Toy or Serious Brush: A Consideration of the Wee Scot

[jhclare]

This is one of those items in shavedom I just don't get.

Yes, it makes lather, but where's the joy in it?

How on earth can that tiny handle be comfortable? It's certainly not practical, you must get lather all over your hands.

How about time to cover the shaving area?

I find it hard to believe this holds enough for 2 passes, let alone 3. You people must be laying it on thin!

John

 

[beginish]

This is one of those items in shavedom I just don't get.

Yes, it makes lather, but where's the joy in it?

How on earth can that tiny handle be comfortable? It's certainly not practical, you must get lather all over your hands.

How about time to cover the shaving area?

I find it hard to believe this holds enough for 2 passes, let alone 3. You people must be laying it on thin!

John

These are all good points, John, and I also want to get a better perspective on where this brush fits in the grand scheme of things. I am quite impressed by both the quantity and apparent quality of the lather it can make, but as we all know, there is more to lathering than just what you end up with.

 

[Pjotr]

This is one of those items in shavedom I just don't get.

Yes, it makes lather, but where's the joy in it?

How on earth can that tiny handle be comfortable? It's certainly not practical, you must get lather all over your hands.

How about time to cover the shaving area?

I find it hard to believe this holds enough for 2 passes, let alone 3. You people must be laying it on thin!

John

A lot of people don't get it.

I'm not sure what you mean by "where's the joy in it". If a brush makes lather that's always joyful in my experience.

Yeah you can get lather all over your hand sometimes (maybe a bit more than ususal) but that happens with most brushes I've ever used. I don't think it would be practical to use it for bowl loading/lathering.

Because of it's size it might take a few more seconds to cover your face. Not a drawback in my opinion.

It holds enough for three passes. Similarly my bigger badgers hold enough for five or six passes (and they're not big by any means). It also depends on how much you load it. I tend to over load it and am adding water right to the end. So it's actually creating fresh, warm lather right to the end.

Similarly it's hard to believe that a shaving stick can hold enough soap for 200 shaves (or whatever the number is). In other words you don't need a lot of product for a shave. You can get more than enough product in to a brush the size of a Wee Scot.

 

[JPDyson]

Did you defunk it properly?

It's a second-hand brush; I don't know how much it was used before I got it, but when I did, I washed it with Dawn and them palm-lathered some MWF and let that sit on it for a little while. That went so well, I figured it was sufficiently "broken in".

 

[JPDyson]

I am quite impressed by both the quantity and apparent quality of the lather it can make, but as we all know, there is more to lathering than just what you end up with.

Bingo. I can get to work a variety of ways - my car, a bike, walking, crawling, hitching a ride on the back of the trash truck - all with varying levels of efficiency and enjoyment. Right now, the Wee Scot is a lot like "biking".

 

[Pjotr]

It's a second-hand brush; I don't know how much it was used before I got it, but when I did, I washed it with Dawn and them palm-lathered some MWF and let that sit on it for a little while. That went so well, I figured it was sufficiently "broken in".

It would be by the sounds of it. Strange you couldn't get enough lather for a few passes.

 

[ouch]

I never tried one, but I generally prefer smaller brushes in the 18-20mm range.

People always claim their brush will hold enough lather for 75 passes, but I have a brush that's bigger than the mops used to swab the decks of battleships, and I still have to reload.

All that matter is that you enjoy it.

 

[nathanb]

I just sold a Wee Scott a week or two ago, I wonder if this thread is going to make me regret selling it!

Seriously though, it is a great brush for making a good lather. However, the handle size was just a little too small for me. However, I don't think it is just a novelty or that it is ridiculously small. For some people it might be perfect, just like for some people large brushes are perfect. Personally, I don't like brushes larger than a Duke 2.

If it makes great lather, which the Wee Scott does, and you enjoy using it then it is a good brush for you.

 

[zamanakhan]

This is one of those items in shavedom I just don't get.

Yes, it makes lather, but where's the joy in it?

How on earth can that tiny handle be comfortable? It's certainly not practical, you must get lather all over your hands.

How about time to cover the shaving area?

I find it hard to believe this holds enough for 2 passes, let alone 3. You people must be laying it on thin!

John

its funny u mention that because this morning i took pictures of the brush after each pass!!! i didnt lay it on thin either and the pictures show how much lather i have on my palm and how much is still left on the brush.

The joy?!?!?! THE JOY?!?!?!??!?!? r u crazy?!
have u never used anything that blew ur expectations away?! something u didnt expect to even perform and it performs like crazy. I dont think of lathering as a chore i find it loads of fun just to shave, heck sometimes i pick up a puck and go to town even if iam not shaving! I get just as much joy out of this brush as i do with my boars!

Tiny handle? I find this to be more comfortable to hold than a chubby1 handle, for some reason my fingers wrap around it better and it never slips

Time to cover shaving area? honestly i think it takes about the same time as all my other ones now that i think about it it might take a few sec more but seriously how many of us count SECONDS?

Later this evening i'll post the pics and exp when i get back home from work.

 

[JPDyson]

You guys do realize YMMV...

 

[beginish]

This is one of those items in shavedom I just don't get.

Yes, it makes lather, but where's the joy in it?

How on earth can that tiny handle be comfortable? It's certainly not practical, you must get lather all over your hands.

How about time to cover the shaving area?

