The Wanderer's Journey

[AimlessWanderer]

Yes, this was the soap for today's shave.

No, this wasn't the brush for today's shave.

It was back to the Maggards 22mm synthetic brush in order to try this Grapefruit and Peach scented soap. The soap is soft, and the brush loaded very quickly indeed. It took very little time to produce a high performing, comfortable lather, and the razor sailed through it as effortlessly as with any of my other current lather choices.

The first scent I got was metallic, then a citrus and metallic edge, which further developed into grapefruit with a metallic twang to it. This stayed with me until maybe two thirds of the way through the first pass, before the unmistakeable second scent made it's appearance. Baby sick!

The baby sick scent, which is how artificial peach scents present to my nose, wasn't particularly prominent, and with the hope of letting my mind tune that out, I finished that pass, rinsed and lathered for a second pass. In doing so, the metallic grapefruit side of the scent came back to the front. Sadly, it didn't last as long before the infant puke reappeared, this time with a more pungent presence.

After the second pass, I rinsed off the residual lather and metallic grapefruit scent, leaving just the olfactory torment of regurgitated milk and Calpol. A healthy post-shave lathering of face, moustache, and goatee, with London Oatcake Mahogany was required, to exorcise the scent.

Thanks again for the PIF @Cal, and the reminder of one of the many reasons I never wanted kids, but I'm afraid I shall not be putting this on my face again

Sadly, due to having to batter the scent into submission with a different lather, I can't comment on the post shave feel of this soap.

Good performance. Shame about the scent.

 

[thombrogan]

Curdled milk and strawberry fever medicine on one’s chest or down one’s back usually means an infant’s suffering was being treated.

As an occurrence, it’s a badge of honor.

As a scent component, it sounds horrible.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

As an occurrence, it’s a badge of honor.

An honour that I am perfectly content to let someone else have. The scent sticks to the inside of the nose, in the same way that emissions from the other end of the writhing squawkers sticks to everything. Don't get me wrong, I love my nephew and nieces. They're just a lot easier to spend time with once they get old enough to tell you the issue, rather than making you play the "what is it crying for this time?" game. Generally less emmisions to deal with by that point too.

 

[Cal]

Good performance. Shame about the scent.

I have to agree on both counts. I think a permanent holiday in your local friendly landfill would be appropriate.

 

[thombrogan]

Generally less emmisions to deal with by that point too.

You don’t fill their stomaches with cabbage, curry, and kimchi and send them home?

 

[AimlessWanderer]

I have to agree on both counts. I think a permanent holiday in your local friendly landfill would be appropriate.

...or I could be really evil, and send it to Wes

You don’t fill their stomaches with cabbage, curry, and kimchi and send them home?

Heck no! I let their parents have the expense, messiness, fussiness, tantrums, and clean up of meal times. Besides, I visit them, they don't visit me. Much easier to make my excuses and leave when I've had enough, than to boot them out. I can say all my goodbyes and be out of the door in five minutes. It can take them twenty minutes just to have all the kids wearing the correct shoes on the correct feet, all at the same time. Apparently duct taping the first kid's shoes on while you sort the second kid out is cruel.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Back to the badger vs boar, this time with Phoenix and Beau Trafalgar. Today saw the first lost bristle from the badger brush, but the knot is so dense, it would have to lose many more before shedding was of any detriment.

Again, as with the London Oatcake, I had to load longer than normal. It still wasn't enough, and whilst lathering for the first pass, I had to go back to the soap for more. Continuing to use this brush would certainly make a mockery of my soap longevity rates. That's no obstacle though, as I'm not exactly short of soap.

It does feel very good for face lathering though, and once again, a nicely performing lather was produced. I only did two passes, as despite double loading, there still wouldn't have been enough lather for a third pass. This is a very hungry brush, and quite greedy too, as it has to be saturated with lather before it will let me have any.

So far, I would rank the two natural hair brushes as follows:

The badger feels more luxurious to use.
The boar is more precise on application.
The boar is more economical with soap.
The boar is easier to rinse out.
The badger seems to dry slightly quicker, but not by much.

After two shaves, I'm neither thinking that badger is a waste of time, and I should stick to boar, nor that badger blows boar away in terms of performance. This particular badger may possibly be scrubby enough to serve in the role that I want from a natural hair brush (freeing ingrown hairs, etc), but I'm obviously not going to attempt to cause such problems on purpose, just so I can test it.

This is not the mouth of a rabbit hole though. For everyday use, the synthetics would still be my go to brushes, even though I am enjoying using the badger. Having to cycle through brushes to allow drying time, may be fun to some, but having to put elements of the kit aside for recovery time, is tedious to me. I've gotten quite used to not having to soak brushes too. I would say that I appreciate the simplicity of use that synthetics offer, far too much to be able to return to natural brushes full time.

