I was looking for shaving related items on various museum collections, and ran across this brush in the Australian war memorial. It is a “shaving brush made in Changi Prisoner of War camp” during WW2, made from coconut fibre. It doesn’t look the most comfortable to use, and probably wouldn’t last long, and definitely a product of it’s time and place. Given how it seems a lot of shaving products are moving away from animal products (I don't mind animal products but I'm not judging peoples preferences either way), but I’ve also seen a desire for less plastics, something like this is food for thought. I figured it was interesting enough to share. Would you try out a brush like this?
Shaving brush made from coconut fibre
- Thread starter Lil Cooties
- Start date
I was looking for shaving related items on various museum collections, and ran across this brush in the Australian war memorial. It is a “shaving brush made in Changi Prisoner of War camp” during WW2, made from coconut fibre. It doesn’t look the most comfortable to use, and probably wouldn’t last long, and definitely a product of it’s time and place. Given how it seems a lot of shaving products are moving away from animal products (I don't mind animal products but I'm not judging peoples preferences either way), but I’ve also seen a desire for less plastics, something like this is food for thought. I figured it was interesting enough to share. Would you try out a brush like this?
Only if at least 10 members on here tested it first and gave the thumbs up, I don't think I'd take one for the team on this item.
That would be a viable alternative to petroleum based synthetic brushes. That would toughen up your skin in no time. Forget razor burn. You’re going to have brush burn.
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- #4
Just call it "exfoliating"
One could argue that a vibratory sander would develop a voluminous lather.
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- #7
Shaving brushes or other purpose brushes? I've seen them for scrubbing cast iron pans. I presume there are various grades you can get though, not all that stiff. In the same collection in the museum they also had toothbrushes, so I presume those are soft enough to not be unusable.
I'm holding out for 2 Band Coconut.
EclipseRedRing
I smell like a Christmas pudding
Very interesting. When you consider the terrible conditions that must have been endured in camps such as Changi, it tells you something about the calibre of the person who would make such a brush. You would need steely determination to maintain standards of hygiene and grooming in the face of such adversity. Maybe doing so helped them to retain their humanity and not to give up hope, I do not know, but I take my hat off to them.
Heck yeah I don't even use a razor anymore, just attack my face with a couple passes of 60 grit on the orbital. Or 120 grit if I'm going for BBS.
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- #11
Definitely a lot of hardship, I'm not trying to make light of that. These where made in a factory with POWs used as labor. From the museum page: "The camp had its own brush factory which turned out 30,000 brushes, from toothbrushes to nail and shaving brushes, during the time it was in operation". They also had a soap factory.
In all seriousness, I can't image one is expected to face lather with that. However, if all is required is to whip up a lather then it should suffice. One could squeeze the lather out and apply it by hand to their face.
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- #13
I was imagining that would how it would have to be used too.
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