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The new Vie Long Bleached Boar knot - first impressions

I just had my first shave with one of the new Vielong Bleached Boar brushes and thought I would share my initial thoughts.

The brush comes in a 26mm by 55mm knot and seems to only be available on yourshaving.com (I can't even find it on the Vielong website).
It comes in three different handles (a Butterscotch Tulip, a Black and white/cream American Barber style and one they refer to as a "seven" black handle which looks almost identical to the Tulip). I went for the Butterscotch Tulip and was impressed with the handle. It's a solid resin handle and feels nice in the hand (YMMV)

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After soaking for three days, lathering up and leaving overnight and then rinsing and drying the brush was fairly well broken in, tips still need to split more and it's still eating lather but there's no funk and the tips have begun to split.

This is where the brush gets a bit funky...after soaking it takes on a bit of a cowlick appearance and doesn't bloom like you would expect a brush to bloom. The only other brush I have that does this is my Zenith 80B Bleached Boar but not to this extent.

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In terms of performance it probably has a density similar to a Semogue (it's not as dense as a Mondial or a Zenith but denser than an Omega). The backbone is also quite good (although that could also be down to the cowlick) and it doesn't feel floppy at all. It had no issues loading and building a lather and although I bowl lather it seemed like it would easily hold enough for 3 passes if you face lather. I am more of a painter and it works well with this method, however, when I tried to mash/scrub in circular motions it didn't splay like you would expect due to the cowlick and it felt a bit strange.

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Overall it's a welcome additional to my den and another quality boar knot on the market, however, due to the cowlick it might not be to everyone's taste (although this might just be a quirk of my brush!).
 
Nice review and photos! How is the scrub/scritch with it?

Thanks, it has a bit of scritch to it but it's still breaking and it feels like that will disappear as the tips split. In terms of scrubbiness, I would say it has more scrub than an Omega and probably somewhere between a Semogue SOC and Semogue Torga.

You soaked it for three days?

Yes, all my new boars get a 3 day soak to kick start the break in. It's based on the advice from Franco Bompieri (the owner of Antica Barbieria Colla shop in Milan) from the below video

 
I just had my first shave with one of the new Vielong Bleached Boar brushes and thought I would share my initial thoughts.

The brush comes in a 26mm by 55mm knot and seems to only be available on yourshaving.com (I can't even find it on the Vielong website).
It comes in three different handles (a Butterscotch Tulip, a Black and white/cream American Barber style and one they refer to as a "seven" black handle which looks almost identical to the Tulip). I went for the Butterscotch Tulip and was impressed with the handle. It's a solid resin handle and feels nice in the hand (YMMV)

View attachment 1441845

After soaking for three days, lathering up and leaving overnight and then rinsing and drying the brush was fairly well broken in, tips still need to split more and it's still eating lather but there's no funk and the tips have begun to split.

This is where the brush gets a bit funky...after soaking it takes on a bit of a cowlick appearance and doesn't bloom like you would expect a brush to bloom. The only other brush I have that does this is my Zenith 80B Bleached Boar but not to this extent.

View attachment 1441840View attachment 1441841

In terms of performance it probably has a density similar to a Semogue (it's not as dense as a Mondial or a Zenith but denser than an Omega). The backbone is also quite good (although that could also be down to the cowlick) and it doesn't feel floppy at all. It had no issues loading and building a lather and although I bowl lather it seemed like it would easily hold enough for 3 passes if you face lather. I am more of a painter and it works well with this method, however, when I tried to mash/scrub in circular motions it didn't splay like you would expect due to the cowlick and it felt a bit strange.

View attachment 1441842View attachment 1441843View attachment 1441844

Overall it's a welcome additional to my den and another quality boar knot on the market, however, due to the cowlick it might not be to everyone's taste (although this might just be a quirk of my brush!).
Really nice brush and review. Curious about soaking a bleached brush - thought that if bleached the brush did not require much of a break-in period/process. I've a rebranded Zenith 80N that was great right out of the box with no break-in required. Was your first picture of the dry brush before or after the 3 day soak? Brush appears to already have lots of spit ends consistent with being broken in. Realize YMMV always applies to brush splay preference. Thanks again for sharing.
 
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Looks pretty nice. Give it 15-20 more shaves and let the tips split to finish the break in. I'd be interested to hear an update after it's fully broken in. Maybe the cowlick will go away.
 
Thank you for the great review. I've ordered multiple times from yourshaving & have always gotten great customer service from them. It seems I may have another order to start, thanks to your review! And BTW, they are the only source I've found for the wonderful Zenith Unbleached boars.
 
Really nice brush and review. Curious about soaking a bleached brush - thought that if bleached the brush did not require much of a break-in period/process. I've a rebranded Zenith 80N that was great right out of the box with no break-in required. Was your first picture of the dry brush before or after the 3 day soak? Brush appears to already have lots of spit ends consistent with being broken in. Realize YMMV always applies to brush splay preference. Thanks again for sharing.

Thanks. Yes, the first picture is straight out of the box, it wasn't as tight a knot as unbleached ones are at first, but the tips hadn't split yet when looked at close up. I find that my bleached boars break-in quicker than my unbleached boars but still have a break-in period but it various from brush to brush. My Zenith 80B and this one felt like they needed a break-in soak but my Mondials and Zenith 505 probably could have been used straight away with minimal break-in. The way I look at it is that it doesn't hurt to soak them so I always just go it out of habit.

Thank you for the great review. I've ordered multiple times from yourshaving & have always gotten great customer service from them. It seems I may have another order to start, thanks to your review! And BTW, they are the only source I've found for the wonderful Zenith Unbleached boars.

Yes, they are an excellent vendor. I have two of the unbleached boars from them as well as a cobalt blue 505 bleached boar and a 506 black resin Extra Soft Horse none of which I have never seen anywhere else (and despite their exclusivity they remain very reasonably priced).
 
Yes, all my new boars get a 3 day soak to kick start the break in. It's based on the advice from Franco Bompieri (the owner of Antica Barbieria Colla shop in Milan) from the below video

Thanks, I watched the video. I can see that happening with a plastic handle as shown, but a wooden-handled brush wouldn't fare so well, I would think. Maybe it's soaked for three days hanging straight down in a narrow glass, keeping shy of the handle?
 
Thanks, I watched the video. I can see that happening with a plastic handle as shown, but a wooden-handled brush wouldn't fare so well, I would think. Maybe it's soaked for three days hanging straight down in a narrow glass, keeping shy of the handle?
Yes, narrow glass or mug and only soak the bristles, not the handle. I don't have any wooden handle brushes, so not sure if it affects them or not.
 

Steve56

Ask me about shaving naked!
Third shave, not much of a cowlick, quite usable out of the box too. It doesn’t look too much different than other boars that I have cowlick-wise.

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My personal experience with the soaking and freezing folklore is you can soak a natural hair brush for 30 days, but it will still dry out back to its original qualities. Splitting of the actual hairs is the only thing that will change the lathering and face feel properties.
 
And here's the boar knot after a three-day soak...

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That'll teach me not to stack a knot up with two nickels! I was unable to create a lather to see of the knot would swirl into a cowlick or not, but a lot of the hairs do seem to be splitting.
 
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