Newbie advice: Brush

I've only been shaving with a straight for a few weeks, but hopefully what just helped me will help someone else.

For Colleen's Father's Day sale, I ordered soap samplers, a bowl, and a badger brush. Today I used them for the first time, with an ebay razor I cleaned and honed myself.

What a difference it makes to have a decent brush and good soap! The lather was great and applied so well. It's not even comparable with the mess I was making with William's and a cheap boar brush. A great lather made my shave so much better, even though I was using a razor that isn't as good as a hone meister probably could make it.

So, if I could give a newbie on a budget advice, invest in a decent brush. It makes all the difference.

I don't remember Williams' lather, but I would like to say that an $5 boar, if used well, will give you great lather.

For a newbie - it may be easier with a badger, so I don't want to dissuade newbies from getting one, heck, get a really nice one, while you are at it - you will enjoy it. But if $$$ is an issue, the $5 Burma boar or $12 Omega boar is all you need, plus some practice

Cheers
Ivo

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Originally Posted by izlat

I don't remember Williams' lather, but I would like to say that an $5 boar, if used well, will give you great lather.

For a newbie - it may be easier with a badger, so I don't want to dissuade newbies from getting one, heck, get a really nice one, while you are at it - you will enjoy it. But if $$$ is an issue, the $5 Burma boar or $12 Omega boar is all you need, plus some practice

Cheers
Ivo

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That was my problem. As a noob, I apparently don't have the skill to use a boar well. The badger must leave much more room for error and inexperience.

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Originally Posted by Martlet

That was my problem. As a noob, I apparently don't have the skill to use a boar well. The badger must leave much more room for error and inexperience.

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the badger helps quite a bit but lets face it Colleens soaps are fantastic and easy to work with.

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Originally Posted by syslight

the badger helps quite a bit but lets face it Colleens soaps are fantastic and easy to work with.

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The certainly are. I love them!

I think the biggest problem for someone starting out is that he doesn't know what good lather is. He may mix his first lathers too dry, too soupy, etc. He may be having issues with insufficient brush loading with soap / cream, insufficient mixing time, or - on the other hand - brush overloading with soap, etc.

Once you have some practice - it's no big deal to add water, soap / cream and produce great lather with any brush.

When I first started with wet shaving - I had a badger but my lather wasn't good. Little did I know that the Burt's Bees Bay Rum shaving soap lathers as well as a brick... And Caswell-Massey creams weren't working well either. But moving on to good soaps and practice, combined with purchases of multiple brushes (boar, badger) and reading / seeing lathering tutorials fixed this

Cheers
Ivo