I wanted to get a brush to live at my girlfriend's place so I found this cheapish Omega 10218 banded boar brush. I grabbed the blue one as it's her favorite color (and I think it looks nice, too)
I've been breaking it in and de-funking it and it's turning out to be quite a nice little brush! The tips began to split after just a couple latherings and it has a nice, soft face feel but with enough backbone to load hard soaps with great ease.
I think I may have just become a full-fledged boar convert.
Going back a couple years, I wasn't impressed with my first boar brush (VDH), but my poor experience was likely due more to inexperience than product quality. Still I craved a smooth, soft brush that felt like a pillowy cloud, but found that silvertip and 'best' badger brushes just suck up a lot of lather.
On a whim I purchased an Omega Pro 48 after reading its praises. After a somewhat lengthy break-in and de-funking it's now one of my favorite brushes. I feared that its softness might be due to its long loft, but also noted how many shorter loft boar brushes Omega makes and thought, "how bad could they be?" I've learned that even this little brush can do the trick with great ease.
I also feel that these are actually softer on the face than a 'pure' grade badger brush. The couple I had were quite scratchy on the face, and not in the most pleasant way. And the best part is that these boar brushes are generally cheaper than their badger counterparts!
Now I will point out a minor...I don't know if "gripe" is the right word, but it's worth noting that my boars seem to hold quite a bit of water at the base of the knot, or it just trickles down between passes. Sometimes water drips down onto my hand or chin when I'm lathering up for my second or third pass. Next time I'll try squeezing from the base after soaking, and then giving a couple shakes. Again, not a huge deal, but worth mention.
Overall, I think I'm gonna stick with boars for a while!
YMMV
I've been breaking it in and de-funking it and it's turning out to be quite a nice little brush! The tips began to split after just a couple latherings and it has a nice, soft face feel but with enough backbone to load hard soaps with great ease.
I think I may have just become a full-fledged boar convert.
Going back a couple years, I wasn't impressed with my first boar brush (VDH), but my poor experience was likely due more to inexperience than product quality. Still I craved a smooth, soft brush that felt like a pillowy cloud, but found that silvertip and 'best' badger brushes just suck up a lot of lather.
On a whim I purchased an Omega Pro 48 after reading its praises. After a somewhat lengthy break-in and de-funking it's now one of my favorite brushes. I feared that its softness might be due to its long loft, but also noted how many shorter loft boar brushes Omega makes and thought, "how bad could they be?" I've learned that even this little brush can do the trick with great ease.
I also feel that these are actually softer on the face than a 'pure' grade badger brush. The couple I had were quite scratchy on the face, and not in the most pleasant way. And the best part is that these boar brushes are generally cheaper than their badger counterparts!
Now I will point out a minor...I don't know if "gripe" is the right word, but it's worth noting that my boars seem to hold quite a bit of water at the base of the knot, or it just trickles down between passes. Sometimes water drips down onto my hand or chin when I'm lathering up for my second or third pass. Next time I'll try squeezing from the base after soaking, and then giving a couple shakes. Again, not a huge deal, but worth mention.
Overall, I think I'm gonna stick with boars for a while!
YMMV
