Thread: Shedding Simpsons

Not to derail the thread, but coming back to Jimmy's question: Borax is evil. One day, I'll make a video, but in the meantime, this is how I do it:

How I clean my brushes? Easy. I mush them in my hand, because my skin is softer than the tips of the brush. With a movement like face lathering, only with more pressure. As I said, this won't damage the tips. When done, ie once most of the lather has been removed, I hold it in my right hand, and turn it counter-clockwise, fanning one area after the other open with my right thumb while keeping the rest of the brush steady with my left hand. Sounds scary, but Herr Schuldes [of Thäter] said it would work. And it does. Three years in, and no visible damage. But, and that's the point of the whole exercise, this approach will clean the core of the knot, which is the trouble spot with any badger brush. Leave soap in there, and the bristles will get brittle and break - at some point in the future, years from now. Also, dish washing detergent is great for cleaning badger brushes. It will remove the oil/fat/tallow, but not damage the brush.

I hope that helps.

PS Back on topic, Simpson's problems were more than a brief spell. A friend of mine runs a shaving shop. He only sells high quality brushes. Has phased out brush manufacturer except Thäter and Rooney. Personally, I would also buy a Shavemac with confidence. But that's about it for me. YMMV and all that.

I occasionally lather mine with dishwashing liquid (Dawn, etc). It works well for me.

OP here.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to reply! Helpful perspectives all.

When I had this problem with my first Colonel, the dealer told me that Simpsons has a standard that it is considered normal for a brush to lose up to 5 hairs per day and that they don't replace a brush for that level of hair loss. In both cases, it was between 5 and 10 per day, and this is 3-6 months of use so not something that just happened when I first got the brushes.

I do use circular strokes when loading the brush, but am pretty careful not to use excess pressure. I do face lather as well but again think that I'm pretty good on the pressure side.

I will try to contact Mark at Simpsons and get a new one.

To put things into perspective, my worst Thäter lost three hairs on day one. None after that. None of my other Thäter brushes ever shed any hair. Well done, Simpson (dealer).

Originally Posted by 400E

OP here.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to reply! Helpful perspectives all.

When I had this problem with my first Colonel, the dealer told me that Simpsons has a standard that it is considered normal for a brush to lose up to 5 hairs per day and that they don't replace a brush for that level of hair loss. In both cases, it was between 5 and 10 per day, and this is 3-6 months of use so not something that just happened when I first got the brushes.

I do use circular strokes when loading the brush, but am pretty careful not to use excess pressure. I do face lather as well but again think that I'm pretty good on the pressure side.

I will try to contact Mark at Simpsons and get a new one.

Yes, that is an excellent idea to contact Simpsons directly. I would be very surprised if they would say that is a normal and expected level of performance of their knots. It certainly does not mirror how mine have performed.

Bob

For what it's worth, I have 2 Simpson brushes. One is a Emperor 2 Super Badger that has been used a lot and the other is a Case that I only use when traveling. If I remember correctly, each shed a few hairs during initial break in lathers, but neither shed anything now.

I have three Simpsons brushes, all purchased within the past year. The 55 and the Chubby 1 are fine... but the Classic started out by loosing 10 or so hairs in the first few shaves. I thought I was going to have to send it back (which would have sucked since it was a birthday gift from my wife), but then then shedding went down to 1 or 2 hairs every other shave, so I kept it.

Any brush outfit can have issues with their brushes. No one's perfect. I had a Thater where the knot fell out after 6 months of use.

I have Simpsons that shed some then quit and some that didn't shed. same with the one Thater I have it shed for the first month a few hairs at a time, then I ve had several customs with TGN knots and only one has shed half of them haven't shed a hair ,,so my guess is I don't care what you buy, no one is perfect and they all seem to be the same ,, hair is not perfect either!! Plus some people really use a brush hard so they break them more than shed. Go figure. Tc

OP here again.

I emailed Simpson last night, had a nice email waiting for me this AM and they are sending me a new Colonel. Very good customer service! Hope 3rd time's a charm.