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Yesterday's experiment with using a shaving brush with Cremo Cream was wildly successful. I really didn't expect it to work as well as it did, given its brushless formula, its own maker's admonitions to use it with my bare hands for the best results, and the fact that this stuff goes on thin and translucent when you apply it with your hands as recommended.

But I was wrong. Using a Vulfix badger brush and treating the Cremo just like any traditional English shaving cream like Trumper or Taylor, the lather I got was thick, rich, and just as opaquely white as a "real" shaving cream -- three things it is not when you just use your hands. And if the shave's great when used as prescribed, it's flat-out phenomenal with a brush.

The weird but wonderful thing about using a brush to build a lather with Cremo Cream is that the lather seems to grow in both quantity and lubrication the more you use it. Somehow, there's a bigger, richer head of lather on the brush after three full passes than when you began the shave. The maker says that Cremo's mojo is activated by adding water -- could it be that the water held by the brush's bristles keeps mixing with the Cremo every time you relather, and continues to create more and more lather as you go? With traditional creams, it's just the opposite -- no matter how much water your brush can hold, the lather gets used up each time you relather, until there's no more left. Cremo Cream somehow does the reverse.

For yesterday's shave with Cremo and a brush, I used the recommended amount, about a quarter-sized dollup. But that recommendation is for when you're just spreading it on your face with your bare hands. Clearly, much less Cremo is needed when you're lathering it with a brush. So this morning, I used a much smaller blob of Cremo. Maybe a dime's worth, if that.

A dime, a quarter -- apparently Cremo doesn't care how much or how little you pinch off when you're using a brush, because I got just as much lather today as I did yesterday. After my customary three passes, I had more lather on my brush than when I started. I could've shaved for another three passes, easy.

This is nuts.

So what am I supposed to do here? Use a pinhead's worth?

But which shavegeek's hat size should I ask for?