Thread: Moving away from badger

I have always preferred the scrub of boar brushes. I have tried badger brushes, the cheaper ones with cut ends feel prickly and the more expensive ones feel too feeble. The one exception to this is the Thater brush (the SRP 2011 one) that I have, but even then I only use it with creams.

My friends daughter is studying in the states and is returning to Qatar for the holidays. She is bringing a number of goodies that are difficult to get here, including two synthetic brushes, the Atomic Rocket and the Green Ray. I am really looking forward to trying these.

Originally Posted by easyace

I have always preferred the scrub of boar brushes. I have tried badger brushes, the cheaper ones with cut ends feel prickly and the more expensive ones feel too feeble. The one exception to this is the Thater brush (the SRP 2011 one) that I have, but even then I only use it with creams.

I am not certain what you define as expensive, but if you are, at all, interested, you may want to contemplate Shavemac's D01 2-Band hair, or any good 2-Band badger brush like Paladin, Maseto Shaving, Simpsons, if you have found the more expensive brushes too feeble or lacking in backbone. You won't find any boar brush that has similar backbone to the D01 2-Band hair.

Yep, What he said. I got one and I don't know how they managed to get all that hair in the knot. It's so dense that backbone is not an issue.

Obviously some passionate thoughts on the matter, which is great and also to be expected when it's about something so dear and personal to all of us. I just feel no matter whether you prefer badger, synthetic, or boar hair brushes it's really important to keep in mind that... horse hair brushes beat them all hands down anyway

I currently use a number of different brushes including badger, boar, horse, and synthetic. For me, each has a different function. I like my horse hair brushes when I am using a harder soap where the synthetics and badgers work well with the softer soaps and creams. Great thing about this hobby is that there are a lot of options.

I will second the one of the other comments and that is you can get some great badger brushes at the Golden Nib. I bought several badger knots from them and made my own handles and they are fantastic and very reasonable. Try this if you want to try badger, they also have the option to pick a handle, knot and then the will assemble it for you.

Originally Posted by celestino

I am not certain what you define as expensive, but if you are, at all, interested, you may want to contemplate Shavemac's D01 2-Band hair, or any good 2-Band badger brush like Paladin, Maseto Shaving, Simpsons, if you have found the more expensive brushes too feeble or lacking in backbone. You won't find any boar brush that has similar backbone to the D01 2-Band hair.

Thank you, my most expensive brush is an Aqua De Parma, Wenge Wood affair, so I guess my definition of expensive is that brush and I'm sure part of the price is the name. In my defence, it was a gift . I just looked up the Shavemac, I saw the Americana, nice looking handle.

I tried my first Synthetic brush this morning, the Atomic Rocket. I was very pleasantly suprised. I am happy that at my age I can still get excited about a 15 dollar brush.