Ordered my first Simpson

[Boar Fighter]

5mm longer handle yeah, like that's gonna help.

That's why I got the Polo 8 bro.

Simpson Harvard H6 would fit you well.

See top row for size comparison.

Thanks, but don't waste your time on me. The Polo handle is too long and even more disproportionate for my taste. The Harvard is better, but in the unlikely chance, that i would decide to pay EUR 200 for a brush, i assure you, it would be for a non ivory colour handle and not a Simpson. But i don't see me buying a EUR 200 brush that will have a 1 out of 6 chance to be used in a month (and inside the month, a 1 every 5 days use, because i use a 5 brush rotation every month).

You are right, the 5mm of the Colonel might prove futile. I will tell you what. I will probably leave the whole thing for the Christmas period and grab whatever best badger is the best deal at the moment.

 

[naughtilus]

I posted a 200euro brush to help you come to your senses.

Let's focus what brushes we will buy on June 1st.

 

[Boar Fighter]

I posted a 200euro brush to help you come to your senses.

Let's focus what brushes we will buy on June 1st.

Ahaha! None, i hope! I have too many, little used brushes. I should respect the Sabbaticals for several months, buy a few more brushes over time and be done with it.

 

[naughtilus]

Ahaha! None, i hope! I have too many, little used brushes. I should respect the Sabbaticals for several months, buy a few more brushes over time and be done with it.

I have 6 brushes + 1 in travel kit. Do I need 7 in rotation? Why are you using 6, just curious.

 

[Boar Fighter]

I have 6 brushes + 1 in travel kit. Do I need 7 in rotation? Why are you using 6, just curious.

Ah, for the same reason, that i use 2 different razors (but only 1 in the same month), 16 different blades and 2 soaps. Variety! I don't use 6 brushes in the rotation. I use 5 brushes in the monthly rotation. But for each of the 5 posts in the rotation, i pick at random from 4-6 brushes.

Basically, i have 5 posts each month, distributed like this, depending on the size of the brush stand:
1) Brush stand for small (21mm) badgers: 6 candidate brushes (including one horse)
2) Brush stand for Semogues: 4 candidate brushes
3) Brush stand for large badgers: 6 candidate brushes (including the Vulfix 404 mixed hair, which is growing rapidly on me).
4) Brush stand for big (24mm, since i keep the Omega Pros out) boars: 5 candidates (including one horse)
5) Brush stand for synthetics: 6 candidates (though 4 are Yaqis tuxedos and plissofts).

So, it is a monthly rotation of 5 brushes, divided as: 2 boars, 2 badgers, 1 synthetic and these 5 brushes, get extracted at random out of a pool of 27 brushes. I could use more in the pool, but some are very similar (like, i have 3 Yaqi 2 bands, but i really use 1, there is no point in cluttering the rotation with the other 2 just for the different handle).

Back in the day, i could calculate you how many different combinations of "unique" shave feeling you can get combining these brushes, the blades, razors and soaps. But i am too old now to do that. But you get the idea... It's like a new experience every day. That's what keeps me in wetshaving. I could have bought 5 expensive brushes, instead of 50+ cheap ones. But i would grow bored of them. Now i don't. I look forward every month to the "lottery day", where i will extract the 5 "lucky winners of the month".

Shaving is boring because it's a repetitive experience. It's not boring when it's not repetitive. And i enjoy my lesser brushes, just as much as the Simpson. That's why the Simpson isn't getting any "preference treatment". It will have the same chances to win the monthly "small badger" rotation as all the others.

 

[naughtilus]

That's a really cool system. I completely understand the benefit of using multiple brushes to keep things interesting. Every time I use the cheap boars I'm enamored by them, thinking how good these are. Same with the badgers. I have appreciation for their individual character.

I get a feeling you think Simpson brushes are for arse elitists. I look at them more like anachronism. Buying a natural hair brush made by hand in manufaktur process by giggly chubby ladies in Britain for the chubby grumpy men of this world. In 2019!

Your X2 is a centenial brush btw. 100 years jubilee 1919-2019. So are my D3 and PL8.

Anywho. I don't think I have empty real estate for another brush. Not sure where I would put one in my shaving display.

