Animal Hair Brushes????

good morning P&C community..

One aspect in DE shaving I have limited experience in, is brushes. Have never used anything but a synthetic brush. My experiences with the synths, especially the Yaqi Mysterious Space, has been nothing but positive. I love using this brush, but without any experience with animal hair brushes, i am in no position to judge and cannot help but feel that I may be missing out on something. Does it produce a better lather? Does if feel different on the face while lathering? Does it give a better overall experience? or is it just hype?

The only thing i really understand about animal hair brushes is that they take time to break in, need to be prepped before use and they take longer to dry. There are so many choices to make!!! Badger, Boar or Horse? and within these main groupings there are so many more options.

I like to face lather and am considering a boar brush, mainly because I can get a good one for a decent price and they have more backbone, but i am open to all suggestions. If i do go for a boar i would prefer to keep the hairs to remain natural but no deal breaker i.e. not painted to look like a badger.

  • How do they differ from synthetics?
  • Which animal should i go for?
  • Does an animal brush provide better lather? better face feel? better overall experience?
  • How long do these take to break in, and once broken in how much does their characteristics change? ie do they get floppier/softer
  • Which boar brush? Omega or Semogue?
  • Regarding Semogue, which model should i go for? heard good things about the 610/810 and the 2000?
  • The SOC seems to be the 'deluxe' of the Semogue range with a longer break in period.. is it too big for face lathering? lather hog extraordinaire?

I was hoping you guys with experience with these brushes chime in and help me chose my first animal brush. Cheers
Easy fix buy my Badger / Boar 70/30 for $20.00 and that way you ain't blown a wad of $'s if you don't like it :) :) :)
 
@Ckoerntjes will def let you know.. really looking forward to these new experiences in shaving

and yeah i speak from experience when talking bout the yammy.. i have the six string LL16 model, absolutely gorgeous and plays/sounds amazing. I had a pro-guitarist mate come around and pick it it, the guitar literally blew his mind, he knew they were amazing value for money but it had been that long since he picked one it, totally forgot.. build quality could of improved also




anyway.. back to the topic at hand.. i did it, pulled the trigger on a OMEGA PURE BRISTLE SHAVING BRUSH 11137 with ashwood handle :)

Ash Wood
Total Height: 113 mm
Loft: 55 mm
Knot: 26mm
Handle Height: 58mm

11137-480x480-500x500.jpg



and here is a pic of the Yaqi Silvertip badger

YAQI-Quasar-24mm-Silvertip-Badger-Knot-Shaving-Brush-R151017-1_623x@2x.jpg




now I have covered both badger and boar bases.. will visit horse at some point

any suggestions as to how to best break these in (apart from the obvious) quickly?

Breaking in my Omega Boar I had the best result when I just sat on the couch with a bowl of lather and just kept whipping for about 30 mins. Also after each use I rinsed the brush and then brushed a dry towel for a few seconds to help the ends split.

Breaking it in completely changed the brush, I face lather with it now, it's that soft.
 
If you want to break in a boar (and to a small extend horse): just lather it up daily for a week...but don't use it, as the brush won't feel nice and the lather might be sub par. Just make sure the brush dries, before the next lather...which shouldn't be an issue here in SA.

After a week the horse brush is perfect while the boar brush will be bearable...it might take months to fully break in.

Badger: you just need to lather once or twice to get the funk/brown goo out and the brush is ready to go (y)
 
If you want to break in a boar (and to a small extend horse): just lather it up daily for a week...but don't use it, as the brush won't feel nice and the lather might be sub par. Just make sure the brush dries, before the next lather...which shouldn't be an issue here in SA.

After a week the horse brush is perfect while the boar brush will be bearable...it might take months to fully break in.

Badger: you just need to lather once or twice to get the funk/brown goo out and the brush is ready to go (y)

Disagree with you slightly here. As always YMMV and I don't know how similar my Omega knot is to @StratMan but my boar took ages to completely break in. Without concerted effort I reckon it would have taken >3 months of daily lathering to become ideal.
 
Disagree with you slightly here. As always YMMV and I don't know how similar my Omega knot is to @StratMan but my boar took ages to completely break in. Without concerted effort I reckon it would have taken >3 months of daily lathering to become ideal.
I think that's exactly what I said ;)

After a week...the boar brush will be bearable...it might take months to fully break in.
 
Brown goo... Wtf
Was the dead animal still attached to it.
Always had a little funk as expected, not much that didn't go after a few lathers. But brown anything never happen. That is nasty. :sick:
Some say the better the know, the more brown goo :D :D :D
 
Hypothetical..
My yaqi badger took at least ten lathers and shaves shaves to stop emitting brown goo and funkiness, it was filthy.i didn't catch anything I know of from it though so it's all good.
Possible that colour is from hair dye?
Or you mean goo, like a tacky substance from the base of the knot?
 
