Simpson Shedder

[mikesaidhi]

My Simpson Berkeley Best arrived today.

I performed my usual shampoo-soak-gentle-test-lather ritual and was alarmed by how many hairs either broke in the middle of its shaft or shed entirely from the knot. I counted a total of 18 hairs.

I always expect some initial shedding from all my brushes, but this can't be normal, right?

I have other brushes, but this is my first Simpson's so I don't have anything to compare it to.

Thanks!

 

[dundak]

Give it a week and see if it continues. It may have not been combed out well during manufacture. If it is a problem Simpsons is good at honoring their warranty if you are the original owner

 

[njpaddy]

Not unusual for Simpson. I've had 8 of them. It should quit after a couple of shaves. I never track lost hairs in the first week.

 

[beginish]

Not unusual for Simpson. I've had 8 of them. It should quit after a couple of shaves. I never track lost hairs in the first week.

+1 to this. In fact it's not unusual for any brand. Though most makers comb the brush to remove hairs that are loose or not incorporated into the base of the knot, it's not a perfect job, so it's losing hairs at the beginning is pretty common.

 

[Mick]

That is not normal. Not to say that it can't happen.

Might be a good idea to zip off a quick email to the vendor about it so that you have made contact and told them about it right away

Give it a week and if it still has problems contact the vendor you purchased it from again to send it back.

 

[SliceOfLife]

I've had a lot of badger brushes in my day and only one or two shed heavily (20+ the first use) at the start, but both were fine after a few more uses. In fact I've only ever had one badger shedder, and it shed 1-3 hairs every use its entire life. Didn't have an "initial shed" at all really.


The two things seem entirely unrelated. Some brushes shed a lot at first. Some shed throughout their lives. Surely some do both, but there doesn't seem any obvious connection between the two.

 

[Dipesh]

It's only your first lather. It's more than likely loose hairs in the knot. Usually this stops after a few lathers.

If your loosing 18 hairs a shave after 10 shaves. Then there is something wrong.

 

[ackvil]

I had a similar experience with my Duke 3. You can read about it here.

I contacted the vendor and Simpson and the first thing they advised was to wash the brush and comb the hairs out and to perform this combing for about a week. If the hairs continue to fall out most likely you have a defective brush. Simpson replaced my brush since after 30 days the hairs continued to fall.

However, since the warranty is in question it would be best to e-mail the vendor and Simpson to advise them of the problem.

Two other things: (1) put the shedding hairs in a baggie so you can show them how many bristles were lost and (2) take photos of what the shedding looked like. When I sent Simpson an e-mail showing the problem they advised me to immediately return the brush and said the would replace it, which they did

Good luck.