Pbgoose
Active Member
I had determined not to buy used brushes due to perceived hygiene issues. Over the last several months I had occasionally googled brush disinfection and a lot of the discussion is vague and unsatisfactory. Barbicide seems like a reasonable choice as that is what is universally accepted for razor disinfection though some are reluctant to use it on their brushes in case of damage. This is the first time I had tried it on brushes and tried it on one brush first being prepared to throw it away if it was damaged. The brushes I used it on were Boar and Horse/Badger and none of them seemed to be adversely affected. If you use it, exercise caution and rinse well as I think the barbicide would be the most likely to aggravate skin if any residue was left in the brush. That is why I used it first as part of the process.@Pbgoose, is this suited for just regular brush maintenance or is it to get rid of the funky smell that some new brushes have?
I had also read that vinegar can disinfect and that seemed appealing to me as I also thought it would strip soap scum. Both barbicide and vinegar appeared to clean the brushes as the solutions clouded up during the immersion.
I used the TABAC as I thought it would be good to 'normalise' the brush odor. It worked.
I think I would only use this process for 2nd hand brushes and personally I would only buy brushes that haven't seen a lot of use.
For periodical maintenance I think I would just use the vinegar and maybe some shampoo first. This of course is all my own subjective opinion as how do you determine efficacy of disinfection in a brush without going to unreasonable expense and what level of odor do you deem acceptable in a brush?
Just a 'yes' would've been shorter right?