Thread: Foaming at the mouth (a.k.a.-Face lathering)

Originally Posted by gugi

yeah, i foam at the mouth too... i think there have been only 3 exceptions to this throughout my shaving career, when I didn't know better.

scuttle is nice, but i found i'm too lazy to fill it in and dump it, so mine's now somewhere in europe... i think amsterdam, that's a place that causes mouth foaming to many.

Among many other curious and...ahem...drippy ailments of the mind and body.

I started face lathering recently (with my new brush) as well and I like it very much. I have no doubt that you had the peak right when you were bowl lathering but because face lathering is so good at prepping your beard and moisturizing your skin, you can leave your lather a bit thicker and experience the same if not better performance. Since I started face lathering, my skin turns so slick that I can touch up without reapplying lather. When I face lather, I start shaving when the groves left by the brush rubbing my face disappear quickly. It sure has to do with the additional time you rub the brush with lather on your face. As for the density per se, I do not think that it changes much as long as the soap to water ratio is kept constant.

Al raz.

Originally Posted by Seraphim

Last night I went for a quicky shave, no shower, no prep, just a splash of hot water and away I went. So I went without the bowl swirling, and rich lather building portion of the shave and just loaded up the brush (Arlington) and twiddled it around on my face, and cut down my whiskers. Not bad....

So, tonight I decide to skip the bowl (scuttle, actually) again. Loaded up my modded Shavemac with the trusty Tabac and face lathered yet again. It was interesting to say the least. Whereas I'm used to building a nice thick merangue(sp??) and then applying it to my face, my attempt at face lathering yielded a denser lather that really clung to my face, like mayo on a nice deli sandwich, instead of the lighter whipped cream consistancy I usually get from the bowl. Really, great coverage, nice and slick too.

Usually the application of the bowl whipped lather leaves peaks and valleys, some places thicker, others thinner, and you sort of have to chase the lather around your face (or I do anyhow). With my fledgling attempts at face lathering I got a nice, super dense application of lather. It could have perhaps done with a touch more water, but I'll have to work on that.

Any other face lathering gents out there with tips and suggestions?

One of my regrets is that the lather gets cold on the brush much faster than a scuttle full of suds...

I'm another face latherer. Use col conk soap (puck). +1 on using very little water at first-- I soak my brush, and put a little bit of hot water on the top of my puck (which is in my mug). I squeeze out nearly all of the water (since the puck will have a little on it), then load up the brush.

I am able to keep my lather warm by drizzling hot water at the *base* of my brush-- it works its way down and warms up the lather again. This method works well provided your brush is fairly "dry" to start with.

-Chief

I like building 90% of the lather on my face but start with 10% in a hot scuttle.

This morning I skipped the scuttle and really missed the hot lather and warm brush. It just did not stay anywhere the same warm temperature just running it under hot water alone. It is really worth the extra minute of time it takes total to fill a scuttle with hot water, drain when done, and wipe dry.

I fill the scuttle with hot water and enough to cover the bristles to the handle inside while I shower. When I exit the shower I refill the scuttle with hot water again and empty the brush area. Mix a little (10% of total made) foam in the scuttle and the rest on the face and leave the brush in the warm scuttle between passes. It really is a nicer luxury with a nice warm brush.

On weekends I use the hot face barber towel after the shower as well.

Last night I had an awesome face lather with a VDH boar and Valobra. I think the face lathering gets more slickness on the face. Bowl lathering is satisfying in the way the lather looks--all pillowy clouds of white lather, but when applied to the face, it is already airated, and thus (this is purely theoretical) doesn't make the same kind of lather-to-face interface as whipping up on the face itself does.

Maybe?

Anyhow, I know that my skin still feels really slick after a pass now like it never did when bowl lathering. It seems to impregnate the tallow directly into the skin!