My first post on B&B in over a decade, but I figured this was the place to ask this question due to the high proportions of brush-aholics here!
This morning I took delivery of a couple of new Pro 49 brushes. It takes me back - my first ever brush was a 49! However, on unpacking them I noticed a few things:
- The bristles are yellower than my current 10083 brush (ostensibly the same knot in a chrome handle)
- The knot seems significantly less dense than my current brush
...the thing is, that this isn't the first time I have had this experience recently. A couple of months back I began to break in a new 10065 to replace an older one that had started to show a bit of wear and tear. Again, the new brush had much yellower bristles and seemed considerably less dense. At first I thought it was simply because the older brush was fully broken in, but after a few months of exclusive use of the new brush it became apparent that there are simply significantly fewer hairs in the knot compared to the old brush - in fact, when both brushes were well broken in, the older knot had almost double the circumference at the business end simply due to the density of hairs.
I recently also saw a post on a Reddit shaving sub where a newbie thought that their new Omega might be faulty - they posted a picture and it was obvious that the knot density was a joke - people advised them to return the brush. I wouldn't say my new brushes are that bad, but compared to the older brushes it's not a great look.
My new red 49 is currently doing it's first wet / dry cycle, as I usually do two or three before the first use. It's already showing some split ends, but it makes me even more certain that there is a definite difference in knot density between the new and old brush.
Pics to follow when I have time if anyone is interested (alas I no longer have the old 10065, which would have made the difference between new and old obvious to anyone). Omegas have always been great value brushes, but I am wondering if the house of Il Famoso Pennello has been doing a bit of "value-engineering" in recent years to try and offset increasing production costs. I am interested to know if anyone else has noticed a drop off in knot density / quality when comparing current Omegas to brushes of say 5 or more years ago...or maybe I am just a crank and it's all in my head!
This morning I took delivery of a couple of new Pro 49 brushes. It takes me back - my first ever brush was a 49! However, on unpacking them I noticed a few things:
- The bristles are yellower than my current 10083 brush (ostensibly the same knot in a chrome handle)
- The knot seems significantly less dense than my current brush
...the thing is, that this isn't the first time I have had this experience recently. A couple of months back I began to break in a new 10065 to replace an older one that had started to show a bit of wear and tear. Again, the new brush had much yellower bristles and seemed considerably less dense. At first I thought it was simply because the older brush was fully broken in, but after a few months of exclusive use of the new brush it became apparent that there are simply significantly fewer hairs in the knot compared to the old brush - in fact, when both brushes were well broken in, the older knot had almost double the circumference at the business end simply due to the density of hairs.
I recently also saw a post on a Reddit shaving sub where a newbie thought that their new Omega might be faulty - they posted a picture and it was obvious that the knot density was a joke - people advised them to return the brush. I wouldn't say my new brushes are that bad, but compared to the older brushes it's not a great look.
My new red 49 is currently doing it's first wet / dry cycle, as I usually do two or three before the first use. It's already showing some split ends, but it makes me even more certain that there is a definite difference in knot density between the new and old brush.
Pics to follow when I have time if anyone is interested (alas I no longer have the old 10065, which would have made the difference between new and old obvious to anyone). Omegas have always been great value brushes, but I am wondering if the house of Il Famoso Pennello has been doing a bit of "value-engineering" in recent years to try and offset increasing production costs. I am interested to know if anyone else has noticed a drop off in knot density / quality when comparing current Omegas to brushes of say 5 or more years ago...or maybe I am just a crank and it's all in my head!
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It did that a lot for about 2 weeks before the stink left. It got softer and fluffier over those two weeks of repeated towel beatings.
