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Boar & Synthetic Brushes + Face Lathering.

Guys, Most of people on Youtube that are really good at Face Lathering and have tutorials use either Synthetic or Boar brushes and they'll say if you have a Badger Brush 'It will do'. Is there an advantage to using Boar or Synthetic over the different grades of Badger?
 
I don't think it matters what kind of brush. I think for the person doing the face lathering, it matters how the brush feels on the face. Perhaps they like a brush with more backbone. And I think size matters. I prefer face lathering with smaller brushes, whether they be badger, boar, synthetic, or, my favorite, horse.
 
I only face-lather. I can see the appeal of boars, synthetics and even horse hair.

But for me smaller/mid size brushes are optimal.

I started with boars and still appreciate a well broken in boar from time to time. However, I appreciate the face feel of a nice badger more especially those with some backbone! :a29:
 
Badger works just fine. Any brush will do, though they require slightly modified technique. If you're just starting out I'd go for a 21mm-ish synthetic. They're the quickest and most efficient with both time and product and are virtually indestructible and dry quickly for daily use. Any of the following sites will do nicely to order a brush...

Yaqi
AP shave Co
Buy-Sell-Trade
WCS
Maggard's
 
Whipping up a great lather is more about your technique than the brush.

Use what is comfortable and/or enjoyable.

For me that is either a boar or a synthetic. The latter is hard to beat as they are very low maintenance and don't require any drying time to speak of. Boars are also fairly low maintenance but do need some drying time obviously. You never need to untangle a boar brush either which is something I have occasionally had to do with badger brushes.
 
I had great experience with my no name stubby 20 mm (maybe even less) synthetic, better experience with my Long handle 22 mm synthetic and best experience with 28 mm RazoRock Beehive synthetic brush.

Now, after the Omega 10005 boar is break-in has started, it's giving me good results.

What I look for face lathering in a brush is control and face feel (soft touch, minimum scritch) and for that, synthetic and boar hair are suitable for me.

For me, size doesn't matter, as I'm getting good results with a wide spectrum of sizes and types of brushes.

I have negligible experience with badger brush, but I'm working my way to it, and I'm almost positive that badger will also be a good choice for face lathering for me.

Face lathering suitability with a brush, will be based on your requirements in a brush.

I know some gents who like scritch in brush for face lathering and they enjoy it, I cannot imagine putting my face to THAT amount of ' exfoliation '.

Let the comments of YouTube shavers, even our comments aside, and judge for yourself how much scritch do you like in a brush, what sort of loft and backbone do you like ?

30 years ago, people didn't had such options as we have today, and I'm sure someone somewhere must be having the time of their life enjoying face lathering with badger and boar hairs.
 
Guys, Most of people on Youtube that are really good at Face Lathering and have tutorials use either Synthetic or Boar brushes and they'll say if you have a Badger Brush 'It will do'. Is there an advantage to using Boar or Synthetic over the different grades of Badger?
For me, there is an advantage of using a soft synthetic over the other two; they are consistent and do not hog/eat up lather like the natural hairs do. Well broken in boar and Finest/Silvetip badger can work well and feel great on the face. I just need to load a bit heavier than synthetics to get enough lather for the shave.

There are some types of badgers (Black or Pure) that are too scritchy for the face and does not bode well for face lathering. As long as you try finest or silvertip, they should be great for face lathering. I know there are some soft best badgers out there as well but I don't have experience with them.
 

Rhody

I'm a Lumberjack.
I think the real answer is technique. A skilled shaver could probably work up a great lather and have a great shave using an old shoe. My answer is variety is the spice of life. So why not try all types and see what works. I face lather with a badger and a boar. But switched to synthetic to mostly eliminate the soaking stage. Recently I took to using a badger and a boar again. Both are super enjoyable.
 
I prefer the "scrub" feel of a boar brush. There is a difference between scrub and scritch...... scritch to me is when the brush "bites" when applying the lather. I have a Simpson Chubby 2 Best brush (for about 15 year now) that I do not use at all anymore because it feels like it is biting or stinging my face when using it. My Chubby 3 Best is like silk, on the other hand. Still prefer the scrubbiness of my broken in boars better. I have a number of synthetic brushes.... they work well but again, they do not provide the feel of my boars that I prefer.
 
I don’t like synths and I face lather exclusively, off hard pucks/sticks, with hard water, with boars and badgers from 14-28mm. I tried horse too and don’t like its scritch.

It’s all technique.

And there’s nothing that feels so good feeling as a quality badger. They hold heat for subsequent passes better than any other brush.

learn to use what you want and enjoy what you use.
 

Ravenonrock

I shaved the pig
I like the different face feel using various brushes provide. I just enjoy the variety. Lathering is never an issue be it badger, horse, boar or synthetic I find. I do tend to use horse and synthetic for creams usually. Boar and badger for hard soaps, just seems to be working for me.
 

musicman1951

three-tu-tu, three-tu-tu
It's always good to remember that anyone can post on YouTube - no qualifications necessary.

There are many different brushes because people like different things: big/small, soft/tons of backbone, etc.

Find one you like and enjoy it. I usually use a boar with my scuttle, but I purchased large boar brushes with soft tips for that purpose (and that's what I enjoy). I usually face lather with a badger that is smaller than my boars, with more backbone (because that's what I enjoy face lathering). My travel brush (face lathering) is synthetic (EVO), which actually has more backbone than I prefer, but works better than all my other synthetics.

If and when you're shopping for a brush throw a post up with your preferences, including price range, size and feel. And forget what some guy on YouTube said about hair.
 
I like larger diameter Badger brushes in a bulb pattern. The sizes I prefer are 27mm to 35mm. It does take a little more load them up but I like doing multiple passes with the brush and not having to retreat back to the soap. Just my experience. I do enjoy a good boar brush But I do not have one in my rotation at the moment. I’ve been eyeballing a couple of zenith boar brushes but I haven’t pulled the trigger yet.
 
I like larger diameter Badger brushes in a bulb pattern. The sizes I prefer are 27mm to 35mm. It does take a little more load them up but I like doing multiple passes with the brush and not having to retreat back to the soap. Just my experience. I do enjoy a good boar brush But I do not have one in my rotation at the moment. I’ve been eyeballing a couple of zenith boar brushes but I haven’t pulled the trigger yet.

35mm?! What kind of absolute monster have you used that made you put that as your upper limit? I'm not sure I've ever seen a brush bigger than 32mm...

I think what the OP is noticing is that the more affordable brushes that're good for face lathering are boars and synthetics...good face-lathering badgers with plenty of backbone and density tend to be expensive, while any kind of sparse, floppy badger will probably do for bowl lathering. Nobody would accuse, say, a Chubby of being a bowl lathering brush, but that kind of brush comes with a cost.
 
I’ve seen other members of forum that have bigger Brushes. Mines compact but I’m also a above size guy. Pics below of my thäter 35mm below.
445037FF-53E0-49AE-AC5E-C31B216CAC15.jpeg
 
Agree with much of the above: try a few different kinds and see what you like. I like _big_ brushes for face lathering. I think synthetics produce great lather really fast, but I hate how they feel, so I don't use mine.

I think the big Omega Pro 48 is a great face lathering brush. Just love it. But recently I got a huge badger brush and it's just awesome for face lathering.
 
Brush is a matter of personal choice like blades. Some love boars. Some hate it. I use boar and nothing else. Can't even be bothered to acquire anything non-boar.

When I look at shaving products online, I just skip the synthetic and badger parts.

Obviously, synthetic is all the rage today. I don't know why.
 
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