l just read the wiki on horse hair which explains the varied uses through history. I then remembered my childhood neighbour hood where Kenesky’s Sport Shop were the go to place for most NHL goalies to get there horse hair packed goalie pads, of course this was in the fifties. Horse hair was and is used for a lot of products because of it’s toughness. Horsehair - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horsehair
New Vielong horse hair brush
- Thread starter Bjlefebvre
- Start date
I have a Vie Long brown horse that is wonderful. It is a 35/65 blend and a great face lathering brush with just the right scritch for me.
- Thread starter
- #23
I did this this afternoon, using some Stirling shampoo instead of the oxiclean/detergent. This knocked out the smell. I can still detect the faintest bit of manger scent if I put the wet, un-soaped brush directly under my nose, but no funk at all once the lather got going. Thanks for that tip - a big improvement.
Today I relied more on a paintbrush motion throughout the face lathering process and less on the mush-into-your-face style. I also used the tips. Lather wasn’t bad. I think it’s still breaking in on that front - I had to reload with soap between passes.
I didn’t mind the floppiness per se today, but I did notice a bit of lather flying around during the paintbrush motions. Having said that, I do like the feel of the horsehair on my face a tad bit more than the boar. A little softer, even with the scritch there.
I have four Vie Longs. Never had one tangle. Trying to splay the knot is definitely a no-no.
I don't soak my horses either. I just wet them like a synth.
I don't soak my horses either. I just wet them like a synth.
Bjlefebvre:
'Giddy-up'...I have a Vie-Long Gonzalo (04102), 'Pro Series' Mixed Horse and Boar Brush (I rarely use it now...I should correct that...'sigh'...I'm mostly a B & B Essential Boar man now).
But because the loft of this brush is 61mm (2½ in), I can not categorize this brush as firm or floppy per se (maybe a 'painter' brush after I gently exfoliate (with little pressure), my face with the tips), but when compared to my B & B Essential Boar Brushes (Gold Flake & 10th Anniversary), with a shorter Loft of 54mm (2in), Knot 22mm (.8in), I can use more pressure to 'splay' the hairs on my face to effect a more pronounced 'back-bone', pressure, exfoliating and scratchier feeling.
However, Also, I had found after many months of use I can say that not much has changed since my original posting / impression, besides some of the best advice and the 'trick' to using these types of 'Pro' brushes I read is from member 'mftoms59' (a.k.a. Thomas), who stated;
"The Professional Horse...takes a bit more product than you're more Traditional Brushes due to the height. Your lathering technique will need to be different, using less pressure and lathering with just the tips of the Brush, practice is the only way to improve your technique with the Pro Series Brush, don't get discouraged".
Read More: a) My Vie Long Gonzalo Mixed Horse & Boar Brush-1st-Impressions
b) My Vie Long Gonzalo Mixed Horse & Boar Brush-2nd-Impressions
"Don’t worry about the [lather going dry]; just load the [brush]…”. George “Mule” Suttles
'Giddy-up'...I have a Vie-Long Gonzalo (04102), 'Pro Series' Mixed Horse and Boar Brush (I rarely use it now...I should correct that...'sigh'...I'm mostly a B & B Essential Boar man now).
But because the loft of this brush is 61mm (2½ in), I can not categorize this brush as firm or floppy per se (maybe a 'painter' brush after I gently exfoliate (with little pressure), my face with the tips), but when compared to my B & B Essential Boar Brushes (Gold Flake & 10th Anniversary), with a shorter Loft of 54mm (2in), Knot 22mm (.8in), I can use more pressure to 'splay' the hairs on my face to effect a more pronounced 'back-bone', pressure, exfoliating and scratchier feeling.
"The Professional Horse...takes a bit more product than you're more Traditional Brushes due to the height. Your lathering technique will need to be different, using less pressure and lathering with just the tips of the Brush, practice is the only way to improve your technique with the Pro Series Brush, don't get discouraged".
Read More: a) My Vie Long Gonzalo Mixed Horse & Boar Brush-1st-Impressions
b) My Vie Long Gonzalo Mixed Horse & Boar Brush-2nd-Impressions
Last edited:
- Thread starter
- #26
Another day, another shave with the horse.
Had some real issues with the lather that I don’t know whether to blame on the brush or the soap. I dug out a sample container of Barrister & Mann’s Seville soap to use this evening. I have never used this soap before but bought the sample from Maggards. I scooped out some with my finger, put it in a spare rice bowl and tried lathering it up with the Vielong. For the life of me I could not get a decent lather. This brush is still breaking in, but in earlier sessions I could still get good, if not great, results via face lather. Today was just yech - the brush would just not get a thick lather, instead producing little more than a thin drizzle. I’ve been using shaving soap for years and have gotten good at dialing things in with either more water or more soap, but was this time it was just not happening.
