Thread: Lathering: Mug vs. Face

Hi guys,

I would like to know how many of you guys practice lathering the soap using shaving mug or practice face lathering?

In your experience, which technique yield more lather with similar amount of soap?

Which in your opinion the easier/ more practical way?

Thanks for your feedback.

*tried searching for similar topic but couldn't find any.

I've been doing both. Start with the 'bowl' and brush; then move to finishing with 'face', with brush and hand.

I've only ever face lathered. It's far more practical and easier for me, in that I don't need to have any extra bits of un-necessary gear to have a respectable shave. I don't need lather to be any other temperature other than what comes out of the cold tap.
And I'm only having to create the lather once on my face, setting up the whiskers for the shave, rather than creating the lather once in the bowl, and then spending the same amount of time applying it to my face and setting up the whiskers.

Mick

It depends on what I use. When I was using creams, or an Überlather, I always used a bowl. Now I'm using mainly soaps, I always face lather.

For practising purposes, I would use a bowl.
For the actual shave, either way works just fine.
I use a scuttle most every day, but a face lathering is nice on occasion too

I used to face lather a lot after loading the brush, I also used a few stick soaps like Arko and got a great lather from that after direct application.

I recently bought a Thater brush, and in its care booklet it actually says not to face lather because long term lather building against course whiskers wears the brush bristles faster than bowl lathering so I haven't done it in a while, even ground down the stick soaps I had and made them into pucks. Using load-hydrate technique takes time but if I’m vigilant I always have more lather than I need and don't need to build additional lather on the face, I can still work it in like I would previously but don't need to keep working it. I do a lot more quick circles to stimulate hair and then switch to the painting stroke much quicker.

So far I've used 2 different soap; Baldfrog and Crabtree & Evelyn. With both soap, I find it easier to lather directly on the face. I usually swirl my brush for a good 8-10 sec and lather on the face and the amount left on the brush is enough for 3 passes. I only tried using a mug twice and find it longer and harder to lather with.

The question is, am I using more soap by direct face lathering?

Depending on how many passes you do, I think I use more soap lathing on the face because I have to keep going back to the soap or applying the soap to the face (if it is a stick soap). If I use a mug and load the brush properly I can continue to build lather if I run low just by adding water.

My initial load would be maybe 30seconds on the soap, then water, then go to the mug and start to lather, I work that for 1-2 minutes going to water every 20 seconds or so (just a tiny bit of water each time but it is crucial). After all of this I have a mug exploding with lather and have plenty for two passes. Before my third I’ll add some more water and work the mug again, and in about 30 seconds I have more lather (never going back to reload the brush off of the soap again).

I do both, bowl/scuttle uber lather at home and face lather while traveling. I use the scuttle at home everyday for the luxury of it and it does take longer but is not hard once you learn how. It is not mandatory to create a good lather though. I get a good lather face shaving and it is less time consuming but uses the same amount of soap if I am not making an uber lather with the scuttle. So no, I don't think when using a single soap that you use more with one or the other method.

If you want to keep things simple and don't want to learn bowl/scuttle lathering just keep face lathering if it is working for you.

Bob

Started off with bowl lathering, I initially found it easier to build a decent lather using the bowl and creams. These days I'm primarily a soap person and enjoy face lathering more. I've come to the realization that the whole point of using a brush to its full potential is to make use of its exfoliating properties and to better work the lather into the whiskers (felt that when I was bowl lathering, I was just spreading the lather onto my face).

Again, with regards to bowl lathering, I've noticed that I tend to use more product than I need as I always had this compunction to use more product. So, now, even if I use creams or uberlather, a quick spin on top of the cream (or in uberlather, load the brush with soap then the quick spin on the cream) is more than enough for a 3 pass shave.

Having said that, if you're starting off and would like to get to grips with building a great lather, I would start off with bowl lathering (a bit easier to control variables, i.e soap/cream to water ratio). Once you know what the consistency of the lather should be, you can always ditch the bowl. Finally, a very important factor for a face latherer like me is also laziness - one less thing (bowl) to clean at the end!!!

Ash