Finished- Carnival contest # 2... CALLING ALL LATHERMEISTER'S

[russ668]

1) Fill mug with hot water and let brush soak while showering (expect this morning, I forgot to soak it)
2) Empty mug, shake water out of brush, add dollop of cream in bottom of mug
3) start whipping/swirling whilst keeping a slow trickle of water running in the sink, dip the mug into the water adding a little at a time until you start to see a nice lather coming on
4) I basically "finish" the lather process on my face, I've noticed the first pass where I'm srubbing it on it goes on super thin, then I "paint" my face over what I've just done and it thickens up very nicely.
5) all set! Ready to shave, usually end up re-lathering about 4 or 5 times to get my desired smoothness.
6) Rinse the brush in warm water, give it a shake, check it for clumps of lather, if present keep rinsing, then shake it out and set back into the stand to dry and get ready for tomorrow's shave.

 

[john parker]

Warm bowl and brush with hot water. Drain bowl; drain brush to quite dry. Add a dollop of cream to the brush, and start lathering in the bowl. However, do not add water in order to get a very thick lather on the brush. Wet face with hot water, then develop the lather on the face with the brush. Between passes, zip the tip of the brush through the hot water running from the faucet. Lather turns out perfect, and each pass is warm! Thanks, John

 

[Tzar]

HEIRKB (Jim):

Just wanna congratulate you for your effort !

Man, if you get a prize, you won't have stolen it.

Thanks for that very graphically and very informative post ! I actually learned you could do rush no-brush lather on face ! Didn't know that, good to remember !

 

[Jopo]

My process is:
1) Soak brush while in shower
2) Slather coconut oil on face while in shower
3) Whip out water from brush, re-soak in hot water and flick again
4) Hold bowls under hot running water
5)Fill bottom bowl with hot water, place second interlocking bowl on top of first bowl
6)Charge brush with Olive Oil glycerin soap
7) Lather up a squirt of shaving cream and go to town

 

[gollum83]

Well I'll offer up some tips for using a boar brush to generate lather.

1) First of all, soak the brush for a few minutes. Boar bristle loves to absorb water. So by soaking it for a minutes minutes before generating lather, you'll make sure that the bristle have absorbed all the water they need and aren't sucking up water while you're trying to lather. The time it takes you to shower should be more than sufficient. Or if you don't shower before shaving, the time it takes to brush your teeth or comb your hair.

2) When you're ready to start your lather, remove the brush from water and let the excess drip out before using. Don't squeeze or shake. Once it stops dripping, it's ready to use and shouldn't require any more water, or at least that's been my experience. As always, YMMV.

3) An exception I make to the no-squeeze, no-shake rule is when I'm face lathering. If I'm face lathering, I'll give the brush a short, small shake to remove a bit more water than usual. I just find it easier to generate lather on the face this way.

4) Boar bristle will soften with use. It'll take about a week or two to 'break-in' at which point most of the tips should be starting to split and the brush is holding more lather and is easier to lather with, although some brands like Semogue take a little longer to break in. So if your boar brush is new, stick with it for awhile. It will get better, it just needs some time to develop.

 

[dashmaverick]

I'll keep this short and sweet. I like to shave in the shower as it saves time and is good for beard prep. I wet my Van der Hagen brush (yes, VDH... Been using it for about year and it works great). I put about 2cm of cream on the brush, usually Derby or Proraso. Then, I go to town and face lather. For me, it works great and saves me time in the mornings... no soaps or mugs or lather bowls. You should try it.

Have a great weekend Gents,

 

[fidjit]

mmmm, interesting competition, and I'm really not sure that I can add much to anyones techniques listed above ( especially Heirkb's epic post )however I think that EVERYONE has missed ONE FUNDAMENTAL step in making their lather....and it's probably the hardest part of the whole process

DECIDING WHICH PRODUCTS TO USE TO MAKE YOUR LATHER

I don't have a huge range of products but every morning it comes down to:
1. Should I bowl lather, face lather ?
2. Soap, Shavestick or Cream ?
3. Scrubby boar or silky soft Silvertip ????

Of course there's so many factors involved here, how awake am I , is the weather hot or cold , how's my face from yesterdays shave, what do I feel like smelling this morning, did I get something new to try yesterday .....etc.........

THIS is the hardest part of making lather every morning and one in which no amount of tutorials will help !!!

Some days this process may take more time than the lathering itself

 

[heirkb]

HEIRKB (Jim):

Just wanna congratulate you for your effort !

Man, if you get a prize, you won't have stolen it.

Thanks for that very graphically and very informative post ! I actually learned you could do rush no-brush lather on face ! Didn't know that, good to remember !

Thank you for the kind comments. Now I'm just curious, where does it say that my name is Jim?
My name is actually a bit of a "weird" one (in that it's hard to say and not too common ). It's Ehsan

The quick lather is not quite as nice as the full on lather, but if you're just out of the shower so you have some decent prep, it works pretty well. I've never tried going ATG with it though. Only WTG and XTG

 

[Tzar]

Thank you for the kind comments. Now I'm just curious, where does it say that my name is Jim?

Well, now that you're asking, I'm wondering too why I thought your name was Jim

I guess I confused your signature with somebody else but still got your member name right

 

[Prince]

1. Get the brush, mug and bowl nice and hot by soaking in hot water.
2. Splash liberal amount of hot H20 on the face.
3. drain water from bowl.
4. add cream
5. lather up in the bowl
6. Add to face and shave.

