Thread: Horse hair shave brush revisited

A few years ago I tried a horse hair shave brush and immediately rejected it as too prickly for face lathering. For some reason I decided to revisit my horse hair brush and do a practice face lather using MWF. I believe I will have to revise my initial bad impression of horse hair knots. It easily produced a fine lather on my face and was not near as prickly as I remembered it to be. I did load lots of soap in the brush, used more painting strokes and was very light on the brush when using circular strokes.

The knot was a Vie Long unbleached white 50/50 mane and tail knot reset into a Wilkinson shave brush handle that I had added lead in the handle. I had the original Vie Long handle reset with a 2 band badger. Always found the simple shape of Wilkinson handle to be very ergonomic in use.

Funny how some things work better when you do revisit them.

Bob

I have a Vie Long horsehair brush and it is a nice soft brush.

Originally Posted by boz

I have a Vie Long horsehair brush and it is a nice soft brush.

You know, for me it is not that my horse hair brush is not soft but has a prickly feeling to it when I face lather. I do not get that feeling with badger, boar or synthetics. I adjusted how I face lather slightly and it felt minimally prickly, almost gone. Just goes to show the problem is with the user and not the gear usually.

Bob

For a cheap over the counter brush, those Wilkinsons have really good feel in the hand. I have two.

I have given up on the Wilkinson shaving soap. It does not have a lot of glide or after shave skin feel that I have come to expect from the higher end soaps. I do occasionally use it as a honing lubricant.

I really like my Vie-Long Chuchurro horse hair brush, but I find it impossible to face lather with because it's so floppy. It only gets used for bowl lathering triple-milled soaps, I find that's what it's best at. And the lather needs to be painted on, like you mentioned.

Originally Posted by joelkerr

I really like my Vie-Long Chuchurro horse hair brush, but I find it impossible to face lather with because it's so floppy. It only gets used for bowl lathering triple-milled soaps, I find that's what it's best at. And the lather needs to be painted on, like you mentioned.

I used mine to face lather with this morning using a shave stick. It wasn't overly floppy like some badgers and if you use a very light touch you can do swirls when working up a lather but mostly painting strokes at the start. It is usable but still likely will be in last place for the type of knot I'd use.

Bob

I have one of the Cremo horse hair and just haven't been able to master it yet. I keep trying.

Up until the anthrax scares in the late 19th century horsehair was THE brush for the common man. Boar replaced it back then.

I absolutely love the idea of a horse hair brush but have always found the reality somewhat lacking. I have two: a Vie-Long Cachurro and a Fendrihan one. The Vie-Long was actually my first brush and certainly does the job, but as people have noted it's on the floppy side, one needs to paint the lather on, and if you find yourself inadvertently making the swirling motions typically used with other brushes then you'll find yourself with a brush that needs to be combed out. The Fendrihan one I bought after really searching out a new horse hair brush, ultimately choosing it over one of the monster Epsilon horse hair brushes; a very disappointing brush that doesn't match up to the Vie-Long (as far as horse goes) nor my favoured synthetics.