Brown muck that smelled like a ferret had sprayed on it. I presume its just whatever natural oils and so forth from being natural hair.
 
:(:(:(

I am personally not a fan of standard 3 band badgers...they are often either scritchy or almost soulless like a synth,,,but hey what do I know :D


your words 'soulless like a synth' stuck in my head. I believe 'not all synths are created equal'

The other day i went to use my Razorock Silvertip Synthetic as i have not used since i had my yaqi's and your words rang true.. it was nothing like the yaqi's, the feel, splay, way it released lather was terrible, totally uninspiring.

today i used the yaqi badger and it felt great. I did break it in over the past 4 days with lathering/drying each day and yes it did emit some funky brown 'goo' for the first 3 'break ins'

The badger felt great it has a nice soft and more 'real' feel to it (sorry hard to describe) but i found it didnt 'release' the soap like my yaqi synthetics do. By the third pass i had hardly any lather going onto my face but the brush itself had a load of lather in it, which i found out by squeezing it out with my hands.

Being new to these animal hair brushes i did totally forget to soak the brush while i was in the shower, but gave it a decent rinse under the tap before use. So is this how badgers behave compared to a decent synth, do they tend to 'hold' lather and not release it as easy or is this due to it not being broken in yet?

The brush itself has no funky smell i have often heard about.

The boar is still being broken in.. lathering up with it daily for two weeks before i start to use it.
 
Some badgers are so called "lather hogs"

While I personally haven't thought about it much, it is due to the densir'ty, loft and free loft of a particular knot.

Again very personal, but I prefer to load my brush "fully" - meaning I make the maximum amount of lather the knot can hold. That way I ensure optimum lather quality and I never run out of lather...

Together with my loading on the puck technique all my brushes take some time to lather up...badgers probably need a bit more effort (because my badger knots are larger and denser - they can hold more lather though)...but I remember my Chubby 2 Synth needed a fair bit of work as well ;)

I always have a ton of lather left over at the end of the shave even with my lather hogs, so not a problem.
 
Some badgers are so called "lather hogs"

While I personally haven't thought about it much, it is due to the densir'ty, loft and free loft of a particular knot.

Again very personal, but I prefer to load my brush "fully" - meaning I make the maximum amount of lather the knot can hold. That way I ensure optimum lather quality and I never run out of lather...

Together with my loading on the puck technique all my brushes take some time to lather up...badgers probably need a bit more effort (because my badger knots are larger and denser - they can hold more lather though)...but I remember my Chubby 2 Synth needed a fair bit of work as well ;)

I always have a ton of lather left over at the end of the shave even with my lather hogs, so not a problem.
Based on this, my Paladin must not yet be broken in. I'll have to rectify this, but had concern about using it during the colder months as it may not dry fully and stay slightly damp. Not that i'd use it daily anyway, but is twice a week still okay in winter? I recall someone said they packed away their badger's for winter...
 
Some badgers are so called "lather hogs"

While I personally haven't thought about it much, it is due to the densir'ty, loft and free loft of a particular knot.

Again very personal, but I prefer to load my brush "fully" - meaning I make the maximum amount of lather the knot can hold. That way I ensure optimum lather quality and I never run out of lather...

Together with my loading on the puck technique all my brushes take some time to lather up...badgers probably need a bit more effort (because my badger knots are larger and denser - they can hold more lather though)...but I remember my Chubby 2 Synth needed a fair bit of work as well ;)

I always have a ton of lather left over at the end of the shave even with my lather hogs, so not a problem.


i have a few soaps around i dont mind getting into, so will give it another try tomorrow with more loading and a good soak before use. I have quite happy with the badger in every way, feels great, lathers quite easily and makes a really nice lather. The only thing at this stage i am not sold on is the 'hogging' of the lather.

Will give this another try tomorrow with a lot more loading of the soap and see what happens.. I can see myself chewing a shit load of soap with this badger!!!
 
i have a few soaps around i dont mind getting into, so will give it another try tomorrow with more loading and a good soak before use. I have quite happy with the badger in every way, feels great, lathers quite easily and makes a really nice lather. The only thing at this stage i am not sold on is the 'hogging' of the lather.

Will give this another try tomorrow with a lot more loading of the soap and see what happens.. I can see myself chewing a shit load of soap with this badger!!!
You need to soak it. Even a couple of minutes will do.
 
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