 

[bwatts]

I quite like applying pre-shave oil followed by the hot towel works really well with me

 

[The Knize]

Step 1: Fill electric water kettle with cold water from the super high capacity large bathtub facet it is located right next to. Put kettle on its base and press the on lever.

Step 2: Get out medium-sized stainless steel kitchen mixing type bowel, ceramic Chinese soap bowel, silver-tip badger brush, shaving cream (let's say tube of Prosaro green), tin or bowel of shaving soap du jour, and small bottle of glycerine.

Step 3: When water is hot, it does not have to be a full boil by any means and that electric kettle is fast, rinse out ceramic bowel with hot water, then pour a little water into it to stand, pour a good-szed amoung of hot water into the metal bowel. Put kettle back on to keep heating.

Step 4: Pour out much of the water in the ceramic bowel--leave some water--and put a dab of shaving cream at the bottom, maybe the size of an almond. (Use more Prosaro than, say, Pen's). Pour in say 1/2 teaspoon of glycerine.

Step 5: Dip, do not drop in that water is hot, the brush into the water in the metal bowel, shake out a little bit, not completely, and swirl the brush over the shaving soap to pick up an appropriate amount of it.

Step 6: Make lather in the ceramic bowel with the combination of shaving soap, shaving cream, and glycerine. Swirl the brush around, but also pump up and down. Add water from the kettle if necessary. The idea is to make lather not foam, so don't stop with large bubbles, keep working it until the the bubbles are indiscernably tiny and you have true lather.

Step 7: Do some face lathering getting the lather all up and around the whiskers.

Step 8: Place the ceramic bowel with the brush inside it in the water that is in the metal bowel It should not float because it might tip. If the water in the bowel has cooled a lot, refresh it from the kettle.

Step 9: Take you shower initially wearing the lather.

Step 10: When you get out of the shower give the later in the ceramic bowel a few whips, add hot water if it needs it, which is rare in my experience, and re-face lather. Put ceramic bowel with brush insde back in metal bowel, refreshing hot water if necessary.

Step 11: Shave one side of face with the grain. Wipe off all lather and relather entire face. Shave the other side WTG and them come back across and against the grain as is your style reapplying lather as you desire. I think the old barbers used just just warm water against the grain, but it makes no sense to me.

 

[narativesoul]

well first i run the water, so it gets as hot as possible, then fill up my 3$ poor mans scuttle(Self watering planter) then fill sink, then get out the cream/soap then the after shave and the witch hazels. the next step is to soak my face with the hot water from sink then build my lather up nicely, then proceed to shave

 

[texbilly]

Dang it, too many posted methods are remarkably similar to mine (with the clear exception of the method involving the dog ), so I will pass. Good luck to all!

 

[Scotchd]

No Pircures, because I typically do everything in the shower. No one wants to see that.

1.) Watch a Mantic59 Video or two.
2.) Go prep everything, thinking "This time, I've got it!"
3.) Soak brush, but then shake it out too much, leaving it dry
4.) Swirl in bowl until it creates a pasty, low foam lather.
5.) Throw away that lather. Throw a few curse words out.
6.) Watch Mantic's videos again
7.) Prep everything for another practice run
8.) Soak Brush, shake it lightly.
9.) Swirl in the bowl for 10 seconds, get frustrated that the lather is way too runny, and give up for the day.
10.) Wake up, watch a Mantic Video again
11.) Prep stuff.
12.) Soak Brush, shake out lightly, but a little harder than before.
13.) Swirl in Bowl.
14.) Keep swirling - Looks good so far!
15.) It looks great!
16.) Apply to face and shave.

Hoping to get it to 10 or less steps soon!

 

[crazycleanshave]

1. put my badger hair brush into a mug of hot water while i wet my face with a hot cloth.
2. rub a wee bit of Body Shop Maca Root cream into my beard-reapply hot wet cloth for about 5 min.
3- add a pea sized cream dap to my mug and stir it up into a thick creamy lather on my brush
4-apply to face/shave

 

[dmnall]

What I do for Bowl Lathering *occasionally*

1. Fill up Sink with Hot Water, place Bowl and brush in sink. Turn my crock pot on to High!
2. While in the shower wash hair and face.
3. Then after washing hair and face, put more soap on my face and leave it.
4. Wash body and rinse..
5. Turn the water temp up to get it hotter and rinse off my face.
6. Get out of the shower, turn the crock pot down to warm.
7. Pull out bowl and brush, drain both and make sure no water dripping out of brush
8. Start making my lather and shave!

Shave = BBS.. For Face lathering the same except minus the crockpot and bowl, the brush *bbe* holds warmth to keep the lather warm!

Cheers,

 

[rm71]

1. Soak brush in warm water while prepping
2. Dump water in my bowl that I use to rinse my face
3. Add cream in my lathering bowl
4. Remove excess water from my brush
5. Swirl brush around in my lathering bowl, adding more HOT water if needed.
6. When I have a good lather, apply to face.
7. Go back to bowl lather up again, maybe adding more hot water.

 

[thunderball]

• Hold boiling hot towel to face for 3 mins.
• Soak brush for about 30 seconds.
• Shake out brush slightly.
• Apply cream to bristle tips.
• Massage into beard adding water as necessary.

Nothin fancy.

 

[Jim]

Dang it, too many posted methods are remarkably similar to mine (with the clear exception of the method involving the dog ), so I will pass. Good luck to all!

Post it anyway!