I wonder if being someone who lathers on their face is the reason brushes aren't that important to me. My best brush is a medium priced and sized Simpsons. It is a nice soft brush that is half again as big as the size of my other brushes. All the other brushes I have are older smaller brushes that I have bought off the Bay or at flea markets. I prefer the older smaller brushes to do my face lathering with because I can get into the tighter areas of my face with them. I can see how a brush might be important to lather in a mug or a bowl, but I can't get motivated by them. It's not as if AD hasn't effected me I go crazy over razors or soaps, creams, after shaves, colognes pre-shave preps etc. Does anyone else feel this way and is it just because I lather on my face.
Are brushes that important?
- Thread starter rummwa
- Start date
Hmm... I would say the opposite. Face-lathering means I pay much more attention to the brush than I used to when I lathered in a bowl. This is illustrated by the arc of my SBAD: until I took up face-lathering I was content with just two brushes, and now I have five.
Probably I would have even more, but I limit myself to about $100 per month in shaving acquisitions. My last purchase burned up two months of that budget, so I'm on hold until June.
Probably I would have even more, but I limit myself to about $100 per month in shaving acquisitions. My last purchase burned up two months of that budget, so I'm on hold until June.
Rummwa, might it be that you are just very happy with the brushes you have? I think AD's are mostly fed by the idea that there is room for improvement.
I am a 90% face latherer and going from bowl to face made me actually much more aware and demanding with brushes.
I am a 90% face latherer and going from bowl to face made me actually much more aware and demanding with brushes.
To be honest I have been using a cheap pure badger for years and it has worked fine. It's only recently, while I'm testing some brushes that I have been restoring, that I have switched to "high end" finest and grade A, extra stuffed, etc. knots. What have I been missing? Expensive knots are NICE!
Are they necessary? No. But a bit of luxury it nice, now and again.
Are they necessary? No. But a bit of luxury it nice, now and again.
- Thread starter
- #5
That is why I bought the new brush, it is beautiful and works well, but I find myself going back to my old brushes all the time.
But it was bigger, wasn't it? For me face lathering goes best with smaller brushes, especially loft sizes. Soaps converted me to boars and face lathering to boars under 45 mm loft.
Wow, a boar with that loft will be the exfoliator! Who makes them, or are they custom??
There are several to choose from; I have an omega travel brush, a vulfix (this brush in boar; I can't find mine on their website) and an Il Ceppo (out of production). The Il Ceppo is just over 45 mm and not 55mm like the description says. Omega has a couple more around 45mm.
Once broken in these brushes are all soft and it is not so much for exfoliating I want them short but because it helps controled lathering on my face. Especially the Vulfix was soft right out of the box.
- Thread starter
- #9
I have taken your advise and ordered some smaller boar brushes. You were right the badger brush was alot bigger if these boars work out someone here will get a good deal on the badger. Thanks for the feedback guys.
Just curious about which ones!
I don't know if you used them before but take care to break them in properly before you make your final verdict; the first couple of shaves they can barely hold lather for the 1st pass!!