I find it hard to believe this holds enough for 2 passes, let alone 3. You people must be laying it on thin!

John

its funny u mention that because this morning i took pictures of the brush after each pass!!! i didnt lay it on thin either and the pictures show how much lather i have on my palm and how much is still left on the brush.

The joy?!?!?! THE JOY?!?!?!??!?!? r u crazy?!
have u never used anything that blew ur expectations away?! something u didnt expect to even perform and it performs like crazy. I dont think of lathering as a chore i find it loads of fun just to shave, heck sometimes i pick up a puck and go to town even if iam not shaving! I get just as much joy out of this brush as i do with my boars!

Tiny handle? I find this to be more comfortable to hold than a chubby1 handle, for some reason my fingers wrap around it better and it never slips

Time to cover shaving area? honestly i think it takes about the same time as all my other ones now that i think about it it might take a few sec more but seriously how many of us count SECONDS?

Later this evening i'll post the pics and exp when i get back home from work.

As I posted earlier, John raises very legitimate questions about the brush and one's experience with it. One of the purposes of this thread is to talk about the intangibles of using the Wee Scot. I think we all agree that the brush can make very good lather, but we each prefer different brushes because, well, we're all different. So let's have more questions/comments/praise/gripes about the brush. The more discussion, the better.

 

[zamanakhan]

Alright my technique for MWF is u run water over the brush for 20 sec, then shake out EVERYTHING, then swirl it over the puck until the brush looks clumped together. Then fill the brush with water with a light stream and do not let it over flow, on ur wet hand (usually my face) go and lather! within a min it'll explode!!!! the lather u see on the brush is AFTER the hand being full which i put all over my face. The rest of the pictures of the brush with lather shows how it looks after one full face of lather, i dont have pictures of the lather but it is thick enough to not show any skin underneath. Not mountains (only in the first lather) but thick enough for a very comfortable and luxurious shave.

 

[zamanakhan]

this was a full 4 shave pass and a very comfortable one. Pretty good shave but as u can see it does run out after the 4th shave, there is only enough lather in there to do a 5th very thin pass. with DE i normally dont care cause i do 1 pass wtg, xtg and the last pass ATG but with blade buffing i rarely do a 4th where i do just blade buffing. For the last pass, it was starting to get thin and i could see some skin but there mostly wasnt much hair left even for the blade buffing just around the chin area.

 

[mdevine]

Awesome Photos! I'm going out of town in a couple of days and plan to use the Wee Scot with Speick. I'll use it tomorrow with some AoS Sandalwood SS. One of my favorite things about the Wee Scot is that it dries much faster than any other brush I've tried. This makes it ideal for travel and one of the few brushes I'll use for multiple days in a row. I'll typically not use my other brushes two days in a row because I like for them to dry completely. I find this to be particularly important with boar brushes.

 

[JPDyson]

I can make that much lather with this brush, but like you, I need somewhere to keep it. I think that's my point - with other brushes, the brush itself holds all the lather I need for a complete shave.

 

[JPDyson]

Went another round with the little guy - DR Harris Lavender soap in my old spice mug. Loads fine, builds fine, shaves fine - but I think I'm circling around to the feeling I had from the first two shaves.

-The brush itself doesn't hold enough lather for more than two passes without overflowing.
-The handle isn't incredibly comfortable for some folks with big hands.
-It's still a serious brush, not a novelty.

 

[zamanakhan]

I can make that much lather with this brush, but like you, I need somewhere to keep it. I think that's my point - with other brushes, the brush itself holds all the lather I need for a complete shave.

you can always put it in a small bowl? u dont have to "bowl lather" but there is nothing wrong with just putting the brush in a bowl, i've done this before, keeps the lather out of the way from getting splashed on, u can even put it in the sink with a bit of hot water, instant scuttle.

Had my shave this morn with wee scott and an omega and old spice cream mix ( didnt use co bigelo but similar stuff) and perfectly fine lather no need to reload, built lather directly to the face this time, had to reload with water 2x as this brush doesnt hold much lather or water but once the lather was built it lasted for my 2 following passes as well. Another DFS

 

[Joe Dirt]

Hey guys, I am trying to get into wet shaving and am looking for my first brush(!!!). I have a relatively small face, and don't really have anything I need to compensate for, so a little tiny brush like the Wee Scot is really appealing to me. Do you think it would be a good brush to start with, or would you generally advise against it?

 

[Pjotr]

Hey guys, I am trying to get into wet shaving and am looking for my first brush(!!!). I have a relatively small face, and don't really have anything I need to compensate for, so a little tiny brush like the Wee Scot is really appealing to me. Do you think it would be a good brush to start with, or would you generally advise against it?

I think it depends on how you lather. If it's pure face lathering (i.e. you rub the product in to your stubble and don't use a bowl either for loading or creating lather) then I'd say yes. If you're planning on using it to do the whole loading your brush from a puck and bowl lathering thing I'd say it wouldn't be the easiest brush to start with. Having said that I'm amazed at the lathering pictures in this thread but I'm sure it's not that easy with such a tiny brush in a bowl full of goo. It's a brilliant little face lathering tool and pretty cheap. On the other hand for even less money you could get a small boar brush but that's a matter for a different thread.

 

[john.bradburne]

this is great, i have been thinking about buying one. by the sound of it i think i should. if anyone has a used one for sale let me know