Thread: Conditioning my brush yes or no?

You can bring the brush in the shower with you and shampoo and condition it.
I saw a video somewhere with a woman cleaning a badger brush with Borax.
I've done this, then used regular old hair conditioner...Works great...

My best pure badger brush has seen a lot of action and it is still in tip top shape and looks and feels clean. I bought it new and it gets enough cleaning with my shaving soaps and pre-shave soap oil when lathering and being rinsed.

So the conclusion is that no new conditioning is needed for this brush.

However, I did once see an old badger brush that looked like it lost some of its Mojo hanging around 20+ years doing nothing. Perhaps a weekly shampoo and conditioner may have been the ticket to breath life back into that brush.

Pabster

Surely the main function of conditioner is to make the scales of the hair lie flat, making it feel smooth, look shiny, and more importantly to us, make it less absorbent?

I think it's the same argument as whether you should use fabric conditioner when you wash towels. Do you want them to be soft, or do you want them to do their job and dry you as quickly as possible?

My vote is no fabric conditioner on towels, and no hair conditioner on shaving brushes.

I cleaned my badger with dish soap, then did white vinegar to remove all the soap residue. There was a video on one of the sites...can't remember if it was Mamabear, TGQ, or Emsplace...it's been linked on here. It's a demo of brush cleaning.

Moral of the story is: Film was gone from base of bristles/handle, and it just felt clean. Squeaky clean like when you've just washed your hair.

Is it necessary? I don't know.

Did my brush look and feel sexier and more confident? I believe so.

EDIT: It was Emsplace : http://www.shaveinfo.com/videos/brush_cleaning.htm

[QUOTE=zib;404847]You can bring the brush in the shower with you and shampoo and condition it.


Sounds kinky.

Actually, I think there is nothing more wonderful than the smell of wet badger first thing in the morning.

Hair conditioner most times has a lot of byproducts that stay in the hair (by design) eg, Castor oil, Alcohol, And various forms of silicones, as well as fragrances. The reason those things stay in hair is to give them shine, smoothness, control, color protection, volume etc. The problem arises when these things build up in the hair because the shampoo being used is not high enough in surfactant levels to wash out conditioner byproducts completely, or even the shampoo itself has lots of byproducts on their own. It's at this time a Clarifying (deep cleansing) shampoo is needed.
Now I know this sound like a lesson a Hairdresser would give a woman, because it is. I am one. And in my line of work I use hundreds of hair products daily. So the thought of using Hair conditioners on a silver tip brush is a bad Idea. I wouldn't want to have byproducts, building up in my brushes so I can load them on my face later. It (hairconditioner) may feel softer and work at first, but belive me it WILL build up on there. Now I know that a good soap will cut and cleanse all of those things from the brush, but then you might be adding extra stress to the integrity of the badger hair itself by using such high surfactant level cleansers.
My advice and input and thoughts would be to never use anything other than facial cleansers to clean out your brushes, and not to ever use hair conditioners. Vineger, boiling water, hand soap are out too. You don't want overuse of these things to permanently damage the badger hair (which doesn't grow back on your brushes). Facial cleansers at most and always air dry. BTW. isn't badger hair soft as a feather anyways? if not the badger hair may have been damaged. Hope this helps someone.
All the best -J