Hi everyone,
Thought I would share this mini-review to give some knowledge back to this great community when I can. I recently picked up a Proraso brush locally at a great price. After reading about quick break-in methods here on B&B, I had to give some of them a shot.
Summary of the method, soak brush for 20 minutes and wash with shampoo. Once clean insert the brush in a glass of water (To almost the base of the knot) and place it in the fridge for a day. Remove from the fridge, test lather and dry on a large towel. Let air dry and repeat this a couple times. I got a fairly well broken in boar in a few days without the bad shaves, overall I am impressed and happy someone shared this. Though you can't tell in the photo since the brush is wet, many of the hairs have split already with this method.
Now to the brush. Firstly this brush stinks, I have an Italian Flag Omega and a Semogue 620 and neither smelled this bad. It was room altering smell that I didn't know existed until getting this brush. Fortunately it seems to being going away but slower than I would have liked.
Backbone: This brush is seriously powerful, enough to make quick work of anything. Big knot with medium loft means a very versatile brush. The bristles are extremely tough and wide and not bleached so they are very stiff. A noticeable difference from the Italian Flag Omega which are almost white.
Lather: The impressive thing about it is the high quality lather it produces. It is able to produce enough high quality lather from high end soaps (Tabac, Valobra) for two passes after a quick break in in one week. My 620 was not able to do this for many, many shaves.
Bristles: The brush is not very soft, at least yet. I don't see it becoming as soft as higher grade boars either, but it is very effective. I will post a long-term follow up when broken in.
Finish: Someone low end, but I kind of grew to like it. Decent chrome plating and low weight make it easy to work with, but it is very inexpensive and I can't really complain. The plastic ring also looks cheapish, but the low weight will be good for traveling. In Canada they are $12 CAD in Italy when I was there this summer they are available at the equivalent of a variety grocery store for around 4 EUR.
Overall: A powerful boar at a great price. Though technically it is great for beginners, if I were new to DE I would have hated this brush for sure. It takes some patience and technique to break it in and remove the funky smell, but once you accomplish this you are rewarded with a powerful face lathering beast of a brush that is also large enough to handle a bowl.
Thought I would share this mini-review to give some knowledge back to this great community when I can. I recently picked up a Proraso brush locally at a great price. After reading about quick break-in methods here on B&B, I had to give some of them a shot.
Summary of the method, soak brush for 20 minutes and wash with shampoo. Once clean insert the brush in a glass of water (To almost the base of the knot) and place it in the fridge for a day. Remove from the fridge, test lather and dry on a large towel. Let air dry and repeat this a couple times. I got a fairly well broken in boar in a few days without the bad shaves, overall I am impressed and happy someone shared this. Though you can't tell in the photo since the brush is wet, many of the hairs have split already with this method.
Now to the brush. Firstly this brush stinks, I have an Italian Flag Omega and a Semogue 620 and neither smelled this bad. It was room altering smell that I didn't know existed until getting this brush. Fortunately it seems to being going away but slower than I would have liked.
Backbone: This brush is seriously powerful, enough to make quick work of anything. Big knot with medium loft means a very versatile brush. The bristles are extremely tough and wide and not bleached so they are very stiff. A noticeable difference from the Italian Flag Omega which are almost white.
Lather: The impressive thing about it is the high quality lather it produces. It is able to produce enough high quality lather from high end soaps (Tabac, Valobra) for two passes after a quick break in in one week. My 620 was not able to do this for many, many shaves.
Bristles: The brush is not very soft, at least yet. I don't see it becoming as soft as higher grade boars either, but it is very effective. I will post a long-term follow up when broken in.
Finish: Someone low end, but I kind of grew to like it. Decent chrome plating and low weight make it easy to work with, but it is very inexpensive and I can't really complain. The plastic ring also looks cheapish, but the low weight will be good for traveling. In Canada they are $12 CAD in Italy when I was there this summer they are available at the equivalent of a variety grocery store for around 4 EUR.
Overall: A powerful boar at a great price. Though technically it is great for beginners, if I were new to DE I would have hated this brush for sure. It takes some patience and technique to break it in and remove the funky smell, but once you accomplish this you are rewarded with a powerful face lathering beast of a brush that is also large enough to handle a bowl.
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