That's it. Once I'm done working up the lather, it seems like all the lather is in the brush and none in the bowl. That doesn't happen with synthetic brushes. Any tips on getting a better lather with the badger brush?
No. Is that the answer?Are you soaking the brush bristles for 10 minutes in water before lathering?
I think that will get you there. Natural hair bristles need to absorb water. Synthetic fibers do not absorb water, so they do not require soaking.No. Is that the answer?
Good. Thanks Bud.I think that will get you there. Natural hair bristles need to absorb water. Synthetic fibers do not absorb water, so they do not require soaking.
Thanks. Yeah, my badger brush is loaded, just nothing in the bowl. Will use your tip.My badger soaks up a lot of lather (mine soaks while I'm in the shower) but it's pretty good at putting it on my face. If I want to paint more on, I scrape the brush against the lip of my bowl and it gives up big dollops of lather.
Not the greatest pic, but probably 3/4 of the lather is in the brush. I did 3 passes plus a touch up pass on the neck, and easily had enough left over for another full pass.View attachment 1339331
ThanksI find I need to use quite a bit more soap per shave with my badger brush than I do with my synthetic. Part of it is the size of the brush (my badger is on the larger side at 26 mm), but I also suspect synthetic brushes are often just inherently more efficient in terms of the amount of soap they need to be effective.
Thanks. Good tip about not using hot water to soak. (I would have.)1) If you're coming from a synthetic be aware that no natural hair brush could ever compete with the efficiency of a synthetic, so you need to load the brush much longer than you did the synth to compensate. Just make so much lather that the brush eating it all is a physical impossibility.
2) All natural hair brushes must have their lofts soaked immediately before use. 10 minutes is a good safe number but you could probably get away with 5 minutes. Some people may try to convince you that naturals only need to be ran under the faucet for 30 second but don't be misguided. Soaking will help enormously... But don't use hot hot water.
Thanks. Yeah, I've done that hand lathering. But I imagine with these tips I won't have to so much. And yeah, the lather is in the brush, but being a one-pass shaver it doesn't help me much.You can also just squeeze it out with your hand and slap it on your face, but I like keeping my left hand dry for skin stretching.
I noticed mine is more of a lather eater as it's started to break in. But it seems like it's making the same volume of lather, just holding it in the bristles more.
Thanks. Will use more soap definitely.Use more soap. I do get what you're saying though. My method of lathering is to scoop out the soap from the tub and put it in the bottom of my shave bowl, and load/create the lather in the bowl. I do see a different result from my boars/synthetics vs my badger brushes, as the lather from my boars/synthetics seem to be more silky and voluptuous, but in terms of the shaves final result both are neither better or worse. It isn't the lather that makes me love badger brushes but it's the face feel that gets me.
At the end of the day just use what you like. If over time your badger brush just isn't quite up to snuff, hey so be it. I'm sure you'll get to learn your brush better over time and it won't disappoint you.