 

[Boar Fighter]

That's a really cool system. I completely understand the benefit of using multiple brushes to keep things interesting. Every time I use the cheap boars I'm enamored by them, thinking how good these are. Same with the badgers. I have appreciation for their individual character.

I get a feeling you think Simpson brushes are for arse elitists. I look at them more like anachronism. Buying a natural hair brush made by hand in manufaktur process by giggly chubby ladies in Britain for the chubby grumpy men of this world. In 2019!

Your X2 is a centenial brush btw. 100 years jubilee 1919-2019. So are my D3 and PL8.

Anywho. I don't think I have empty real estate for another brush. Not sure where I would put one in my shaving display.

The good thing with the long rotations, is aside, the variety, that as you say, you revisit after a long time a brush and you realise that it has grown to be better than you remembered last time. This is particularly true for the boars. Last month i used the Omega 11574 after several months and as soon as i put it on my face i thought "wow, was this always so soft?!". I don't care about the plastic handle either, i like even my Omega boars, for their ergonomy and knot.

I think Simpson brushes are good value for money up to EUR 60. Past that, the law of diminishing returns becomes more and more evident and the competition from other manufacturers becomes fiercer. I get all the history, they are luxury items, they are hand made in UK and i understand this implicates higher workmanship costs and at the end of they day, the final price includes all this. I feel the Commodore X2 , considering all this, was a good buy. I don't regret it. I can get 4 passes out of it and that's all i ask from a brush.

Past that, i would never give more money for a Simpson. I don't particularly like their handle shapes or their ivory colours. Yes, they are classic, but having a bit of colour to break the white monotony is good too. And i think that there are many other manufacturers out there that for the same money, they can give me, equally good hair, with handles that would suit me more. That's all. If someone likes the handles or the story or he wants a Chubby, it is fully understandable, i have seen people with Simpson collections and i know very well how a collectionist's mind works, but they just aren't the brushes where i would spend more than EUR 60.

Funny enough, my Yaqi 2 bands, costed me in the "golden days" of Aliexpress about EUR 15 each and although they are different, overall, i rank them the same as the Simpson. The hair isn't sleek, it has a more "rustic" or "rough" feeling, but the pricklyness is zero, the handles i like them more, i don't have lather on my fingers and the price was unbeatable. Sure, they are hand made by some chinese ladies that don't have 100 years of experience, but they haven't shed a hair and for the price of a 21mm Simpson, you can get multiple Yaqis. The Simpson feels more like silvertip with backbone of 2band, which is also interesting and i do like silvertip feeling, so it was a good buy. But i wish they had 50mm lofts (i think Chubbies do that) and 50mm handles and coloured handles. Without asking an arm and a leg.

I didn't even know that there are "centenial" editions of Simpsons. They all look the same, ivory brushes.

I understand your problem, that's why i keep 5 in a monthly rotation and not more. 5 in a month, means each of them will be used 6 times, if you shave every day. Putting more, means even less times. And it is also a reason, why i am not interested in super expensive brushes. There is a logic in buying 5 EUR 100-200 brushes that you use all the time. Buying a such brush, only to be used 2 months a year (statistically speaking), for a total of 12 shaves, isn't worth it.

P.S.: In my last shave with the Commodore, i discovered that it CAN arrive to 4 pass lather with the same ability as my other 21mm brushes, if i load it heavier than the other 21mm brushes. Which is a good thing.

 

[naughtilus]

Buying a Simpson brush made in 2019 makes it a centenial brush. Doesn't have to be with special markings, although few of those with solid sterling silver handles will be released this year. And the Best badger hair is unprocessed, unclipped silvertip. It gets softer with use, but it won't go to mush down the road.

I personally prefer plain looking handles, regardless of color. Not a fan of the glitter puke resin that is currently fashionable. I consider the Muhle wood or resin + metal handles already complex.

I have nothing against Yaqi and the Chinese ladies, but the cheap brushes slots in my den were filled by Omega blondes.

 

[Boar Fighter]

Buying a Simpson brush made in 2019 makes it a centenial brush. Doesn't have to be with special markings, although few of those with solid sterling silver handles will be released this year. And the Best badger hair is unprocessed, unclipped silvertip. It gets softer with use, but it won't go to mush down the road.

I personally prefer plain looking handles, regardless of color. Not a fan of the glitter puke resin that is currently fashionable. I consider the Muhle wood or resin + metal handles already complex.

