You always display the best front and center and at eye level. If you look all the way left and down it looks like there might be pure brushes. Anyone else notice them?
Different brush preferences UK vs USA
- Thread starter EclipseRedRing
- Start date
People buy what is accessible to them, and if nothing is accessible, they buy online and go for the largest, densest, fluffiest brush they can find. Only 10 brushes later, do they realize they actually prefer a smaller brush. As for loft heights and density, I don't believe that's true. Whether they later find out that a 'less dense' brush suits their lathering style better or not, I don't think anyone starts out thinking, "yes, that bald brush is perfect!"
Only thing that I notice is the brands that are more popular in each country. Obviously, brands like Simpsons and M&F has more presence in UK and I notice more brush artisans are popular in US. There are exceptions but this is just coming from a guy still relatively new to wetshaving.
With the internet, I am willing to bet 80%+ purchases are done this way, and the field tends to level.
Last year I bought a few razors and brushes from UK , they were a lot cheaper than US>; same buying from Canada, even w the shipping. Besides: most brushes come from China....(rebranded) or just the lofts.
Last year I bought a few razors and brushes from UK , they were a lot cheaper than US>; same buying from Canada, even w the shipping. Besides: most brushes come from China....(rebranded) or just the lofts.
I don’t think that the market here favors floppier brushes at all. Much the opposite I think.
I have the opposite experience that brushes seem to be less expensive in the US than in Germany, but of course, this depends on the exchange rate. And it might depend on the type of brushes you might look for.
The only other thing I can think of, that might support that hypothesis, is if face lathering is more popular in Europe, and bowl lathering more popular in the U.S. I don't know that it is, but I could see it being true, given U.S. bathrooms tend to have a lot more counter space for scuttles and whatnot. I remember, when I was a kid, my dad whipping up lather, on a puck in a mug, with a big, floppy shaving brush, then painting the lather on his face.
America is the land of the Cadillac Escalade and the Lincoln Navigator, where two thirds of us are overweight. We like our creature comforts and demand a certain level of plushness. We are - for sure - not going to put up with a scrubby brush that assaults the tender skin of our plump cheeks!
You Brits are more accustomed to living with hardship - you lost the US, but I think maybe it started well before that. Look at your ridiculous little cars and $44 a gallon gas (yes, liters and pounds - but we don't do pounds and think the metric system is to logical).
Aside from those basic observations, I have not really read a lot of posts praising a floppy brush. Luxury, my friend across the pond, but not flop.
You Brits are more accustomed to living with hardship - you lost the US, but I think maybe it started well before that. Look at your ridiculous little cars and $44 a gallon gas (yes, liters and pounds - but we don't do pounds and think the metric system is to logical).
Aside from those basic observations, I have not really read a lot of posts praising a floppy brush. Luxury, my friend across the pond, but not flop.
Paragraph 2 - absolute nonsense (what has the size of cars, cost of fuel and the measuring system we use got to do with a shaving brush - each to there own). Hardship? Please remind me how many thousands and thousands of homeless living on the streets of LA and Las Vegas to name a few.
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- Thread starter
- #31
EclipseRedRing
I smell like a Christmas pudding
I share your sentiment but I gave the gentleman the benefit of the doubt that he had intended his post to be jocular, and not as offensive and condescending as it may have appeared.
You may well be right but brush fashions seem to have changed over the years towards larger, more dense knots with shorter lofts and gaudy handles. There seems to be almost no limit on how absurdly large brushes can now be. The largest I have tried is a Simpson Chubby 3 in Super and I could almost lather my left cheek and right ear at the same time; there are plenty of brushes now which are larger. I suppose it is different for bowl lathering and then simply painting on lather, but I face lather and build the lather on my face. For me that involves rotational and lateral brush movement on the face which was impossible for me with the Chubby. A smaller brush, say 22mm is much more suitable, for me anyway. That said, the Chubby 3 is a very popular brush so plenty of other users must feel differently! Take a look at this vintage Simpson display, interestingly most of the items appear to be luxury grade hair. Happy shaves
View attachment 1038872
Time machine, take me there please!
The only "preference thing" I've ever heard was back when I was just starting this and i really googled the crap out it, i read somewhere that European men preferred bowl lathering and it went so far as to claim the men on the continent leaned heavily bulb whereas UK had a higher usage of fan but still mostly went bulb. American men, it said go heavily for face lathering with a fan. Also it stated Americans learned far to soaps while the favorite for the guys across the pond was creams. As for me, an American, I face and bowl lather equally, and my main criteria for choosing a brush is aesthetics. I only use fans until the knot is 26mm or larger then either is fine. I can tell the differences between hair grades but it doesn't matter what I use as long as its above a pure.
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