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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
In other words, do you bowl lather or face lather?
I'm primarily a bowl latherer. I feel I have better control of the soap/water ratio that way, so by the time the brush hits my face the lather is already perfect (or near perfect). JMHO of course, there are a lot of members who prefer face lathering for various reasons.
No, not bowl vs face.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryan82
After I lather in a bowl the brush is literally full of lather. One can also generate additional lather in the bowl that doesn't stay in the brush.
My question is regarding the lather in the brush vs the lather in the bowl.
-----Michael
I always make more lather than I need, I see no reason to skimp on it. Here's from a recent shave using modern Williams:
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/1658/williams2.jpg
By blix72 at 2012-01-26
personally i have found that you create easily twice the lather you probably need. the brush alone contains enough to last 5 shaves without the bowl. lathering by bowl and loading up the brush is entirely inefficient but that is how i normally do it. a little goes a long way if you are concerned about usage every day try cutting your amount in half and find the point where it just is not sufficient. i just put a finger scoop of cream or a good 15 seconds loading the brush in with a tablespoon of hot water and make more lather then anyone could ever need and toss it out in the end. with over 30 soaps and creams in the den i am not too concerned about efficiency.
otherwise if i miss interpreted your question i am not sure there is any way to lather in a bowl and in the process not completely load up the brush as well. the only way i know to lather and not have a brush full is face lathering which is probably more efficient but suffers for the ability to reach the 'perfect' blend of soap and lather without real skill.
I usually bowl lather and once my brush is saturated with lather, then any (extra) lather produce stay in the bowl. I kind of think that the lather (deep) in the brush is of better shaving qualities, but that's more a personal impression.
whoa, you actually got such a nice lather with a williams soap...? I'm impressed, I've never obtained something that close to a nice lather with it...Quote:
Originally Posted by Blix
synthetic brush? i have heard gives a better lather easier. hard water? i bet this is the least common denominator of everyone's ability to create lather. grate the williams into a cup and try letting a brush full of hot water soak into the soap while you are in the shower. pour the soapy water in your scuttle and load a relatively well shaken brush with the now soft soap. doing it this way seems to always give me a great lather regardless of soap.Quote:
Originally Posted by christophe
Quote:
Originally Posted by christophe
Yeah, I get that lather every time with Williams, it works quite nicely for me. I used a Semogue SOC boar brush that day. We have very soft water here, that may help. :) No grating, no soaking..
I see. In that case, what I do is use the lather from the bowl for additional passes. Then, for my final ATG touch ups, I squeeze the rich lather from the brush and apply that to my face.Quote:
Originally Posted by mjsorkin
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.
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by mjsorkin
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