I have nothing against Yaqi and the Chinese ladies, but the cheap brushes slots in my den were filled by Omega blondes.

Ah, i see. Well, they sure do feel like silvertips and i wrote that since my first post in this thread about the impressions i had.

I like wooden Semogues, i am a total sucker for the Muhle/Edwin Jagger half resin-half metal handles and i like colour variety and handles with curves. I don't have handles with glitter, but that may change one day with a Yaqi mysterious space, but i don't really like the glitter in it, but the fact that it's curvy and blue. I don't have a blue handle. All my Yaqis are black, red or yellow. So i would like a blue.

Omegas should be in any den. They are too good for their money not to be.

 

[Boar Fighter]

The irony of SBAD... I was writing how above 60 EUR the competition toughens for the Simpson offerings... I just failed my May Sabbatical and this might be the solution about imperfect handles...

I just scored this. The horn variant of the 23mm Muhle Sophist silvertip, which in Muhle's site is the most expensive of the available handles.

Its black sibling is sold at a known irish shop for EUR 100.

US Ebay price: $ 175

I just nailed it for EUR 47 (last piece). Photo from my email order:

Current new price: EUR 118

Sure, i got a Boker for 50-100 EUR less (according to which one you want to pick as price), instead of "Muhle", so less bragging rights for me. But i can live with that!

It will be here on Friday. Soon, a new classic match! Germany vs England! Who will win! The British old ladies hand crafting Simpson or the German old ladies hand crafting Muhle...errrr...pardon, Boker??? The crowd is thrilled! Oh, the agony!

"Football is a simple game. 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win" - Gary Lineker.

Is it the same with shaving brushes? Will the german team of old ladies win at the end?

So, there! Here's my firstr EUR 100 brush, paid 50% less. Oh, how i love nailing these bargain prices on brushes! (let's hope i don't get another with defective knot).

And suddenly, i lost any anxiety about finding a Simpson with the correct loft height, the correct handle height and shape or colour.

 

[naughtilus]

Wow! Congrats, that's a proper score. You've found a loop hole in Muhle's marketing scheme.

Cappuccino resin + chrome looks awesome. The black one is a bit boring. The brand lettering will wipe out after few months anyway, so who cares if it's Boker or Muhle.

Fingers crossed about getting a good knot.

 

[Boar Fighter]

Wow! Congrats, that's a proper score. You've found a loop hole in Muhle's marketing scheme.

And cappuscino resin + chrome looks awesome. The black one is a bit boring. The brand lettering will wipe out after few months anyway, so who cares if it's Boker or Muhle.

Fingers crossed about getting a good knot.

Yes! Just between you and me, my absolutely preferred type of handle, is the half metal-half resin imitation horn (i 've bought 2 EJ like that + 1 RazorMD only imitation horn). And now i score the Muhle horn silvertip with metal base! It is like the shave Gods, reward my patience, for not returning my Christmas Muhle brush with the unevenly cut knot! It's like karma is paying me back for my stoicism.

Don't worry, i am not a brand snob. I would have nailed it, even if it was branded "Red Riding Hood".

 

[Boar Fighter]

I am expecting to see how the knot will be, but, if it's any good, for this brush, i may cheat my normal lottery once in a while and use it just because i love that type of heavy horn handle.

 

[naughtilus]

Wait. Is that actual real horn? Says in german genuine horn, not resin faux horn.

 

[naughtilus]

I checked several german shops. Says genuine horn. 150 euros on average priced. Damn!

 

[Boar Fighter]

I checked several german shops. Says genuine horn. 150 euros on average priced. Damn!

Yes, sir! No imitation this time! This is the real deal! That's why if you go to Muhle's site, the other handles (black and white, i think, resin), cost less.

Worst case scenario: It's also defective, like my Christmas Muhle paid at full price. This time I will send it back, Amazon gives full refund...

 

[naughtilus]

No glitter disco effects or faux ivory resin can outclass that.

 

[Boar Fighter]

No glitter disco effects or faux ivory resin can outclass that.

You bet! The only thing that can ruin this now, is if they send me a defective brush. I hope i not this time.

 

[naughtilus]

 

[Boar Fighter]

Ahahaha! True! I am crossing my toes too!