Hi folks! I haven’t seen any reactions to natural hair on Yaqi brushes, any one else have experiences w/ that? I received a 26mm 2 band badger Yaqi Moka Express a couple days ago and I’m impressed. But I also liked the movie Water World sooo......
Anyway! I was staying away from Yaqi for a long while because the hype just seemed to be popping up everywhere, but I wasn’t all that impressed w/ the handles and I’m not a fan of tuxedo knots - when I saw the moka express synthetic in action in a YouTube video and though, had to check it out - well, only the larger 26mm was available in badger, not synthetic, but figured what the hell, I don’t have a badger brush that big and the handle is unlike any other that I own, or have seen in stores or online.
Pros: the Octogonal shape made holding the brush while loading and lathering more comfortable than the 26mm RazoRock Monster synthetic which is the closest size comparison I have for it.
Out of the box it lathered up a storm, (tested it with the Proraso cream, a Mama Bear glycerin puck, and a RazoRock triple milled puck).
Across the board foamy creaminess with the peaks of Mount Everest. Splays nicely on the face without being too much and has the backbone (and hairstyle) of Margaret Thatcher!
3 days of constant breaking in and only ever lost one single hair (which wasn’t the full length of the knot so that hair wasn’t attached to the base to begin with)
Cons: the octagon points near the knot might clink against your bowl more than you like. First thing I noticed when I opened the box was a very strong initial smell of the tanning process - the cause of that “wet dog” smell is strong with this one. But after 3 days of breaking it in and the smell is 95% gone. (To break it in I shook it in water with some laundry detergent, rinsed, lathered it up and let it sit full of lather until bed time, rinsed out relathered and let it sit like that overnight. Next morning I rinsed it out, relathered, and let it sit until bedtime - repeated this process for 3 days and nights. And now even if I lay my nostrils right on the hairs all I smell is fresh linen - but to this I should add that I’ve found that Proraso Green has been the best breaking in soap to tackle natural hair knots.)
This looks big and cushy but remains a little scrubby, which will make people who like the extra exfoliation happy, maybe not those who want to lather w/ a soft baby kitten.
In the pics I have it next to a 24mm silvertip badger brush (which still to this day sheds 6 to 12 hairs every time I use it!) and the Omega Pro (which to be honest, I enjoy using more than the Yaqi). And I’ve also put it next to the 26mm synthetic Monster so you can see that comparison. The Monster is softer on the face for sure, but the Yaqi badger has given me a little better quality lather.
Anywho, pics!
