Advice on getting the best out of v. dense badger brushes?

[Ignatius]

Help.

My Rooney 1/2 has amazingly soft tips, tons of backbone, very well made. But its much less the sum of its parts. It makes great lather but wont share it with me.

The advice I've heard and tried is:
1/ use more product
Result - just more lather stuck in the middle of that knot.
2/ lather very gently, keeping the lather near the tips.
Result - works a bit better, but feels like you're working around a flaw the brush has, and doesn't work as well and I don't enjoy it.
3/ squeeze the lather out and apply by hand.
result - works, but you kinda lose a lot of the brush using experience.

Maybe dense badger brushes just aren't for me? Thats the way I'm leaning.

 

[ouch]

Help.

The advice I've heard and tried is:
1/ use more product

Around these parts, we call that "The Ray Method".

 

[antoine1]

As well as the above I find that soaking the brush for longer than normal helps.

10 +minutes instead of the usual 5 might help.

 

[Aaron622]

My advice: ditch the Rooney and get something with better flow-through like a Savile Row.

 

[LarryAndro]

I love the feel of badger hair, and was quite happy with it until recently. I haven't used my badger hair brush since trying a horse hair brush for the reason mentioned in the original post: the badger brush swells up with lather like some pregnant mouse and doesn't turn loose. When I apply the lather to my face with the badger brush, I only get the lather at the tip of the brush.

When I lathered the first time with the horse hair brush, the thickness of the lather on my face was great. Certainly better than the badger brush. The big advantage over badger hair is that it does release the lather.

The downside to horse hair is that the hair is very floppy. A little practice, and that downside disappeared though. It just takes a different action of the brush while applying lather to the face. A quicker, more of a slapping action.

My neighbor is giving me some horse hair (tail), and I am going to make a brush or two with horse hair mixed with something a little thicker. I want my cake and want to eat it too!

 

[Antique Hoosier]

If you still have your Vulfix 41, while huge, it works great with soaps and the flow thru is quite nice.

 

[beginish]

I have the same issue with a dense Rooney, and the only solution I have found to mitigate its piggish nature is to bowl lather with it. If I face lather with it, the lather makes like the white rabbit down the hole.

 

[SliceOfLife]

I face lather with a very dense brush. Using high quality soaps and doing a couple swirls (basically a very brief relather) on your face before painting for the later passes works fine. You don't have the mounds of excess lather in later passes the first pass had, but that stuff just gets in the way anyway. As long as you can't see unlathered skin, you're good to shave.

 

[Thebigspendur]

Sounds like something is amiss. My brushes are mainly 2 band and very thick and I have no issues making huge quanities of lather and it's not hogged by the brush.

 

[Ignatius]

If you still have your Vulfix 41, while huge, it works great with soaps and the flow thru is quite nice.

I LOVE this brush. It does 'splay' a lot I suppose, and some guys find it too floppy, but it works pefectly for me with hard soaps even more than creams. Also the 'flow-through' is excellent. I'm happy in enjoying this oversized soft brush even though most guys here don't. However, I also feel I'm missing out on the super-dense brushes that are so popular.

 

[Ignatius]

Sounds like something is amiss. My brushes are mainly 2 band and very thick and I have no issues making huge quanities of lather and it's not hogged by the brush.

I know. Its furstrating. It feels like theres something that could be changed slightly and it would be an excellent brush. The soft tips + firmness are amazing.

 

[dwestenk]

Sounds like something is amiss. My brushes are ... very thick and I have no issues making huge quanities of lather and it's not hogged by the brush.

Agreed. My Rooney 1/2 Super is a great face latherer and not a lather hog at all! I've never had any hint of this issue, but I have no clue what is different for me from the OP's Rooney technique...

 

[Darjeeling Express]

I too am very partial to the intensely dense brushes. Yes, they do swallow quite a bit of lather. I give them a little squeeze at the base of the knot and then brush on the lather. Its not a problem.

 

[Sueto]

This might sound off but it's worked out for me. With soaps I haven't had that much of a problem, maybe I just load up more with soaps than creams. I load up and face lather, add water as I go if it is feeling too pasty and the brush gives up the lather as the mix of water starts getting good. For creams I would just put a little on each cheek and go with a wet brush and face lather, keeping the cream and lather at the tips and not letting it get too far into the brush. Lathering up this way causes the brush to open up for me and lets loose the lather. I add water a little at a time if it feels pasty.

Could also try adding a little more product as you go. This also seems to work when I use the Chubby 1 since it holds a ton of water. I'd imagine with the Rooney 1/2, if it is anything like the 1/1 and the Stubby 1, that this might also be worth a try.

 

[jkh]

Adam, how do you lather on your face? Swirls, paint brush strokes, a combination?