Ok, we all had fun with the "Why badgers are better than boars" thread a while ago but I thought I'd give an opportunity for boar fans to express their voice in thread dedicated to them.
Personally, I think both badgers and boars have their place and I have both in my den. Having used both, I find that boars offer some distinct advantages over badgers.
1. Cost: obviously one can build a nice collection of boar brushes for a fraction of the price of badgers.
2. Soft tips: even the stiffest boar I've used doesn't have anything like what I'd call scritchy tips. You can get great backbone and scrubby tips without the scritch of badger. Every boar I've owned has comfortable tips. Boy, when a badger is scritchy it feels like needles on your face.
3. Flow-through: boars release lather more easily. Even my SOC, which is a very dense boar, doesn't hog lather. Connected with this thought boars are a lot easier to rinse out. It takes me half as long to rinse out my boars as it does my badgers. Further evidence that badger hair really seems to absorb lather.
4. Quality of lather: I don't have any scientific evidence for this but I find that boars produce a denser lather than badgers, especially with soaps. Badgers seems to produce a more airy lather. Some may disagree but I find this is almost always the case for me.
5. Ease of loading: I find that even the floppiest boar loads soap far more easily than badgers. My old Omega 31025 was really floppy and still loaded soaps with incredible ease. My Simpson Duke 2 is a real challenge to load soaps with. It makes soup rather than lather unless I spend a long time on the puck. If I use a my Duke drier, I pick up soap pretty easily but I tend to lose hairs that get stuck in the puck and I have trouble pickup up enough soap to make a really substantial lather. A more wet brush allows for better charging of the brush and I find boars excel in this realm.
6. Boars make short work of cream just as well as badgers so, why not use a boar for creams? I do.
So, those are my opinions. Feel free to opine for or against boar brushes.
Personally, I think both badgers and boars have their place and I have both in my den. Having used both, I find that boars offer some distinct advantages over badgers.
1. Cost: obviously one can build a nice collection of boar brushes for a fraction of the price of badgers.
2. Soft tips: even the stiffest boar I've used doesn't have anything like what I'd call scritchy tips. You can get great backbone and scrubby tips without the scritch of badger. Every boar I've owned has comfortable tips. Boy, when a badger is scritchy it feels like needles on your face.
3. Flow-through: boars release lather more easily. Even my SOC, which is a very dense boar, doesn't hog lather. Connected with this thought boars are a lot easier to rinse out. It takes me half as long to rinse out my boars as it does my badgers. Further evidence that badger hair really seems to absorb lather.
4. Quality of lather: I don't have any scientific evidence for this but I find that boars produce a denser lather than badgers, especially with soaps. Badgers seems to produce a more airy lather. Some may disagree but I find this is almost always the case for me.
5. Ease of loading: I find that even the floppiest boar loads soap far more easily than badgers. My old Omega 31025 was really floppy and still loaded soaps with incredible ease. My Simpson Duke 2 is a real challenge to load soaps with. It makes soup rather than lather unless I spend a long time on the puck. If I use a my Duke drier, I pick up soap pretty easily but I tend to lose hairs that get stuck in the puck and I have trouble pickup up enough soap to make a really substantial lather. A more wet brush allows for better charging of the brush and I find boars excel in this realm.
6. Boars make short work of cream just as well as badgers so, why not use a boar for creams? I do.
So, those are my opinions. Feel free to opine for or against boar brushes.
