunburn" from too much brush work, so face lathering alone with MWF wasn't gettin' it.

Desperate, I tried MWF in a bowl. The lather was just OK, but hey, at least it wasn't thin and didn't disappear. Over time, I learned that MWF likes a lot of bowl work, and a lot of water. It takes time to build, but is worth it. The quality of the lather, in density, slickness, pearly moisture, is superb. And if I'm willing to do the work, I've learned I can get it every time, with any water, using any brush.

I follow this up with a lot of face lathering. I've gravitated to bigger, softer brushes to allow this without burning my skin. The lather I get is superb. Of all my fickleness in razors, stones, and strops, the one constant is MWF in a bowl, with a lot of water and hand working, followed by a healthy face lathering. I don't mind the extra time and effort, the shave is that pleasant. MWF in a bowl is all I've used for the past 18 months. I'll throw in some Castle Forbes Lavender cream sometimes on weekends, if I just want to go over the top.

Tabac and Speick stick are great for face lathering alone, they build quickly. But I still prefer MWF in a bowl, followed by face lathering.

Hi Tim
Thanks for the post...I personally never tried MWF, but from what I've read here (and other posts), it seems like I'm missing out. I am thinking, at some point, to get me some and try to see what the fuss is about .

Originally Posted by FatboySlim

Same here.

I started out DE shaving as a face latherer. I liked a fairly dry mix then, thin and very dense. Bowl lathering made no sense to me - why waste time building lather in a bowl, when I could build better lather right on my face?

Mitchell's Wool Fat turned me into a bowl latherer. I just couldn't face lather with it, and hated it. I got the same thin. bubbly, disappearing lather that many complain about with MWF. I have sensitive skin on my face that can actually get "sunburn" from too much brush work, so face lathering alone with MWF wasn't gettin' it.

...

Tabac and Speick stick are great for face lathering alone, they build quickly. But I still prefer MWF in a bowl, followed by face lathering.

Originally Posted by BladeRunner001

Well...we've all seen this debates: face lathering or bowl lathering.

This post is to put in my $0.02. Comments appreciated.

....snip...
So, in effect, we are ALL "closet" face latherers of some sort...Are we not?

Well I take the advantage of clear water soak time on
my whiskers while building a lather in the mug.
I splash cool water on my face and give it
a gentle rub.

I splash water on the puck and begin collecting soap...

I move to the mug and begin building a lather.

When the lather appears to come together I move to
the face and "finish" up the lather --- yes face lathering...

I've been trying to mug lather and use my redneck scuttle from Walmart at least a couple times a week but I am a very spoiled face latherer and it probably doesn't help that my go to soaps for summer time seem to be predominantly shavesticks. Anyway it seems like mug/scuttle lathering adds a whole other degree of luxury to the process but by the time I think about doing I'm usually finished with my shave.

All I do is face lather now with a bit of puck rubbing with the brush and water first. I just don't see the point of moving the brush to different containers and making my arm hurt to raise lather it does the same thing on my wet face..

...It saves a ton of time too.

I tend to bowl lather creams and face lather soaps. I enjoy doing both for different reasons but I usually bowl lather to heat up the lather and enjoy the experience.

I do both, but I do it on purpose.
For soaps, I face lather only. I'll start with a wet brush and swirl and load the soap right on the puck. If it's a stick, I go directly to my face with the stick then a slightly drier brush.

I use a bowl for creams, and i'm not so much making lather as loading my brush. I'll take a wrung out wet brush, swirl a few times to get some soap, and then start to load the brush in a small bowl. Once I start to see lather form, I take a look and judge how wet it is and start applying the brush to my face and adding water as I go.

If I'm doing uber lather (current favorite is MWF and T&H Rose). I'll typically use a larger bowl and in that case I'll load the brush on the soap and add a snurdle of lather directly into the bowl and start my mixing there. Then complete on my face.
Although my favorite way to make my favorite uber lather is to use my self made MWF shave stick, and then start the cream lather as I normally would and then mix directly on my mug =).

Scuttles are nice, but I don't have room for them on my sink.

Just my 2 cents..