Perplexed - Can shaving brushes suddenly go "bad"

[vsp]

Hi,

I own 4 brushes.
A shavemac 28 mm
The B&B Essential
The 2008 B&B Limited Edition and
An Omega Professional boar brush

I use them all regularly, but the shavemac and the B&B Essential are my two go-to brushes. I am intimately familiar with the "feel" of all 4 brushes and have been able to generate excellent lather with them all.

Now, suddenly, about a month ago, my 2 go-to brushes stopped producing good lather. Basically, it is almost as if the bristle has developed an aversion to soap/cream and just refuses to whip them into good lather. Now, I am able to generate passable lather from these two, but the "feel" has definitely changed.

I immediately suspected the water and immediately tried the other two brushes (over a couple of weeks). They both still generated the same excellent lather that I was used to and expected.

So now, the question is - Did the regular use that the shavemac and the Essential were subjected to in some way change the behaviour of these two brushes?

I tried cleaning them through the diluted vinegar soak method, but they still don't work as well as they used to and the other two still do.

Looking for suggestions / recommendations for a "fix"

Regards,
Vikram

 

[Emmett]

They shouldn't go bad, no. Try cleaning them with a vigorous shampooing or two.

 

[vsp]

They shouldn't go bad, no. Try cleaning them with a vigorous shampooing or two.

Tried that about 3 times each. Didn't really work.

 

[DavidB]

I soak them in a borax solution (1 tsp. borax to a cup of warm water) for about an hour, then rinse. That's supposed to remove soap deposits and such, which builds up on the hairs and impairs performance... though I would think your vinegar soak would do the same thing. In any case, a borax soak brought a couple of my brushes back to life.

Good luck.

Dave

 

[yomuppet]

Borax brings your brushes back to life.

Regards.

J

 

[Sodapopjones]

Borax brings your brushes back to life.

Regards.

J

Over-doing it will kill a brush too....

Btw I really despise Shavemac, put me on the, "I wont even use it if it were free" list

 

[jrhudgins]

My Rooney 3/1 Super started doing a less-than-its-usual-great job of whipping up lather, and it also started getting reluctant to rinse clean, leaving a blob of shave cream in the last third of the hairs. I shampooed it, which helped a little, then did it again and followed with conditioner, which put it back to original. I had thought for a while that I had killed it with using water that was too hot when soaking it, but luckily it came back.