Thread: Bowl or Face?

Used to be a face lathering, now it's warm scuttle to lather only as I find the scent and body of the lather develops so much more robustly when allowed to warm and develop via slowly building the lather. Also, I've come to hate putting a brush full of cold lather on my face, you just can't beat warm lather that's been allowed to brew for a little while.

As always, YMMV....

If you face-lather with warm water, there isn't an issue with a cold brush meeting your face.

Originally Posted by celestino

If you face-lather with warm water, there isn't an issue with a cold brush meeting your face.

+1. I use hot water to face lather and, much like Bob, I add water to keep it hydrated each pass (when I don't do a 1 pass multi directional shave). My lather is warm every time. Never a cold brush.

Face-lathering using very hot water. There seems to be less waste for me this way.

I face lather soaps, lightly hand lather creams and finish on face.

Why? Because the longer that soap/cream/lather has to soak in and work on my beard, the better the shave. A Campbell Latherking would be the ultimate warm, thick lather, but it's only one step removed from canned goo in my opinion because it simply doesn't have time to work into the shafts of your beard.

My dad used a Latherking in his barbershop, but he would also lather first, then wrap a steaming hot towel around a customers face.... after a while, the towel comes off, lather removed and then another steaming hot towel and only after that second towel did a second round of lather appear and the shave began. To me, face lathering is much the same, giving plenty of time for the water and soap to do it's work.

Regards

Christian

I have loved the feeling of warm lather ever since I was old enough for the barber to trim around my ears with a real SR. I guess that dates me. I want copious amounts of warm lather available throughout a three pass shave. I find that I can most easily achieve that with a combination of bowl and face lathering.

To get nice warm lather, I purchased an electric candle warmer with a flat top. For safety, it is plugged into an outlet protected by a GFCI.

For my bowl, I use a Corelle deep cereal bowl that has a flat bottom. Often mugs and bowls have a rimmed bottom that limits the contact between the heater surface of the candle warmer and the bowl.

Since it takes a while for the candle warmer to heat up, I turn it on before I shower. I rinse the bowl in hot water and place it on the warmer. If lathering a cream, I will place a dollop of the cream along with a similar amount of water so they will heat up while I shower. My brush goes into a mug filled with hot water.

After showering to clean and hydrate my beard, I am ready to start the process of lathering. By now the bowl and its contents will be very warm. I shake excess water from the brush and begin lathering in the bowl. I bowl lather only to the point of having a soft lather. Then I complete the lather development on my face to exfoliate the beard. Once the lather is shave ready, the brush goes back into the bowl on top of the warmer so I will have additional hot lather for subsequent passes.

My process with hard soaps is a little different. I keep my soap pucks in flat bottom ramekins. Before showering, I will add just enough hot water to the ramekin to cover the puck. That will bloom the soap while I shower. I then place the ramekin on the candle warmer. After showering, I will rinse my shaving bowl in hot water and then pour the bloom water from the soap into the bowl. After loading the shaving brush with soap, I then proceed to develop a soft lather in the bowl and then complete the lathering process on my face, just as I would for a cream.

While this might seem a little cumbersome to some readers, the extra process insures I get lots of nice, warm lather for all the passes. If you like warm lather, check out a candle warmer.

Face lather for me. Usually a cold water shave. I use a glycerin pre-shave soap and it seems to not only clean up the skin, but boost the lather a bit as well.

Shaving and Mixing bowl for me. I like a nice warm whipped lather that emulsifies the face. Either way will work but this is my personal preference.

Face. I enjoyed my Dirty Bird Scuttle but just one more thing to clean and if I'm not paying attention, my soap likes to dry out.

I'm partial to bowl-lathering. Whip up enough lather for two passes plus touch-ups. Leave it at that and not have to futz with it afterwards--concentrate on the shave itself instead. Oh yeah, and Portuguese lanolin creams in old-school metal tubes rule in this regard.