Thread: brush filled with lather or bowl filled with lather?

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.

Originally Posted by mjsorkin

Do you aim to produce your lather so that it makes lot's of lather outside of the brush and then you pick that up with the brush and apply to face?

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.

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.

Originally Posted by mjsorkin

Do you aim to produce your lather so that it makes lot's of lather outside of the brush and then you pick that up with the brush and apply to face?

Or do you use the lather that gets loaded inside the brush to build up a coat on your face, anything that's in the bowl/scuttle/mug just stays there?

-----Michael

I prefer bowl lather making, but ultimately most of the lather is on my brush. I find that as I use the lather off the tip of my (soft) brushes, the lather builds up near the base of the knot. I sort of squeegee the lather off the brush back onto the edge of the bowl. With it back in the bowl, I can pick up a little at a time on the tip of the brush and strategically apply it to places I want to touch up - e.g. upper lip. Also, by getting the lather back out of my brush, I end up using most of what I make.

Shave on!

I'm not sure I'm following the OP's question but I build lather in a bowl which loads the brush. After each pass, I tend to spend a few seconds re-whipping the lather in the bowl which freshens the brush again. Even using the least bit of product I always end up with way more lather than I needed. And like others, I will often squeeze out my brush on that last pass to get to the primo lather left in the brush.

If your talking about just picking up lather with the brush without saturating the whole brush in lather vs. saturation of the whole brush with lather then I would say try and do both.

Squish the brush down while doing circles with the brush and you'll get both - outside lather and brush saturation.

regards alex

i actually recently asked this question.

i put two almond size dollops in a bowl . 90% of my larger is in my brush.

i have a Crabtree & Evelyn pure badger brush.

Nine months later I can answer my own question.

Any Lather in the bowl can get scooped up and wiped on the face. Some stays inside the brush. It's the same no matter how one lathers.

IME a bigger, softer brush eats more lather.

Michael