My straight razor technique has been improving, but even with no nicks or weepers today, I’m still feeling fuzzy on the face. That’s in contrast with the BBS I had going on yesterday with the only difference being the soap used.
Now, this is only the third time I’ve used this brush, and my bowl lathering technique is non-existent. It could also be that utilizing sample-sized soap threw me off and I hadn’t put enough soap in the bowl to start off with. So I’m not going to blame the brush for the poor results of today’s merely SAS results. We’ll see what happens when the full sized Seville gets here later this week. Tomorrow, back to Mitchell’s Wool Fat.
Had some real issues with the lather that I don’t know whether to blame on the brush or the soap. I dug out a sample container of Barrister & Mann’s Seville soap to use this evening. I have never used this soap before but bought the sample from Maggards. I scooped out some with my finger, put it in a spare rice bowl and tried lathering it up with the Vielong. For the life of me I could not get a decent lather. This brush is still breaking in, but in earlier sessions I could still get good, if not great, results via face lather. Today was just yech - the brush would just not get a thick lather, instead producing little more than a thin drizzle. I’ve been using shaving soap for years and have gotten good at dialing things in with either more water or more soap, but was this time it was just not happening.
My straight razor technique has been improving, but even with no nicks or weepers today, I’m still feeling fuzzy on the face. That’s in contrast with the BBS I had going on yesterday with the only difference being the soap used.
Now, this is only the third time I’ve used this brush, and my bowl lathering technique is non-existent. It could also be that utilizing sample-sized soap threw me off and I hadn’t put enough soap in the bowl to start off with. So I’m not going to blame the brush for the poor results of today’s merely SAS results. We’ll see what happens when the full sized Seville gets here later this week. Tomorrow, back to Mitchell’s Wool Fat.
Loading a sample can be a problem sometimes. Just not enough surface area.
Try a full-size soap in the tub and just load the brush fully first without worrying about lathering. Since your brush has so much loft, try soaking just one half the length of the hair, it will be less floppy. Horse hair will absorb water gradually so give it at least a couple of minutes. I like to turn the soap sideways or even upside-down and just lightly brush over the surface of the soap. You have to give it some time but the soap will fully load onto the tips. If your brush is not wet enough, the soap will not load. If your lather is thin, you need to load more product. Try loading twice as long as you think you should.
- Thread starter
- #28
Like I said, usually loading a brush isn’t a problem for me. I think it was the amount of soap I tried to start with - the surface area wasn’t enough. I spent so long stirring the brush in the bowl that my arm starting getting soar.
Horse hair is a lot like human hair. There are people who use horse shampoo from Mane and Tail to clean their hair. Likewise, human shampoo and conditioner works well on horse hair. A good shampoo and conditioning will help your brush break in faster. A periodic shampoo will help remove any residual soap and maintain it in great condition. The conditioner also helps with detangling the hair should that become an issue.
+10000000000
I bought a Vie Long 13061 a few days ago.
One hour ago, I thought it was time to use it for the first time. I always wanted to have a horse brush and try it.
Vie Long 13061 is supposed to be ( according to some reviews) one of the best horse brushes.
So, I tried it for the first pass. That was the end. Tangly, stinky and all the worse things I can write. I just threw it in the garbage. I will never buy or use a horse brush again.
I love my Cremo horsehair brush. It's the only brush I own. It's only $9.02 on Amazon.
It's so good, Cremo will probably stop making them.
It's so good, Cremo will probably stop making them.
+10000000000
I bought a Vie Long 13061 a few days ago.
One hour ago, I thought it was time to use it for the first time. I always wanted to have a horse brush and try it.
Vie Long 13061 is supposed to be ( according to some reviews) one of the best horse brushes.
So, I tried it for the first pass. That was the end. Tangly, stinky and all the worse things I can write. I just threw it in the garbage. I will never buy or use a horse brush again.
I have a Vie Long 13061. It is a nice brush. No, it is not as good as my best badger brushes, but it is fully usable.
If you purchase a synthetic hair brush, it requires no conditioning or break in. If you purchase a natural hair brush: badger, boar, or horsehair, you need to properly clean and condition the brush and then use it a while to break it and allow it to achieve its fullest potential.
