When you boil it down, there are two ways to build lather; in a bowl or on your face.

Both have pros and cons, but the main difference is the dreaded YMMV – different strokes for different folks, it comes down to what you prefer.

• Doing it in a bowl tends to minimize the variables, and lets you get a better grip of what’s going on.. if you need more or less water, more or less soap, more or less vigorous pumping etc, etc, etc.
• Doing it on your face lets you get the lather right into the follicles and gives you a nice little face massage as well… but can be messy if you’re brush is too wet.

For the most part I’m a bowl latherer through and through – so it’s kinda funny that this week have seen me use nothing but shave stick and face lathering…

The idea of using a 3D printer to make shave gear have taken firmly root in my head, to the point where I find myself messing around with free 3D-CAD software just to try to visualize how razors and brushes could be created… someone beat me to it though: