Face Lathering with Large Professional Boar Brushes

I've been using a large professional boar brush for 7 years now and based on my experience, I've been recommending the shorter loft aluminum handle brush for face latheres. However, a recent post on badger and blade has made me rethink longer haired boar brushes. The question was basically tips on using a larger boar brush. Member "tankerjohn" replied with:

A few tips from a Pro 48 lover: - search for "Italian barber" in youtube and watch how they handle big boar brushes. You will notice most don't hold the handle, they pinch the knot. That might be hard to do with an Omega 10098 than a 48. Pinching the knot effectively reduces the loft, making the knot much easier to handle, and prevents flinging lather all over the place. - when building lather on your face, use light pressure on the tips while swirling so that the knot doesn't splay out too far and get lather everywhere. You can use a little more pressure on your neck, where you've got the real estate to "let 'er rip", so to speak. - when painting on the lather, by pinching the knot the barber way, you can vary the pressure to fan it out for going under your nose and ears, thereby minimizing getting lather in your ears, nose, and other places you don't want it, while making nice wide painting strokes around the rest of your face.

  The revelation was to pinch the knot which gives you more control. Here are some of the videos he was referring to:   The first video the barber applies proraso cream directly to the clients face before lathering: ASMR  Barber has lots of these videos on Youtube.  You'll see a similar technique with many of the other barbers. In this one the barber pinches the knot by the middle: Even bearded hipster barbers pinch the knot to lather: The takeaway from all from all of this is to pinch the knot! Who cares if we get soap on our hands? Just rinse 'em off. I've found that since I've done this, I've gotten better control with lathering, especially under the nose. This would make a longer loft not only irrelevant, but also more desirable.       face lathering with large professional boar brushes