As such, badger brushes will not be displacing the synthetics. However, if this brush continue to perform as it has been doing, i.e. it lathers the mug soap as well as the last two soaps, I would be happy for it to take on the natural brush role. That said, I'll still keep the balding boar kicking around for now, just in case the badger doesn't quite cut the mustard when a damn good scrub is genuinely needed. The Mixed Scritchet has scritched me for the last time though.

Thanks again for the PIF @Cal, this is definitely a bigger success story than the soap It's too early to say if I'm a convert or not, but this brush does seem to be a worthy challenger to the boar, and I'm enjoying using it so far.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Phoenix and Beau Trafalgar with the balding boar. Had to load almost as heavy today as I did yesterday, so maybe the soap had dried out a bit. Great shave as always with their soaps.

I think I enjoyed yesterday's shave more, and I think I'm going to put that down to the brush. The boar didn't fail in any way, nor was lacking in any respect today, but it just seemed to have a little less character than the badger. Of course, that could be, at least in part, because the badger is new to me. I still enjoy the synthetics even more though, so while the badger seems to be edging out the boar, it's not getting any higher up the pecking order.

I consider the Kent INF1 to be a synthetic boar. It does seem similar in character to the boars I've used, but without the shedding and soaking time needed. The Maggards 22mm synthetic is kind of what I imagined a badger would feel like, but I think the Simpson Trafalgar T2 might be a closer comparison to this badger. Maybe I should compare those two at some point.

Both these natural hair brushes need a few days to thoroughly dry, so I'll probably be returning to the synthetics for a while.

 

[Cal]

Both these natural hair brushes need a few days to thoroughly dry ...

Why?

When I'm shaving daily (and not being an idle git) I happily use the same brush over extended periods. It's a subject that rears its ugly head in most of the annual Fixed Fours. If I remember correctly, Rudy @Rudy Vey said it was fine to use a brush daily. (One assumes that after rinsing the little hairy beast you would squeeze the water out, give it a shake or two and a gentle rub on a towel before leaving it out to dry.)

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Why?

When I'm shaving daily (and not being an idle git) I happily use the same brush over extended periods. It's a subject that rears its ugly head in most of the annual Fixed Fours. If I remember correctly, Rudy @Rudy Vey said it was fine to use a brush daily. (One assumes that after rinsing the little hairy beast you would squeeze the water out, give it a shake or two and a gentle rub on a towel before leaving it out to dry.)

Having had one boar go kaput prematurely, and having this boar almost follow suit until I dried it and only used it occasionally (it still sheds, but far less* than when it was in continual use), I'm careful to let them dry now.

I give it a good rinse and shake, then leave it on a stand, bristle down to dry. I do use a towel occasionally, but that only really helps the tips dry quicker, not deeper in the knot. After a couple of days, if I don't envisage using it again, I'll remove it from the bathroom, so it's not being kept somewhere humid.

* it was losing several bristles, sometimes five or more, every single shave when being used consistently, but now loses maybe two bristles every three shaves on average.

 

[Rosseforp]

Having had one boar go kaput prematurely, and having this boar almost follow suit until I dried it and only used it occasionally (it still sheds, but far less* than when it was in continual use), I'm careful to let them dry now.

I have only had one brush that shed continually, my Acca Kappa, which I think was a mixed badger/boar as it was a gift. As near as I could determine, it was the epoxy that had not been set properly that caused the shedding and had nothing to do with drying it out properly. Of all my boars, my Omega 10290 is my favorite, and I can't remember it losing any hair.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

I have only had one brush that shed continually, my Acca Kappa, which I think was a mixed badger/boar as it was a gift. As near as I could determine, it was the epoxy that had not been set properly that caused the shedding and had nothing to do with drying it out properly. Of all my boars, my Omega 10290 is my favorite, and I can't remember it losing any hair.

I can't offer any definitive reasons as to why I've experienced what I have, Doug. All I know, is I used one boar continually, and eventually it started shedding profusely. When the second one started showing signs of following suit, I changed how I treated/used it, and the situation seemed to improve.

In fairness to the boars, I did manage to get my first Kent synthetic to shed profusely too, so maybe there's some other reason brushes die quickly at my hand. Maybe my soft water causes less calcification, which leaves the natural bristles more prone to rot. I've no idea, I'm just making this stuff up. I haven't got the foggiest about how I killed the synthetic either.

The drying time does seem to have helped, to my mid at least, and I'm reluctant to go back on that, especially as I don't need to continually use the natural brushes. They're included in the line up to give some extra scrub when it's needed. For the bulk of the shaves, the feel, ease of use, and lack of maintenance, will keep my synthetic brushes as my primaries. As nice as the badger is, there's nothing about it that makes me want to use badger instead of synthetic.

The badger certainly has its merits though, and pitching it against the Simpson Trafalgar T2 as I intend to, may be a close call. Yet the thoughts of killing another brush through not letting it dry, or having to set up "rotations" of brushes, doesn't appeal at all. If I test it as I'd plan to use it long term, that seems to make more sense to me. I dare say that a few consecutive shaves wouldn't hurt it. As @Cal said, people use them flat out for the fixed fours. I just don't feel comfortable doing something that might hurt a brush, knowing I already have some brush destruction in my own relatively recent history.

