Boar vs. Badger

[TheVez2]

Yes, I've read a few previous posts comparing the two and I have a similar problem with creating lather. Doesn't matter if it is soap or cream, I can create a nice lather quickly and easily with my pure badger brush, but always come up short with my VDH boar.

Now the flipside to that is, the boar brush is much softer on my face, which is the opposite of what I expected. The badger brush is rough and almost hurts when I scrub my face to lather up. The boar however is smooth as silk. This is wierd since to feel them with my hand the badger feels softer.

Why is that?

 

[rosborne]

What badger brush are you using?

I started with a VDH badger and aside from my first bit of learning, it actually preduced a very nice lather. Actually, just about a month or two ago I was using it almost exclusively and enjoyed it. VDH stuff is pretty good stuff, ESPECIALLY for the price.

That being said, Mhy EJ BBB medium is far softer that the little boar brush. The VDH does generally work very well, but isn't comparable to any Badger I've seen.

 

[damooshki]

In my experience, when using a boar, I prefer to leave the brush quite wet after it has soaked for a few minutes. Rather than squeezing the water out, I just lightly shake the brush in a vertical motion with it pointing down to remove just slightly more water than will come out on it's own. I then proceed to load the brush with soap (I don't use boar with cream) for usually about 30-45 seconds. The extra water seems to help liquefy the soap and allows the soap to absorb higher into the bristles. Another thing, I was never very impressed with the VDH brush anyway the loft is quite short with a fairly dense knot, not a great combo for boar IMHO. The boar I currently use is an Omega 49. It has a very tall knot which seems to help with lathering by allowing the bristles to splay out more and hold and generate more and better lather. Once loaded, I build the lather on my face. With the extra water, it is fairly messy at first, but after about 45sec - 1min the lather becomes very solid and meringue-like.

The soap lathering tutorial here works well for me with badger, but I could never load more soap than is sufficient for about 1.5 - 2 passes when I squeeze the water from my boar. That's just my experience though, and what I've found that works well for me. experiment with your own lathering techniques, I'm sure you will find something that works well for you too.
-Jake

 

[TheVez2]

What badger brush are you using?

It is a Red & White Ever-Ready 100 handle, pure badger hair. I was told it was restored by KiltedShaver so I'm assuming it has a new knot in it. I won it in a PIF.

Edit:
It's the one shown here: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showpost.php?p=2076447&postcount=1

 

[TheVez2]

Anyone?

I'm still curious why my boar brush feels softer on my face than my badger.

 

[damooshki]

Anyone?

I'm still curious why my boar brush feels softer on my face than my badger.

The tips of the boar hairs will begin to split after 2 -4 weeks of use, making the tips very soft, while retaining ample backbone. The pure badger hair on the other hand generally won't break in. Pure badgers are usually fairly prickly on the face. to get a badger that is soft you need to step up to "best" or "silvertip" quality badger hair.

 

[mblakele]

KJ, it's simple: boar bristles feel softer when wet.

You may notice that the boar brush holds more lather as it breaks in. The split ends result in more surface area.

 

[TheVez2]

Thanks, I had wondered what the difference was in grades of badger.

 

[kingfisher]

Prior answer was correct: boar bristles split at the ends, making them soft on the face.

I loves me some boar brushes!

 

[SliceOfLife]

A boar that uses nice hair and is well broken in is plenty soft when properly soaked. I find that badgers primary advantage is that it face lathers better. Maybe it has to do with water retention, hair diameter/quantity, some other trait. I don't know. But while boars make good lather on the face, badgers make better lather, faster.

The one thing is never buy a cheap, floppy badger. A good quality boar will be better than that. Either get a stiff and scrubby low end badger, a nice boar, or spring for a pricier dense, soft badger. Or better yet, get all three... several representations of all three... and a few dozen razors... and soaps... and hones... and aftershaves... and shaving mugs... and ... and...