Boar brush - can't get many passes

[McNutt]

I'm very new to boar brushes (three shaves in so far) and am having a hard time getting three passes out of my brush. Here's my routine:
1. Soak brush and soap (MWF) while I shower.
2. Shake water out of brush and dump water out of soap bowl.
3. Go to town on soap puck.
4. Face lather, slowly adding water.

With this method I easily get three nice lather passes out of my badger brushes, but my Omega 49 brush only gives me two. The third is very thin and no amount of water can bring it back.

I've read about getting crazy amounts of lather from this brush, but I can't figure out how to keep that lather in the brush after face lathering. Any tips?

 

[shave/brush]

I have the same problem with boar brushes. I've tried many and I can only get one good pass when face lathering.
When I do face lather I use a shave stick. I've tried loading more soap but that did not work. I'll be following this thread also.

 

[naughtilus]

They do that when new. Keep using it often.

 

[Your Majesty]

You have to break in the brush first. Try putting it in a cup of water and leaving it in the fridge for 3 days.

 

[Cino]

Wet/ dry cycles also help with break in. Use it every other day so it had a chance to dry thoroughly; that's when the tips split. Over time that brush will produce more lather than you can use in the passes.

 

[Macfrommichigan]

Wet/ dry cycles also help with break in. Use it every other day so it had a chance to dry thoroughly; that's when the tips split. Over time that brush will produce more lather than you can use in the passes.

Yes! This is the ticket. Be patient.

And I never soak brushes. Wetting the bristles is sufficient.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Go back for more soap when you need it. Simple. There's no rule to say you have to make enough for three passes with the first load. It's just a quirky thing that people on the internet do.

 

[Boar Fighter]

Hello. If the brush is brand new, it might be a problem of needing to break in. Also, i don't consider the 49 ideal for face lathering, but others use it fine in that, so YMMV.

Points 1 and 2 look fine.
Then, load heavily the brush (the knot of the 49 is gigantic, so it needs a lot of soap) with soap and do vigorous swirling on your face, with circular motions. Use your chin (swirling), to add volume to the lather and then move lather towards your cheeks. Painting strokes are useful only to "level" the lather after you 've built it (final stage). You need circular motions to really build the lather.

If you see that the brush seems to have dry soap on the tips but without volume, dip slightly the tips on water and swirl again.

I don't know if any of this helps, but i get 4 passes even with Semogue 1470, which is much smaller and i have really hard water. But i also haven't lathered MWF, which i have read is a tough one.

P.S.: The brush is good if shaken once, but a very dry brush, is bad too, prior to loading.

 

[joeyboy]

I have the same issue and don't have the patience to use it enough. I went to synthetic. I stil have a rather large boar. I keep it, but who knows why.

 

[Boar Fighter]

Another thing i remembered that might help. Many badgers, are lather hogs. They keep the lather for themselves. The boars, generally, are generous and tend to release their lather easily. So, one must remember that he should use the boar knot as lather reservoir. Meaning, the brush is used not only to release, but also to keep lather inside it. To do so, you must splay the knot, at least half way. You want some of the lather you build, to stay there.
You also don't want to use too much painting strokes, because they tend to "squeeze" the lather out of the knot. So, use much swirling, splay the knot and use only a couple of painting strokes per cheeck at the end of each pass, to make the lather even, but don't overdo it with painting strokes.

It's easier to do instead of trying to explain it, but, once you find out how it's done with one boar, it works with every other boar and you get 4 passes even from very small knots.

I even have an above average large face, so it's not like i have a very small or thin face or head and that's how i manage.

 

[BigJ]

More product would be my first recommendation!!

Also, as others have noted it takes awhile to break in a boar so it is way too early to draw conclusions. Keep using the brush and your opinion may change.

 

[ackvil]

Go back for more soap when you need it. Simple. There's no rule to say you have to make enough for three passes with the first load. It's just a quirky thing that people on the internet do.

+1.

 

[TBoner]

Go back for more soap when you need it. Simple. There's no rule to say you have to make enough for three passes with the first load. It's just a quirky thing that people on the internet do.

You also don't want to use too much painting strokes, because they tend to "squeeze" the lather out of the knot. So, use much swirling, splay the knot and use only a couple of painting strokes per cheeck at the end of each pass, to make the lather even, but don't overdo it with painting strokes.

It's easier to do instead of trying to explain it, but, once you find out how it's done with one boar, it works with every other boar and you get 4 passes even from very small knots.

I even have an above average large face, so it's not like i have a very small or thin face or head and that's how i manage.

+1 to both of the above. I can get enough lather for 3 passes from loading once by loading heavily and by using the splay and swirl method. I don't always do so, though, because I can also reload. No big deal.

 

[JayFromBrooklyn]

it took about 3 or 4 weeks of use for my boar to break in (started with 2-3 days refrigerator trick plus a few nights of test bowl lathers and towel scrubs)...and around 2 months for me to get good at using it, but i'm glad i put in the time, it was very well worth it. at first i was thinking - why the heck does everyone love these things so much?!...but now i totally get it, nice backbone and tips that are soft as a cloud, face lathering heaven.

 

[Rudy Vey]

more soap!

 

[mawashi]

I'm very new to boar brushes (three shaves in so far) and am having a hard time getting three passes out of my brush. Here's my routine:
1. Soak brush and soap (MWF) while I shower.
2. Shake water out of brush and dump water out of soap bowl.
3. Go to town on soap puck.
4. Face lather, slowly adding water.

With this method I easily get three nice lather passes out of my badger brushes, but my Omega 49 brush only gives me two. The third is very thin and no amount of water can bring it back.

I've read about getting crazy amounts of lather from this brush, but I can't figure out how to keep that lather in the brush after face lathering. Any tips?

A 49 only giving you 2 passes??!
I'm assuming a couple things, the brush hasn't broken in, you don't have a watermelon sized head, you're not using enough product.

I've got a 49 that makes too much lather for me... Give this a try, if it doesn't work, your brush must have been from a really skinny, stingy boar lol.
Mawashi Patented 15 min Boar Busting Method lol.

 

[nemo]

Go back for more soap when you need it. Simple. There's no rule to say you have to make enough for three passes with the first load. It's just a quirky thing that people on the internet do.

+2
It's really OK to go back to the puck between passes, no crime there.
It isn't as if any of us are running out of soap any time soon.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Boar brushes if over wet tend to release excessive amounts of water from the knot/hairs into the lather when they sit between passes, breaking lather down and making it seem like they aren't holding enough (even if they have several shaves worth of lather at the start of the shave), if not soaked enough they can do the opposite as well... pulling moisture from the lather and breaking it down. As the hairs age/break-in/get damaged (in a good way) this gets better... but really, the key is just learning to adjust your technique (how much you soak/wring out/add water during lathering) to suit your boar. Better soap helps combat this as well (can take more abuse before lather breaks down). Truth is unless you have a fantastic boar brush and have utterly mastered its use, they are far less efficient in general than badgers. You will need more soap to get a shave that feels equivalently lathery and much more careful balancing of water to air to soap vs a badger or synthetic brush.

 

[seattleshaver]

I agree with the comment about the desire to get 3 passes out of the brush being an internet thing. I rewet my face after every pass and go back to the soap as well when needed. No need to complicate things.

 

[Invicta]

Not enough soap being loaded so increase load time on the puck. Mitchell's Wool Fat is a hard soap and I would load for ~ 30 seconds (based on hard water). For the final pass, gently squeeze the risidual lather out of the knot because there is plenty left in there.