Thread: New Vie-Long - What a stinker!

I dunno, but I toss the knots in Oxyclean before I even install them. Stanky!

I've washed the brush about a dozen times now, allowing it to dry between washes. It still has an unpleasant odour, but it is fading. I'm determined to keep at it, as although it was cheap, it's going to be my travel brush. I hate the thought of losing one of my prized badger brushes.

I don't know why it smells so bad, as I've been experimenting with making some of my own brushes with silvertip badger and they don't smell at all.

Well, keep at it. I really like mine!

In the beginning I just took the brush with me in the shower and shampooed it fir a few days before trying it out ,, I just couldn't take the smell , same way with some soaps I just couldn't put it on my face , now what I do is. When I get a new brush I keep some MWF around, then I just Palm lather the heck out of it several times in one sitting and after that it is all better , and this gives me an excuse to use my MWF. cayse it's al lonely there on the shelf. Tc. But I might try what atom does , would be quicker , I could always use the Mitchell's for something else.

I've had four brand spanking new brushes, two badgers (Thäter and New Forest), a boar (Semogue) and a Vie Long horse. The Semogue smelled just a bit, the Vie Long rook some soaking in washing-up liquid to get the funk out of it.

A brush that costs over €40 and still stinks would raise some questions on my behalf, in a way similar to as if such brush would lose lots of bristles on a regular basis.

Which the Vie Long also did. But I think it was €8. And after the shedding had pretty much dissipated and the stink was gone, I quite liked it. But no match for a two-band Thäter silvertip (which never smelled of anything but my shaving product and has not shed a single hair that I can remember).

Just received another Thater two band silver tip yesterday, a 4292/3. When wet it stinks just as bad as my 4292/5 did. It will go away in a couple of weeks of use. When I save up enough I'll order a 4292/4 to fill out the series. Fantastic brushes and I don't think I've lost a hair off the 4292/5 since I got it. I can deal with the smell for a couple weeks, knowing how great a brush it is.

Just the nature of the beast, I guess.

You get what you pay for! After about 20 washes now, the unpleasant odour has gone. Thus, the brush survives! It will travel with me from now on.

A large part of the smell on these brushes is due to the chemicals they use to process the hairs in the manufacturing and sterilization process. Some of the scent (oils in the hair) from the animal itself can also remain on the hairs, depending on how much the brush was processed that can also cause some of the bad smell.

Inevitably, after a few lathering cycles, the smell will dissipate and then be gone entirely. It never sticks around forever.

All of my natural hair brushes had a stank when I first got them, except for my 2 Semogues. They must treat the hair to kill the stink before shipping. But anyway: Shampooing the bristles (wifes shampoo) and applying conditioner a couple of times did the trick. I have found Van der Hagen luxury scented soap does a fine job of covering / killing the smell too. I have a travel brush (silver tip turn back) that was really bad after a trip where it was put up a little wet. The VDH took the smell out when shampooing failed. I lathered it up, let it dry over night and then rinsed it out in the morning.

The smell from my new Thater was gone in three days, my first Thater took a good two weeks before it was gone. Great brushes.