Over cautious? Maybe. But I'd feel awful if I went against my instincts, and ended up wrecking it somehow.

 

[Esox]

I can't offer any definitive reasons as to why I've experienced what I have, Doug. All I know, is I used one boar continually, and eventually it started shedding profusely. When the second one started showing signs of following suit, I changed how I treated/used it, and the situation seemed to improve.

Thats curious. Maybe, because boar bristles absorb water and swell, they eventually start to work their way out of the epoxy. If let to dry they settle back in.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Thats curious. Maybe, because boar bristles absorb water and swell, they eventually start to work their way out of the epoxy. If let to dry they settle back in.

That sounds as feasible as anything I can come up with.

 

[Esox]

 

[Cal]

As @Cal said, people use them flat out for the fixed fours.

Don't forget our grandfathers who (barring the super affluent) only had one brush, and used it till it needed replacing (every 20 or 30 years).

 

[TinyT]

Don't forget our grandfathers

It's how I try to shave everytime.

 

[thombrogan]

I don’t know how one of my grandfathers shaved. I thought he scared the whiskers off his face, but now I have what my Mom claims is his razor. The other grandfather used electric razors. And when I was a teenager, I cut myself with an electric razor just like he used to.

No brushes.

Now my grandfathers have relinquished their star dust back to the universe and three bushes idle on my bureau while a fourth experiences glorious ARKO! and creepy, old me.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

That's one of the reasons I like the synthetics so much. I can use them consecutively for as long as I like and feel perfectly comfortable that they'll take everything I throw at them. I'm not saying that the badger, or any other brush can't be treated the same and live as long, rather that I'm just not as comfortable doing that. If I'm harbouring any doubts as to whether I'm causing myself problems for later, I'm not enjoying the shaves as much as I should be.

I can abuse and neglect the synthetics, entirely guilt free. I can't do that with the badger. Nor can I be entirely sure that I rinsed well enough, or took all the steps I should have done with my sensory and awareness impediments (occasionally, I've gone into the bathroom, to discover I never rinsed the brush at all at the end of the last shave, or left the razor rinsing mug full). The careful drying is, I suppose, a bit of a safety net for me. The reassurance that whatever I may have done wrong in recent shaves, the brush has chance to recover.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

I'm not a fan of shaves that I don't understand.

Despite being somewhat defective, I'm still a bit of a control freak. Therefore I like to have understanding of what's happening, so I can at least have some element of control over it.

On first entering the bathroom, I noticed that I looked like I needed a shave. More than I'd expect to see on a day following a two pass shave. I don't remember feeling disappointed in the closeness of shave yesterday...

I filled the sink and rinse mug, picked up the Maggards brush, loaded with the Trafalgar soap, and started to face lather. It felt prickly. That's not supposed to happen either. My synthetic brushes don't feel prickly!

Dry skin? I haven't used any post shave for quite some time. It's possible. That might explain more stubble being visible too.

The first pass shaving went fine. A little uncoordinated around the beard boundary, but I tidied that up. However, the razor glided effortlessly as expected, with no discernible tugging from the blade.

Face lathered for pass number two, and the brush felt silky smooth. No prickly sensations whatsoever. That means it was the stubble was causing that sensation, not the skin, so maybe a little root irritation from the last shave? That's usually tired blade, or scummed up blade. I slowed things down for the second pass, to try and get the blade to tell me if it was struggling to cut, or wasn't quite sitting at skin level.

The Astra SP breezed through, without any undue resistance, and felt like it was shaving pretty close too. Not that either! I therefore decided to make this a full reset shave. Three passes, full baby smooth, nothing less than perfection would be accepted.

I lathered again, adding a little extra water, and leaving just a very thin layer of lather. I then paused, stripped down the razor, and cleaned off the very thin film of scum off the blade, before flipping it, and reassembling the razor. It shouldn't have caused an issue, but safer to eliminate the possibility. After a quick refresh of the lather, I continued again.

Super featherlight touch, seeking S curves with the razor told me I had to go all kinds of everyway I don't usually go, to eliminate all remaining stubble, but the superb lather ensures not the faintest hint of irritation. An utterly perfect shave, finished off with some Bluebeard's Revenge Post-Shave Balm. If I've slightly overshaved, that stuff can give a little tingle to let me know it has something to fix. Not today. My skin felt extremely comfortable.

So while I wasn't quite sure what I was actually trying to overcome, that had caused the initial sensitivity, I succeeded anyway. The lack of coordination that occurred once or twice was no impediment either, and the lack of understanding became irrelevant in the glow of such an awesome victory.

An obnoxiously good shave, but I may still add a smidgeon of moisturiser later this evening, just for good measure.