Lathering directly on your face

[2clfrwrds]

I was on travel the past ten days, and lacking my usual lathering bowl, I became a student of lathering directly on my face.

Since I began wet shaving last June, I've used a bowl to build up extravagant, "Cool Whip" lather, with glistening peaks like the top of a lemon meringue pie. Although that was a lot of fun, I now question how effective it was...

Lathering directly on my face gives me a heavier, drier lather. There is much less cushion; indeed, the dry lather seems to pull the razor closer to my skin. This wouldn't have been good when I was just starting out, but now that I have a good sense of blade angle, less cushion gives me a closer shave.

I suspect it also helps that, when you build the lather on your face, you have to spend more time working the brush and lather into your beard.

Now that I'm home at last, I'm still lathering directly on my face. I enjoy the simplicity of it, and I'm getting much closer shaves. I encourage anyone with just a bit of experience to give it a try!

--Glenn

BTW, post number 100!

[rafikz]

Congrats on post 100

I too used to bowl tons of meringue lather, only to watch some excess lather going down the drain...sometimes i would do useless passes just to use the extra-lather

Now I've switched to face lathering ; the results :

-Better face prep (as u said, lather gets in much easier than with premade lather) ; plus, my face is still wet when I bring the brush to my face
-Saves time!
-Less mess, and more space around the sink (those bowls....)
Ur lather should not be dry ; if it's the case, lightly dip the tips of the brush in warm water (lightly, u don't want to "soup" ur lather)
There is less "explosion" of lather when you lather on the face, but it doesn't matter (to me at least)

I have a few questions for you :

-did you have enough lather for 2 passes (or more)?
-Do u put the cream on the tips of the brush , in the center or do u poke and twist in the tub? or (almost forgot that one) do u use the shave stick technique (some dabs on the cheeks and bring brush to face)?

Wow, post 501 for me ! did u say Levi's?

[postoumios]

I've been wetshaving for mor than 25 years and I've never used a bowl in my life (my grandfather who taught me how to shave never used one either).
IMHO you wast a lot of time using a bowl,and even though you create more leather you never actually used it..(I can get 3-4 passes by lathering directly on my face..)
If you want a thicker,wetter lather by lathering on your face you can easily do it,simply add more water.

Nick

[Stauff]

For me it's mostly a brush issue. A Chubby 1 in super actually does a better job on my face than in the bowl. It's a real scrubby brush, great stiffnes of the badger hairs, plus the knot is so incredibly dense that big lather in the bowl is rather hard to achieve.

Some soaps also don't produce big lather in the bowl, but rather slick lather on the face IMO. Examples are Golddachs Spezial and Cella crema da Barba.

With another brush, like the polo 8, I do enjoy lathering in the bowl enourmously.

[javyn]

I prefer face-lathering as well. Even with creams, I only use the bowl to get the lather started, then do the work on my face. I doubt the stainless steel shaving bowl appreciates the soft, yet supple texture of my brushes the way my face does, so it only makes sense my face should get to feel the work

[alchemist]

Glen, thanks for starting this interesting thread. Today i will try to lather directly on the face and see what happens. It does seem a shame to spend so much time lathering a fine brush onto a bowl when the face should be the recipient of the exfoliating and softening effects of the brush, even though there will be less lather. And i'll use my smaller and more densely packed Duke 3 brush for that.
Best,

[Leisureguy]

With a shaving stick, you willy-nilly lather on the face. Since I enjoy QED's shaving sticks so much, I've been lathering on my face more. But I still enjoy using a bowl at other times. It depends on my mood, the soap or cream or combination, the brush, etc. I find that (for me) a very large brush works better if I lather in a bowl, for example.

[2clfrwrds]

I have a few questions for you :

-did you have enough lather for 2 passes (or more)?
-Do u put the cream on the tips of the brush , in the center or do u poke and twist in the tub? or (almost forgot that one) do u use the shave stick technique (some dabs on the cheeks and bring brush to face)?

Rafikz,

I get enough lather for 4 passes, easily, although beginning with pass 3, I give the base of the bristles a little squeeze, to bring more lather to the tips. I've been putting cream on the tips of the brush, but now that you mention it, your "shave stick" technique sounds interesting. I'll try that soon, thanks!

