Tutorial: How to make lather from a shaving cream with a bowl

cluelessdude said:

I have a small question. Does the size of the bowl impact how much lather you get from a product? My bowl is rather small unfortunately from Shavemac. When I ordered it looked bigger in the pictures. I'm curious if I use a bigger size bowl/mug will I get more lather?

Click to expand...

Yes and no... If the bowl is too small you risk having lather flying all over the place. The bowl that I used is small IMO. If the bowl that you have is the same that Muhle makes, I tried that one and found it to be too small.

If it can help, the bowl that I used up there is ~3" diameter and ~1" deep. When I used a bowl, it was perfect. I now only face lather since I dropped my my set of bowls on the floor...

If you're logged into the forum, you'll see the pictures. If you're not, you won't. You have to login to post a reply... hence they show up afterwards - not because you replied, but because you logged in. All that's really necessary is to login at the top of the page and when it refreshes you should see the pictures.

As someone who's new to wet shaving and still find it difficult to properly lather my cream, this tutorial is greatly appreciated, Luc. Thanks for your contribution!

Well over a year after you made this tutorial I am the latest new wet shaver that it has helped. The last time I shaved by the third pass my lather was actually kind of sticky, so I knew I was doing something wrong. It turns out I wasn't using anywhere near as much water as I needed. I practiced this a couple times last night, the first time gradually adding water and I ended up with a really nice lather. I tried again and was seeing if I could do it quick enough for it to still be warm and used too much water, but man what a great feeling to work warm lather into my beard. Thank you very much for taking the time to make this tutorial. I am really looking forward to shaving with some decent lather for once.

Another newbie that this tutorial helped. Thank you

Thanks for the tutorial. Another noob has been helped. I've gone through half my tube of TAOS sandalwood putting it directly on the brush. It hasn't been working well for me.

Luc said:

3-Do not squeeze out the water completely otherwise your lather will be too dry. I usually half squeeze the brush. If you squeezed the brush too much, you can either re-soak it or add a few drops later while you mix.

8-I squeezed too much water out so I will add a few drops (the lather is pulling the brush too much and can't seem to get bigger). I added around 3-5 drops of hot water

Click to expand...

The two big points for me. I recently gave shaving creams a try and used TOBS from a tube. Found it kept "pulling" the knot in the centre. I previously used GFT soap and kept the brush slightly drier to help wih loading.

Will try this later today.

I have shaken the brush a few times rather then squeezed the brush-less chance of error and the brush being too dry.

Is there a possibility of having a photo tutorial for creams which are not from a squeeze tube? I am wondering how to apply creams that are in tubs as in, for example, TOBS creams.

Thanks kindly for any helpful info. I've been looking around for step by step tutorials and consulting mantic59's videos on youtube.

Still having a bunch of confusion as to many different ways of making lather from creams and soaps. Thanks again.

rebos said:

Is there a possibility of having a photo tutorial for creams which are not from a squeeze tube? I am wondering how to apply creams that are in tubs as in, for example, TOBS creams.

Thanks kindly for any helpful info. I've been looking around for step by step tutorials and consulting mantic59's videos on youtube.

Still having a bunch of confusion as to many different ways of making lather from creams and soaps. Thanks again.

Click to expand...

The difference will be how you extract the cream from the tub. It could be using your finger, charging the brush on top or using something else such as a popsicle stick.

I love shaving porn this early in the morning....

Luc said:

The difference will be how you extract the cream from the tub. It could be using your finger, charging the brush on top or using something else such as a popsicle stick.

Click to expand...

Thanks for this. Should I be aiming for around the same amount of cream? (almond-size) in all instances?

rebos said:

Thanks for this. Should I be aiming for around the same amount of cream? (almond-size) in all instances?

Click to expand...

Depends, you might need to experiment. Could be more but that's a start...

I use an old collar stay or espresso spoon to take the cream out of the tub. But as luck said, anything will do.

So glad I read this!
I've been using about 3 times the amount of cream you use and wringing my brush out too much which makes a very thick foam which lifts my hairs but clogs my razor!

Great post, just bought some C.O. Bigelow yesterday as my first cream to start using and this morning it didn't go so hot, wish I'd seen this first, now I know...well now I've read.

Great post.

I'm finding that my shaving cream ends up having lots of air in it and is not as creamy as I think I want it. It looks like your 6th picture and not the ones after that. Maybe I just need to whip longer? But when I whip longer the cream just gets bigger and starts to overflow the bowl even though I just use a little dollop. I am currently using Trufitt and Hill cream.

Bassman60 said:

Great post.

I'm finding that my shaving cream ends up having lots of air in it and is not as creamy as I think I want it. It looks like your 6th picture and not the ones after that. Maybe I just need to whip longer? But when I whip longer the cream just gets bigger and starts to overflow the bowl even though I just use a little dollop. I am currently using Trufitt and Hill cream.

Click to expand...

It needs more mixing if it looks like picture 6 yes. If the lather gets out of the bowl, that's all right. Obiviously, you want to keep all the lather in but it happens.

Great Tutorial! Thanks! i was wondering what i was doing wrong because i was getting more razor burn from t + h then before i made the switch to wet shaving with a brush!

awesome post, Im new at this and can always use good tips!