I don't distinguish between the lather from the bowl and the lather in the brush. I just whip it up in the bowl, better control of the lather's soap/cream to water ratio. I have a relatively small brush and depend on the lather in the bowl beyond two passes. With a 20 minute shave you can expect the lather to collapse/densen and/or dehydrate so adding a few sprinkles of water and rewhipping for the final pass is not unheard of, neither is gathering it up with the brush and spreading it around the face, then dipping just the tips of the brush in water or under the faucet to wet the lather further for the slickness needed for more aggressive strokes of the final pass. I'm a really versatile, dynamic, exciting shaver that way, I can be a bowl OR face latherer. There's really not much difference, it's about understanding the fundamentals and applying them effectively during the shave, not rocket science.
It's kind of like creams vs. soaps, they're basically the same thing, just in slightly different forms. No broad categorization like "creams" and "soaps" can have comparable superiority over wetshaving issues like slickness/glide and cushion/protection. It's brand, water issues, user ability/technique, etc. that makes the real difference.
The real variables are number of intended passes, size of the face and size of the brush. I should also note I originally used a very small bowl (little plastic rice bowl) for bowl lathering in the beginning. It wasn't a problem because I was already comfortable with reloading the brush after the 2nd pass and adding water and making more lather. Nowadays I try to load the brush one and a half times, squeezing out the lather gently between thumb and forefinger after the first loading, due to a smaller brush. It works for all of my soaps and creams and doesn't significantly add to my shaving time.Quote:
Originally Posted by mjsorkin
With a well loaded large brush, you could probably just face lather off the brush for an acceptable number of passes to do the job, bowl lathering is just easier, especially for people with smaller brushes who do more passes than their brush can provide.