Thoughts on this technique I saw on instagram...

[Martin]

Hello, after years of shaving ive just seen a post on Instagram where the guy rubbed a puck of Saponificio Varesino over his face rather than loaded the brush on the soap & then onto his face. Is this something people on here do too?. I load my brush on the soap & then lather on my face.

The other thing he did was shaved against the grain first & then with the grain on his 2nd pass. Again, I always thought you should go with the grain first???.

Just curious. Thank you

[Gene]

I've done that before - with a puck of Williams. Not too different than a shave stick, I guess. Shave sticks are quickly becoming my go-to for shaving.

As far as against the grain first - I remember someone posted here a long time ago that shaving ATG first was not a good idea. I'm curious what the others here will say. I have tried it - there are parts of my neck that it seems to work on - but it's hard to do any touch up after that.

[drmoss_ca]

If I'm in a hurry I will often use a cake of soap as if it were a shaving stick, but not all soaps will work for this. Even better is to squeeze 3/4" of Palmolive cream (red tube) onto my fingers and rub it in to my wet face. I can shave with and across the grain just with that, and it is slicker than soap.
Many years ago I used to shave against the grain first, back when I used a new Sensor blade every day. I wouldn't do that with a DE, SE and especially not with a straight. That is for reasons of comfort, avoidance of blood, and dislike of ingrowing hairs. There really is no point in going WTG after going ATG, so I don't know why your guy in the video did that.

Chris

[brothers]

I remember a few years back when almost everyone was understanding that we are/were required to have more than one pass so we can have a bonafide shave. I started going primarily against the grain in one big pass followed by as many touch-ups in as many places as I thought needed attention "with", "against" and "across" the grains.
When soaps are used I've always practiced using the water-soaked and squeezed brush to build the lather on the face. Most of my creams are probably solified in the bowl, and that's when I build my lather on the cream in the bowl.

[Martin]

Maybe I wont use this technique, but, it could be a good way of using the broken pieces of soap once it gets towards the end?.

[brothers]

Been there and done that!
That's a good way to use them up.