It sounds like you took a brand new horsehair brush and did nothing to clean it or condition it. Proper cleaning and conditioning with shampoo and conditioner would have eliminated the odor and tangling. You were dissatisfied with its performance on the very first pass of your first shave with the brush. The brush had no opportunity to break in. It is no surprise that it performed so poorly.
You might want to stick to synthetics or premium badgers that were cleaned and conditioned by the manufacturer.
You could give that brush away to someone instead of throwing it out; somebody that would not mind going through the initial cleaning and break-in phase. They might really enjoy using that brush for years.
We do giveaways all the time around here, usually called PIFs (Pay it Forward). They can be fun to sponsor or participate in.
- Thread starter
- #34
Had a rare morning shave this a.m. (working from home while fighting a cold). The brush worked much better with a regular-sized puck of Mitchell’s Wool Fat than with the Seville sample attempt. A few things I noticed - either the excessive scritchiness is gone or I’m just not noticing it anymore (most likely both); and I got the first nice, fat lather from this brush than I’ve seen before. Did not have to reload for a second pass ATG. Also, the farm-funk smell is completely gone. Mitchell’s is a light-scented soap, but it was the only thing my nose noticed this time around.
At this point, I can attest that the “stronger than badger, softer than boar” description is completely accurate. The only thing preventing me from being 100% in love with this brush is the loft, which is a bit too high for my taste- a lot of lather flying around during the paint brush strokes. Having said that, that might say more about my technique than the brush. What I might do is get a horse knot from Shave Forge and throw that into a handle that will cut the loft a little. Still mulling on that. But all in all, I’m definitely glad I tried this in the first place.
At this point, I can attest that the “stronger than badger, softer than boar” description is completely accurate. The only thing preventing me from being 100% in love with this brush is the loft, which is a bit too high for my taste- a lot of lather flying around during the paint brush strokes. Having said that, that might say more about my technique than the brush. What I might do is get a horse knot from Shave Forge and throw that into a handle that will cut the loft a little. Still mulling on that. But all in all, I’m definitely glad I tried this in the first place.
Some put an O-ring around the hair near the handle to effectively reduce the loft.
You could try a Cremo for $9.02. It's made by Vielong.
- Thread starter
- #36
That’s a good idea. I’ll try the o-ring first. I like the handle on this brush, and it seems a waste to throw it aside if there’s a quick hack to fix the issue. The Cremo looks good as well - if the O-ring hack doesn’t satisfy, I’ll maybe pick up the Cremo. Thanks!
+10000000000
I bought a Vie Long 13061 a few days ago.
One hour ago, I thought it was time to use it for the first time. I always wanted to have a horse brush and try it.
Vie Long 13061 is supposed to be ( according to some reviews) one of the best horse brushes.
So, I tried it for the first pass. That was the end. Tangly, stinky and all the worse things I can write. I just threw it in the garbage. I will never buy or use a horse brush again.
Yep, I threw mine away too. Don't let all of the "you should have pifed it" people get you down. I understand exactly why you threw it away. The center hairs feel like the plastic things that keep tags on new shirts. The scent was insurmoutable with all forms of "conditioning". I would NEVER expect a noob to use this and stick with the hobby. You did a noob a favor by throwing it away. No horses were harmed in the process. If you feel bad about a new shaver being denied your brush, you can always get a 24 barrel synthetic for $10 from Italian Barber and give it away.
@ RayClem. The Vie Long 13061 was used once. The brush from the first time became useless. It became so tangly that I was unable - although I tried - to make it to its previous form. It had the form of a pancake. Before using it, I put it in water in the refrigerator for three days. The fourth day, I washed it with shampoo. The 5th day and overnight it was in a cup of water with sodium bicarbonate. The seventh day I used it.
I read that others had no problem. Maybe the lot of my brush had a quality problem. I don't know.
@Atlantic59. I would not feel comfortable to give it as PIF because as I said it was as a pancake of bristles. On the other hand, the shipping cost from EU (Greece) would not worth it anyway.
I will stick to my boar, badger and synthetic brushes.
I read that others had no problem. Maybe the lot of my brush had a quality problem. I don't know.
@Atlantic59. I would not feel comfortable to give it as PIF because as I said it was as a pancake of bristles. On the other hand, the shipping cost from EU (Greece) would not worth it anyway.
I will stick to my boar, badger and synthetic brushes.
Don't let all the people that had positive experiences with these brushes stop you from bashing an entire category of products every time they get mentioned. You make these brushes sound so terrible that nobody would ever use them, which is not at all the case. I get that you had a bad experience, but plenty of people have had a good experience with them. A little fairness and balance would get us closer to the truth.
I'm sure there are some good ones. I'm glad you enjoy yours.
