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Boar Brush Prep - Why Refrigerate?

Chandu

I Waxed The Badger.
Can someone explain why the brush should be refrigerated when soaking? What benefit does it offer.

Because an Italian barber said that in a video.

Why did he say that? Probably a similar reason to why grandma cut the ends off the pot roast
 
Soaking fibers will go quicker in hot or warm water. Using cold water doesn't make sense in this respect, obviously scolding hot water might do some damage.
If the brush to be soaked is not clean then soaking it at room temp. might leading to cultivating all kinds of fungus or other living stuff. Putting it in the fridge might keep it fresh.
:pipe:
 
Just.Use.It. There is no good reason to freeze, cool, soak overnight or anything else. Do whatever you want, but to me you are missing the aha moment when you break in the brush from use only and you finally feel the result. Just use it.
 
Just.Use.It. There is no good reason to freeze, cool, soak overnight or anything else. Do whatever you want, but to me you are missing the aha moment when you break in the brush from use only and you finally feel the result. Just use it.
I'm generally with you on this.

However, I'm tempted to use a shortcut on a brush that others have said takes about three years to get good. (Unbleached omega)

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I did the fridge thing with my Semogue 2000 for 3 days, I use it a fair bit. Nice brush bit big lol. I used one of the Proraso Boar travel brushes got in a kit (think its an Omega brush!). Small but worked great on a 3 week holiday in Asia used it every day, didn't break it in.
 
I just ordered my first boar - a Semogue 830.

I read numerous postings about preparing the brush, including cleaning, soaking, and agitating. I get all of that and why.

What I don't understand is why, when soaking, that the mug and brush should be refrigerated. Soaking the brush, even at room temp, should have the same effect for softening the boar.

Can someone explain why the brush should be refrigerated when soaking? What benefit does it offer.

Thank you.
I’ve broken in a boar Semogue 2000, a boar Zenith chubby scrubby, and a horse Zenith big knot. Used the refrigerator cold soak 1, 2, and up to three days. I do not know the science but what I do know is if you towel work a dry room temperature brush it will shed for sure. Towelling a brush is friction, equals heat. Longer soak of the brush guarantees full hydration of the hair and cooler temperatures stand up longer to the friction of towelling. You are polishing, wearing down cut ends ( horse hair ) to split the hairs for a softer face feel. The cooler temperature allows less stress on the hair as it is getting a lot of bending and rubbing. My guess I don’t have the science.

I‘m a cold well water shaver. My brushes have never felt hot water. (except the silvertip before I switched to cold water) A cold water shave delivers a close relaxing comfortable shave to my sensitive skin. On another track I do not think badgers, boars or horses take warm baths or hot showers. All my brushes work great in cold even the synthetic.

Pics: the chubby and the horse are at about 85% broken in. If I did not pre break in, I would not be able to use the brushes because my skin is too sensitive. The horse hair because of its cut ends, and it is a thicker coarser hair was the most challenging to break in.
 

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I think it’s the drying process that causes the split ends we desire. Similar to human hair (women know using a blow dryer excessively causes split ends), except we don’t want to apply conditioner to prevent the split ends on our brushes.

Anyone tried excessive use of a blow dryer on a stubborn boar?
 
I will always use the refrigerator method due to such amazing results. I suggest to anyone that is leary of this method to try it and decide for themselves whether it is beneficial.

Actually, I have a boar brush soaking in the fridge now on its second day.
 
I too got my first boar brush - Semogue Owners Club. I was fully prepared to wash a smelly brush and dunk it in refrigerated water for 3 days. However, my brush didn’t smell bad and I thought the brush was certainly soft enough to use. I decided to just use it. I am content to see how long it takes to break in. It’s my little science experiment 😜. Here it is after 2 uses.
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So here’s my brush after 20 uses. The only thing I’m doing is soak in warm water while I shower, then rinse load and use. Typically I’ll do a 3 pass shave. Then rinse and hang dry. It’s well on its way. I think you can see there is already a fair amount of splitting that’s happened. I love the stiffness and it’s becoming quite soft. I didn’t notice any magical change but I’d say around 10 shaves it stopped eating lather and started providing enough for 3 passes and a clean up. Seems like that aspect of the brush continues to improve daily. I’ll keep you posted as I continue to use and break in this amazing brush.
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I have a Semogue 1305 that I bought in 2012. I never did anything beyond soaking it before each use, using it to build my lather, and then rinsing it and letting it dry out in the bathroom. It broke in over time and turned out to be a great brush with minimal prep.
 
Mr. Bompieri mentions "acqua fredda" which is cold as in tap water (native speakers can chip in).
This was taken to mean refrigerated for many people and my guess is that this video played big part in the trend.
It does work but you don't need to refrigerate your brush, cold tap water and a 2 day soak and dry will do.
I
 
Mr. Bompieri mentions "acqua fredda" which is cold as in tap water (native speakers can chip in).
This was taken to mean refrigerated for many people and my guess is that this video played big part in the trend.
It does work but you don't need to refrigerate your brush, cold tap water and a 2 day soak and dry will do.
I
Wow. Likely a whole group of fanatics spawned from a bad translation.

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I assume because water expands when frozen the cool temp of the fridge expands the bristles adding in them splitting but I don’t know how much water will expand in a fridge as most fridges sit at anywhere from +4c to +1 so in saying that it could do that or make the tips more brittles so they pop open better faster
 
I am still curious why everyone suggests leaving the brush soak in the fridge. Soaking is soaking. Is there something special about cold water compared to room temp? That's what I'm trying to understand. (Note: the answer probably won't change what I do, I'm just curious as this was never explained.)

If you leave a boat brush in room temperature water for 3+ days, bacteria can grow on it. It’s a simple as that. The fridge keeps the water fresher.
 
Also, in his profession, he probably doesn’t want to break in his boar brush on his customers. Probably why he developed the quick method. Other than if you simply hate a stiff brush, we don’t need to do that...
 
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