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Thinking of using the same brush every shave starting Jan. 1...

Yes it is. Amazing soap. I'll get a year of perfect lathers and shaves, no fuss, no gimmicks, for $25cad.

@CANES just let your other brushes sit. Some of mine sit on an open concept medicine cabinet and some are stored away in their boxes in the closet. They'll be fine for years without being used. No need to periodically wet or use them, at least by my knowledge and experience.
Thank you! I was hoping someone would catch that part of the post and give me some advice. Mine sit in an old spice rack that I repurposed and nailed to the bathroom wall. Plenty of airflow.
 
Thank you! I was hoping someone would catch that part of the post and give me some advice. Mine sit in an old spice rack that I repurposed and nailed to the bathroom wall. Plenty of airflow.
Any time I pull out or grab a brush that hasn't been used in a year or even longer, it whips up lather and doesn't shed or anything.

I wouldn't worry about them. Just make sure they are bone dry if you pack them away.
 
Ok, I'm going for it. Here's the original pics with 25 uses. We'll see how long it (or I) will last with everyday use. The stickers are in pretty good shape and the knot looks perfect for my eyes.
20221224_210245.jpg

I'll attach pics of the stickers later. The winter storm is affecting my internet big time now.
 
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It’s a well made synthetic brush. My prediction is that it’ll look the exact same after 365 shaves as it does now with 25 shaves… except for the sticker.

The sticker will peel and/or fall off.

I’m more interested in finding out if the same brush will bring you to tears of boredom.

Good luck with your experiment.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.
 
I've been using the same cheap, no name (possibly an omega), boar brush almost daily for over a decade. I have tried a synth and a couple of badgers in that time for fewer than 20 shaves in total.

The bristles are well broken in at this point and I see no reason to change for now. That brush has seen off a half stick of arko, 4 Palmolive sticks, one tub of Stirling, at least 4 triple milled hard pucks, a number of different creams and is still lathering like a champ.

I would suspect you will have no issues other than perhaps over familiarity using the same brush. Fortunately that is not something that I am afflicted with.
 
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Ok, I'm going for it. Here's the original pics with 25 uses. We'll see how long it (or I) will last with everyday use. The stickers are in pretty good shape and the knot looks perfect for my eyes.
View attachment 1577251

I'll attach pics of the stickers later. The winter storm is affecting my internet big time now.
I shall follow your exploits with interest as I am rather eager to see how/if a synthetic beds in over time. Kudos to you for taking the plunge so we don't have to 🙂
 

Ron R

I survived a lathey foreman
You will not have any issues with using your synthetic brush for a long period of time. I have a good system of shaving and have over 1300 uses with a Yaqi 24mm cashmere synthetic brush for using my pre-shave soap. I kind of have the perfect system using my brushes by just having a dedicated brush for prep soap to wash my whole face every morning and then I choose any brush in my collection of others for my brush of the day.
The dedicated Yaqi Cashmere 24mm synthetic bush still looks in reasonble shape still and good for another 1300 + shaves possibly!

Z-Pre shave products (4).jpg

Have some great shaves!
 
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Thanks for the reply and interesting story behind it! One reason I think I've settled on the Trafalgar is the fact that it's a synthetic. I have very little experience with synthetic knots and don't know how well they hold up in the long run. I'm used to boar brushes and my other synthetics are floppier than what I like, so don't get used as often. Because of the Shave Buddy app, I know that I have used the Simpson 25 times already. It will be easy to deduct that 25 at the end of the year. I'm also curious how the handle will hold up. I believe I've read that the Simpson stickers deteriorate pretty quickly with regular use. My old VDH boar and an estate Ever Ready that came with a razor from Ebay have decent sized cracks in the plastic handles. I don't know about the ER brush but I don't think I abused the VDH over the years- and it still cracked. Simpson definitely has more of a pedigree than VDH so it would be interesting to see what happens with that handle.

I think I've talked myself into doing this experiment now. ;)
I'll only be using one brush all month as well. I signed up for the January badger only group and I only have one badger. So now I'm in a group. I'll be sticking to one brush along with you, and I get to break my new badger in (or down.) I smile knowing everytime the brush feels scritchy to me my stubble is giving it right back. I Could bag that junk and polish rocks or shell casings.
 
I literally opened up a moving box of stuff that sat for 7 yrs. I think I parked that brush 2+ yrs prior to going in the box. Pulled it out and it lathered up like it was a daily user.

My only suggestion for long term storage would be leaving them in the open could allow dust to settle on or in them. Probably not a big deal at all with a rinse.
 
Ok, the fun stuff started Jan 1. Due to @Ron R post above, I have decided to use it for absolutely everything. Face washes (in the past, I have also used different brushes for this 2x a day), shaving face and head, test lathers, etc. Really see what it does without holding back. It's been fairly easy so far and while I didn't love it before Jan.1, I have already become more in tune with it and how it works in just 4 days. It's also nice to have one less thing to think about in the morning.
 
I've been using my Muhle STF XL for daily shaves for around 10 months straight.
Looks as new as the day I got it.

Now that I'm traveling, I'm using a G5C daily.

I can see synthetic brushes lasting many decades!
 

steveclarkus

Goose Poop Connoisseur
I like to experiment with different aspects of this hobby. I'm curious to see how using the same brush every single shave for a whole year affects the brush. I have a Simpson Trafalgar that I don't love or don't hate. It's a very serviceable brush from a well known maker. I shave my face every single day, unless an emergency pops up, and shave my head every other day. The brush would get plenty of use.

My brush collection is pretty modest as it is. I never really went down a rabbit hole there. Would it be advisable to at least wet my other brushes (mostly boar, a few synthetics and one badger) occasionally or should they just stay dry over the course of the experiment?

I know many (most? all?) of us started with one brush and one brush only. Mine was a VDH boar from the drugstore. I wound up with 3 of them at one point because they lost so many hairs over the course of a few months shaves that I would buy another one to see if it was any better. I still have one of the three and use it a good bit now. After 20+ years it finally quit shedding. ;)

Any advice or comments? I figure I could check in here every so often and update the look/feel of the brush with some pictures. Since I don't have a rabbit hole for brushes, I think this is actually doable for me. I could never do it with razors, soaps, etc.
I’ve been using the same brush for most of the past twelve years - still going strong (Omega Pro).
 
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