I never cared much about this....
When I was a teenager, I didn't had much hair on my face, and shaving with hot water was enough to make an excelent close shave. At those days, lather was optional, but I was always invited to use it as it makes part of the process of shaving.
Today, my face skin is thin and my face's hair is middle/tough, so lather isn't optional anymore.
What people won't tell you about the good Lather
Today, everyone have seen those old brushes and bowls at some stores among the pen holders and other stuff, and most people won't even consider to use those stuff in our days.
We live in the time of the "instant foam cream" and the "shaving gel" and we just don't care about this old stuff.
My impressions
My razor is a gillette mach 3 turbo, and I used a gillette contour shaving cream, a brush and an ordinary bowl from the kitchen.
I takes me some minutes to make the perfect lather, because I just wasn't sure about when is it good enough! I start considering it is good enough when the brush can absorve the lather completely just by passing it by. After this, while passing the cream on my face, I can see the shape of the brush drawed in my face.
I must tell I felt some difference. The blade runs much easier on my face, and I start considering to start shaving with one of those old shaves from the middle of the XX century