Best,
Glenn

[Leisureguy]

With a shaving stick, I scrub the stick vigorously all over my wet beard, against the grain. Everywhere that has stubble gets a rub. So the beard is well soaped before the brush even touches it. This produces plenty of lather for four passes.

[bernards66]

Glenn, A "heavier drier" lather actually provides more cushion, not less, assuming you're using the same product in both cases. More water in the mix = less cushion, and vice versa. This is why with products like straight Marseilles soap, or the opaque glycerine soaps, one will get goobs of fluffy lather, but the cut will be very close, with little protection. Normally, when you mix in a bowl, the first pass lather will be the wettest, and this is just as well. For the second and third passes, the lather will have thickened and 'dried' a little, offering a bit more protection. I lathered on my face for years, but a few years back, I switched over to lathering in my palm ( a la the Trumper's barber's technique ) and then to using a small bowl. I found that doing so gave me more control over the texture of the lather I was using. Most traditional shavers try different approaches over time, before settling into what turns out to work best for them. This process often goes on for years ( chuckle ).
Regards,
Gordon

[rustyblade]

Since I began wet shaving last June, I've used a bowl to build up extravagant, "Cool Whip" lather, with glistening peaks like the top of a lemon meringue pie. Although that was a lot of fun, I now question how effective it was...

Lathering directly on my face gives me a heavier, drier lather. There is much less cushion;

BTW, post number 100!

This is exactly what I discovered while traveling. While I used a small ziplock container as a bowl to build a small lather, I didn't spend much time building mounds of lather like I do at home. Shaving performance was noticeably better. Interesting when you figure these things out. Like Gordon said, sometimes it takes a while to find your perfect technique.

[alchemist]

Well, i tried lathering directly on the face with Coates rose and a Duke 3 this morning and got a pretty sub par lather. It wasn't thick enough though it was quite lubricating. I've always liked a thick lather for adequate cushioning as i've got a pretty sensitive mug, especially under my lower lip area extending to the chin. Perhaps i have to use a combination of some initial lathering on a hand or bowl and then transferring most of the work to the face, or using a shave stick, because cream directly to the face did not work for me.
Cheers,

[bernards66]

Mahesh, It didn't work for me either. It so didn't work, that it turned me off to the creams for a couple more years, and I returned to hard soaps. I use a combination approach, as do the barbers at Trumpers for instance. The initial lather is mixed in the bowl, which gives me the chance to get the cream/water ratio just so. Then it's transfered to the face, where it is worked in with the brush, and a tad more water added, if necessary. But most serious shavegeeks mess around with this and that, and different techniques can work well for different gents.
Regards,
Gordon

[tm3]

i'm new enough at this that i'm open to trying new techniques, so this morning i lathered directly on my face with proraso. this was the technique my father always used back in the days when he was still using a brush.

i was surprised at the quantity of lather, and that i had enough for 3 passes. actually there was enough for 4 if i had wanted to go that far. the resulting shave was one of the best i've had, but of course it is hard to say if that is a direct result of face lathering or just variation in my razor skills.

[penshaver]

I found that with Proraso, I get the best results by rubbing it on like it was a brushless, then using a wet brush - and I end up with enough on the brush for extra passes. With L'occitane CADE soap, there is no room in the bowl yet, so I get some soap on the brush and build the lather on my face. Its easy to add water with a dip in the sink.
The brush feels good on the face. In fact, I got the record best shave ever just a couple of days ago, with Cade soap, and a US made ASR blade in a Gillette NEW. Close, and no cuts, not nicks, no divots. ...

Steve

[ichabod]

If I use a soap stick I like to apply it directly to my face and then lather it up with a soaking brush. However, for the subsequent two passes (I usually do three passes) my experimentation led me back to a bowl. I add a touch of water and then lather in my mug for the subsequent passes, and get consistent lather across the three passes. Without doing this I found that by the third pass I had a very dry lather, now I feel like I have the best of both worlds.

[kd7kip]

I've lathered on my face for years (starting the creme in my palm first, just to load the brush). I've never seen the point of whipping a bunch of air into the lather in a bowl. Also, I feel that one of the underappreciated uses of the shaving brush is to raise the nap of the beard through circular scrubbing of the face with the brush.

It would be neat to have a Moss Scuttle, but I really can't justify using one.

-Scott