Thread: how to use shaving soap?

What I do is this:

- Put a teaspoon of hot water on the top of the soap to soften it.
- Fill my mug with hot water and put the brush in to soak.
- After a couple of minutes take the brush out of the mug, empty all the water away and dump that teaspoon of soapy water into the mug.
- Give the brush a quick flick so its not dripping wet.
- Swirl the brush on the soap to load the brush. This usually takes 20 seconds or so. I also grip the actual brush hairs just by the knot to make the brush easier to load.
- Start making lather in the soapy water.
- I usually end up adding a dab more water to the mix, but the key to adding water is to add it a little at a time until the lather explodes out of the mug.

Then just apply to face and shave..!

Hello, Matthew:

Here is what I do with soap:

On the way to the shower, I put a tiny bit of hot water in the soap mug, just enough to cover the soap and soften it. The brush goes in to my lather bowl to soak in hot water (not boiling).

After the shower, I gently squeeze and shake the water from the brush. The lather bowl is emptied. Then I add about a tea spoon of the water from the soap mug into the lather bowl and dump the rest. Swirling the brush into the soap mug to load the brush takes about 30 seconds. Once the brush is loaded with soap, I begin to make lather in the lather bowl.

You might want to try that method or create your own variations. Everyone does it differently.

Regards,
Obie

Is there a big difference between lathering in a bowl or directly into the face? As for now, I am lathering directly at my face and I get a nice leather, but I always wondered what benefits a lathering bowl give.

Originally Posted by Hammett

Is there a big difference between lathering in a bowl or directly into the face? As for now, I am lathering directly at my face and I get a nice leather, but I always wondered what benefits a lathering bowl give.

Hello, Hammett:

I can make a rich and luxurious lather both ways, but I prefer to lather in a bowl. Using a bowl, I find my lather whips up better, with a richer texture. Not only that, I also enjoy the process by which the lather is made and find it therapeutic. Besides, I have two lovely and functional lather bowls, and I might as well use them, what?

Obviously, when traveling or at the gym, I lather directly onto the face.

Regards,
Obie

Lathering on the face helps to hydrate a bit better I would imagine, as you are applying moisture to the face and the scrubbing action preps the face pretty well.

Bowl lathering, however, is much more pleasant IMO because you will usually produce a quality cream that can be warm, thus pleasing upon application.

I use soap in the most simple way possible: Face lathering.

What I do is get ready for a shower, put water in a bowel for the brush to soak. Soak the brush, meanwhile the puck has some water covering the surface to soften it a bit. This is warm water of course.

When I get out of the shower I shake some water off the brush and whatever is left on the puck. I then swirl the brush (Omega Boar, btw) on the soap for about 30 seconds. I then face lather after rinsing my face with warm water after building soap on the brush. I keep my soap puck in a tupper ware with the screw on lid, it makes things easier than a fancy dish imo.

Done..

It's really that simple.

Originally Posted by Hammett

Is there a big difference between lathering in a bowl or directly into the face? As for now, I am lathering directly at my face and I get a nice leather, but I always wondered what benefits a lathering bowl give.

To me, and this is strictly my opinion, I think lathering in a bowl with a scuttle and stuff is a waster of time. I shave daily and I work at a bank so I get up pretty early. For me lathering up on my face has benefits, it really working the beard for a shave, and it saves me time.

I've recently moved to face lathering with MWF. When I use kissmyface it is easy to get a lather that lasts a long time, but I'm finding it a little harder to get consistantly good lather in a bowl with MWF. Its often a little runny or a little dry. When I face lather, however, I get a nice rich lather every time.

When using puck soaps, 30 seconds directly on the soap, then I lather on the face. For creams, a small bowl or scuttle does a nice job building up lathers. Sometimes, I just load up the brush a little with the cream and lather directly on the face and that works as well.

Whatever works for you and meets your preference is all good.

Pabster

I think its better with MWF to load up on a fairly or barely moist brush as much as you can applying with soap facing down brush up,after washing face apply,dont add water it will be too thick to shave thats what we want
keep lathering you face with this too dry to shave lather for a minute,do 60 passes with strop.go back to sink apply hot water in small amounts with brush until shaving consistency arrived at,i get good close shave doing this,i think the too dry to shave with lather sets the whiskers up somehow stripping grease maybe,anyhow this works for me