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What were your worst brush purchases and why

Everyone wants to talk about his best brushes, why not do the opposite? It could act as a warning for future buyers. I will start:

1) 23mm Edwin Jagger best badger. My biggest regret. It was useful in that i learnt what "floppy" really means. It's still in my rotation, but used with "special treatment" (a member here suggested O-ring, which i will do and if i find very annoying during cleaning, i will just hold the base of the knot with my fingers). Worst price/quality ratio brush i ever bought.

2) Vie-Long Horses. Amazing hair! Truly amazing! But they tangle, both the white (a lot) and the brown hair (less). At first you are patient. Later on, you start thinking of tossing them. Which may come true one day to make room for more...normal brushes.

3) Big Omegas 27mm (too clumsy for face lathering).

Honourable mention, but i am maybe too severe: QShave pure badger with wooden handle. I believe this in USA is sold under names of "Tweezerman" and "Escali". For 8 EUR this is actually a very good brush, with the hair feeling too good for a pure badger (the knot actually looks like 3 band and it doesn't feel like pure badger. Muhle pure badger is like barb wire in comparison). But its flaw, lies in the not so dense knot and glue bump that reduces the lather holding capacity of the small (21mm) knot. Still, for a starter badger at that price, it was a good buy, but it's really a starter brush. I still use it to remember the origins and to hone my lathering skills, as well as a reminder, that i don't need EUR 100 brush to have a fine shave.
 
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Great topic.

I bet most buyer remorse stories will come from those who face lather and swirl/splay. I can bowl lather with a tiny brush and not be bothered. Never used swirling/splaying to face lather. Everything I have works.

The shedding on the premium Omega knot was annoying for a while but I solved that. All is well in my stable so far, knock on wood.
 
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The Body Shop synth brush. Hard, super scritchy and virtually unusable IMHO!


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Damn! I use it so rarely that i forgot!

4) The Omega 24mm S-brush. Like lathering with a slingshot. Worse purchase than the EJ, despite the very low price. Because at least the EJ i keep using it. The S-brush i take with me only in trips or use it 1-2 times a year.
 
Pretty sure there is an old thread or two where this was discussed.

However, for me it was a very large pure badger made by a company that starts with P.

It was essentiality a porcupine with a handle. A big, mean porcupine.

Traumatic experience.
 
I have been quite lucky with brushes until a month ago.
I disliked the Semogue 830 and the 620 was my least favorite brush amongst those still in my den.
Then I received the DSCosmetic Synthetic G4. What a mess.
REVIEW: Frank Shaving develops in-house synthetic fibre!!!
I had to throw away the damn thing.
I also have their 26mm Two-band, nothing to write home about. No more DSCosmetic for me, if I'll go China again I will stick with Yaqi. Lesson learned.
 
AOS Pure Badger. Floppy, no backbone. Bad for lathering, least favorite brush. I have 4. Just bad value compared to cost. There are better for less.
 

Doc4

Stumpy in cold weather
Staff member
I could have saved myself a couple thousand dollars by skipping all the badger brushes and just getting a couple boar brushes and leaving it at that.

But of course at the time I was "into" exploring all the options and figuring out which I liked the best and "collecting". So ... tomayto tomahto. At least now I know that I know.
 
I could have saved myself a couple thousand dollars by skipping all the badger brushes and just getting a couple boar brushes and leaving it at that.

But of course at the time I was "into" exploring all the options and figuring out which I liked the best and "collecting". So ... tomayto tomahto. At least now I know that I know.
Only have that one Badger. So not sure how other Pure Badgers stack up to it. It was my first brush before getting into DE shaving. Subsequently, purchased Boar, and synthetics, which I love using.
 
I would have to say the Parker Pure badger brush. I was a 22mm which is too small to start with but the pure badger was way too scratchy for me. I can only paint the brush and that doesn't lather up nicely. I bought it knowing that these features were present but I wanted to confirm. And Yes, it is not for me, haha.
 
Omega 10049 Pro boar.
Way too long and floppy. I like to say that it is "clownishly large", like clown shoes.
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Every once in a while (months apart) I try it, just to see if I would change my mind.
But no.
 
I've come to learn I like brushes on the floppier side. Not a bad brush, but the first synthetic I tried, the 24mm Maggard, was too stiff and didn't jive with me. It never saw much use and eventually sold it.
 
Great topic.

I bet most buyer remorse stories will come from those who face lather and swirl/splay. I can bowl lather with a tiny brush and not be bothered. Never used swirling/splaying to face lather. Everything I have works.

The shedding on the premium Omega knot was annoying for a while but I solved that. All is well in my stable so far, knock on wood.


I don't get it. Are you saying that the way people used a brush for a hundred years is wrong?? I haven't had buyers remorse from any brush I've bought and only face lather. Bowl lathering is a completely unnecessary step in my opinion. Hard to get into those whiskers when all you're doing is painting on the lather.
 
Well from a literal interpretation my worst brush purchase was a Body Shop synthetic, but I got my moneys worth out of it as it was only $10. The worst part of the purchase was that it dissuaded my purchase of any other synthetics for much too long.
 
I don't get it. Are you saying that the way people used a brush for a hundred years is wrong?? I haven't had buyers remorse from any brush I've bought and only face lather. Bowl lathering is a completely unnecessary step in my opinion. Hard to get into those whiskers when all you're doing is painting on the lather.

Face lathering is not wrong but makes choosing an adequate brush more problematic than bowl or palm lathering. You are in the minority if you did so well purchasing the right brushes.
 
I don't mind if a brush didn't turn out to be a favorite. I still use some of those sometimes for fun. Those that fall into this category for me are brushes that are or became quickly unusable.

1) Cheap Omega synthetic. I don't remember the model. That was my first brush that I bought from a local supermarket something like 10 years ago. It was shedding 5-6 bristles all the time, so I tossed it away after 6 months and quit the brush and cream routine for the next 9 years. :D

2) A Shavemac D01 2-band (bulb 26mm, 50mm loft). I found one on sale early on and bought it thinking that it would be a great one for face lathering. It turned out to be extremely stiff and rough on the skin. It didn't improve sufficiently over time so it is permanently out of rotation. It is not bad for someone that looks for these attributes in a brush, though.

And then there is that

3)

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