Best way to lather?

[JCMH]

I have been wet shaving off & on since I was 16, am 50 now, I use a Vulfix Mayfair brush and Taylor's creams along with a Atra II razor. My question is what is the best way to create the best lather..what I am doing now is dipping the tips in the cream & giving it a couple of swirls and lathering directly on to my face. I have heard that using a small bowl will create your best lather. What is the best way to create a thick lather, and if using a bowl how does one acheive this as far as technique goes.

New member by the way and my first post.

[MasonM]

I just wanted to say welcome. I'm still a newbie here myself and am still working on the whole lathering thing too.

I'm sure the fine gentlemen here can steer you in the right direction.

[JCMH]

Thanks Mason...I sure hope so, have been taking in an awful lot of info from this site before I joined, really looking forward to it all.

John

[Leisureguy]

A lot of people, not just myself, like creating the lather in a bowl. And it's easy enough to try: just get a reasonably deep cereal bowl from the kitchen and give it a go.

[roughrider]

Most guys use a bowl to generate lather. You can find nice ones at Target for a few dollars.

[TraderJoe]

I prefer lathering soaps directly on face, and creams in a bowl (although most of the time I'll lather a cream right on my face too). Overall, I tend not to use a bowl.

[birchhook]

Welcome to B&B!!

I've been thinking of creating a Meta-Faq and this is one of the questions that it would address. The best lathering links that I have found are:

The way NOT to do it
The right way to do it
Another good one
And finally, everyone can probably learn something from the wetshaving video series

[vox_rox]

I tried the lather directly on face thing, but I just found it to be too much work, and it uses more cream, and it takes longer.

After every pass, you need to rinse, then keep your face wet while you add more cream to your brush, then you build up the lather on your face which, I found, takes way more time. Then, I also find the lather not a thick as lather I built up in a bowl.

For me, it's bowl all the way. Also, when I'm done, I can use the bits of lather from the bowl and brush to clean the sink!

Peace,

Pierre

[rusirius]

I tried the lather directly on face thing, but I just found it to be too much work, and it uses more cream, and it takes longer.

After every pass, you need to rinse, then keep your face wet while you add more cream to your brush, then you build up the lather on your face which, I found, takes way more time. Then, I also find the lather not a thick as lather I built up in a bowl.

For me, it's bowl all the way. Also, when I'm done, I can use the bits of lather from the bowl and brush to clean the sink!

Peace,

Pierre

I'm not sure why you would have to apply more cream between each pass. I myself use a bowl and love it, but have tried using both my hand and just my face. Even when you use a bowl, the lather is IN THE BRUSH, not the bowl. Same with your face, if you build it to a lather, there should be PLENTY in your brush for as many passes as you care to make.

[Scotto]

Pretty much anything will work, but using a bowl will produce scads (pun intended) of lather faster than doing it on your face. It also makes it a bit easier to add water if necessary, keep the lather warm, etc. As for adding more cream in between passes, that is a new one on me. Any brush worth its salt will hold enough lather to shave several people without adding more cream.

[Suzuki]

I often lather directly on my face, but found that this wasn't working to well with my glycerine soaps in particular (shave sticks excepted).

While at an outdoor store, I found a nice stainless bowl and have been using it for the past couple of days. All I can say is that I'm a bowl convert - easier, quicker, more and better lather. Also, I float the bowl in the sink, which keeps the lather warm.

For me, a metal bowl was the only option, as I would almost certainly break any ceramic bowl within minutes of attempting to use it!

[sinekkaydi]

I prefer face but I do use bowl technique with creams occasionally...