Hi folks,

I've more or less decided to buy a new horse hair brush and am at a bit of an impasse. I ask for people thoughts fully realizing that personal preference will always be the deciding factor here and also knowing that probably no matter what I get I'll likely be happy with it anyhow. Still, if anyone has any of the brushes in consideration I'd very much value their experiences with them.

I already have one horse hair brush, the Vie-Long Cachurro (21mm knot, 61mm loft, 25% mane/75% tail), which was actually my very first shave brush. I've always liked it a lot, but since my Mühle STF and APShave Co synthetics it hasn't gotten a lot of love. In general, I'm a face latherer and the Cachurro is a fairly floppy brush, so I decided pretty early on that my next horse hair brush needed to have a bit more backbone to it. I've basically spend the last 2 evening reading and watching reviews of these brushes and so have narrowed it down to three brushes, each with their own pros and cons.

First, the Vie-Long Peleón with at 11.50€ is easily the best bang for the buck of the bunch I'm considering. It has a 24mm knot is a combination of 35% mane/65% tail brown hair set at a 50mm loft. The shorter loft and larger knot should give it substantially more backbone and people seem to really like this brush.

Second, one of the Vie-Long White Hair brushes, such as the 13071B (at 29.95€) or the 13061B (at 31.50€). These also have a 24mm knot but the hair is white (which people say tends to be softer) and the hair combination is 50% mane/50% tail, something that should also make it softer on the face, though with approximately the same backbone (according to reviews).

Finally, the Epsilon White Hair which at 43.75€ is the most expensive. It too has a 50mm loft and is 50% mane/50% tail. The larger knot should give this one the most backbone and lots of people who have this absolutely love it, but the downside is first the price and it's sheer size.

Initially, I thought the decision was easy and I'd be buying the Epsilon, but as I thought about it more, all of my brushes are 21mm and 22mm and even though I'm a fairly big guy I can easily get 4 passes from them; indeed, one of the critiques of the Epsilon is that it is a "lather hog" and basically presents you with a "wall of hair".

Of course there is also the question of fan vs bulb shape, but the difference in these brushes isn't so extreme so I'm not too worried about it (still, if you have thoughts on the matter I'd love to hear them. So, that's where I'm at. All very similar, but different enough that I feel like there is a decision to be made. I'm really, really trying to avoid succumbing to BAD and just accepting that I'll buy all three at some point.

Thanks for reading!