Are Shave Sticks the best way to make lather?

[Wal59]

RazorRock sticks are very good. Not very strong scents but nice lather. I use them at home together with soaps and the occasional cream.

I use LaToja while travelling because it has a plastic cover avoiding a mess in the travel kit. I have the old formula. It lathers well. Not sure about the new formula.

 

[Lord NSIC]

sticks make travel so much easier -- Arko and a synthetic brush (just because it dries quicker). To not have to deal with the paper around the Arko stick (getting/staying wet) I picked up a metal shave stick tube in an antique store and "loaded" the Arko into it--the Arko stick was larger than the tube, but Arko is soft so I was able to push the tube over the soap and the excess was peeled away on the outside of the tube. Container loaded, I stripped the leftover soap from the outside and put it in my Old Spice mug that I put all my leftover soap in (a mix of Williams, VDH, vintage SeaForth and now Arko). Also, a hard puck used as a stick--I think some of my best modern Williams lathers were by using it as a stick.

 

[musicman1951]

No. There is no best way to make lather. But I'm glad you found your best way to make lather.

All the methods to make lather work exceedingly well if your technique is up to the task. For the longest time I thought the scuttle was the best way to make lather (and still think it has some advantages). On the rare occasion I tried face lathering my suspicions were reinforced - clearly not as good. Then I face lathered every day for a while and, lo and behold, face lathering magically made the same great lather. Technique is king.

I do happily use a La Toja stick when traveling.

 

[blethenstrom]

I face lather exclusively. I load from the tub or rub a stick on my face. I like both methods. The stick method certainly makes sure you have plenty of product on your face. There are several reasons why I like face lathering, but especially one that is not talked much about. Since all the lather for all the passes are contained in the brush and if you rinse the face between each pass you end up with a bit thinner, but very slick, lather for each pass. I find this to help me especially for the ATG pass and get a truly close shave. If I have too thick of a lather on my ATG pass and the razor is on the milder side I do not end up with a satisfactory close shave.

 

[shave/brush]

All methods work for making lather, but they are different and will work in different ways for different people. I find that using a shave stick you get consistently good lather.
As someone mentioned above, some brushes don't work with a stick as well as others. I can never get a boar brush to work with a stick. I can only get enough lather for one pass if I'm lucky.

This is my favorite set-up. Nivea soap, Thorn razor, and Muhle 25mm brush.

 

[vtmax]

Sticks are great. I always get wonderful lathers from sticks. Favorite is the wide body Tallow Tabac by far.

Another advantage of sticks is they can be cut in two or three or grated right into Tabac’s ceramic jar or whatever brand one is using.

 

[Brutus]

I see the convenience of shaving sticks when travelling, but for me shaving sticks are a distant third after shaving soaps and shaving creams.

I shave with straight razors most of the time and find that rubbing shaving soap (either as stick or as puck) directly on my face does not make for a very comfortable shave.

Among the sticks, I prefer the Tabac ones as they have a larger surface area than most sticks, which makes for a more comfortable shave than smaller sticks.

La Toja is out for me, when La Toja dropped the shaving creams, they effectively removed themselves from my den, shaving sticks included.
Lea sticks are not that great IMO, and Palmolive went out of production a long time ago.

That effectively leaves Tabac, unless I grab a small Haslinger shaving puck that actually works quite well as stick.
But they come in these handy metal tins with screw cap that are easy to carry, so I might as well use them as shaving soap, like they are intended to be used.


If I were not shaving with straight razors as much I might like sticks better, but as it is, I rarely use them.



B.

 

[Ratso]

I’ve been away for the last month. I brought an Arko stick, a Nivea stick, and a tub of white Proraso. They all performed well. When using a stick I rub it on my face and swirl a fairly dry brush around. I end up with more of paste than lather. I transfer as much as I can from the brush to a bowl and wet the brush and lather my face again. I’ll do the transfer one more time, wet the brush again and get a nice lather on my face. I do the first pass and rinse. Now I dribble some water into the bowl and work up a nice lather. I load up lather from the bowl for my last two passes. I get tons of great lather doing this.

 

[shave/brush]

I’ve been away for the last month. I brought an Arko stick, a Nivea stick, and a tub of white Proraso. They all performed well. When using a stick I rub it on my face and swirl a fairly dry brush around. I end up with more of paste than lather.** I get tons of great lather doing this.

It seems we do a similar method, but I use less steps. I apply the soap and then use a fairly wet brush but still end up with more paste than lather. **What I do then is, add a few drops of water to my brush and work the lather on my face again.
This produces the best lather I ever saw.