Thread: Is it normal for hairs to fall out?

Hello,
I have an Art of Shaving pure badger hair brush. I have noticed that when I use it at least 4 or 5 badger hairs fall out either while lathering or after the brush dries. Is this normal?

Yes and no. Some knots never shed the first hair while others do. If you're lucky it will quit shedding but if not it takes an awful lot of hair to go before it becomes a problem .... i.e. unusable. If worse comes to worse you might contact the vendor but IME they will stop shedding eventually.

Some new brushes loose some hairs during the break-in period. It should not going on longer than maybe 10-15 days of use. However, there are some so-called "over-stuffed" knots out there that may loose some more hairs or losing hair over a longer time. One must understand that there are about 1000 hairs per one gram of weight. So, a 22 mm knot brush has likely as much as 15-20000 hairs.

+1 to the above. It may also be that you're going a little too rough on the brush and damaging bristles - try keeping a light touch for a while and only using the tips of the bristles to whip the lather with only a little pressure on them - I've found that that solves the problem with a brush I have that's a PITA due to shedding.

It's common for brushes to do that. Once broken in, it shouldn't happen unless you're rough with brush. I don't know about that brush in particular so just be sure to avoid known shedders like those wholesaled for $1. They say Van Der Hagen sheds to no end but I have yet to try mine.

Some of my badgers didn't shed much. The Simpson B4 Pure only once in 7x I've used it, Vulfix 2006 3x in initial use-still breaking that one in. The Omega #21047 is mixed badger and boar bristle like the 2006, it's shed about 10x. I was most likely rough with it initially but I've learned since then. When using them I like to think about shampooing my own hair ( when I had normal length ). Just scrub gently and you'll be fine. But as stated earlier it's common to shed. Best of luck

I have two VDH boar brushes, a dark green handle and a tan colored handle. The tan colored lost a few at first but have not noticed any in a while. The dark green handle one has lost some but it's fairly new and not broke in yet....the jury is still out on it. My first brush was a Burma boar and that sucker shed forever.

i say the same as the others. i have about 4 badger hair and all have shed, most stop after a few shaves...give it time and i think it will stop..good luck

Originally Posted by BGAndrea

Hello,
I have an Art of Shaving pure badger hair brush. I have noticed that when I use it at least 4 or 5 badger hairs fall out either while lathering or after the brush dries. Is this normal?

I have the same brush. After a year of using it, I am now starting to see some hairs fall out.

When I bought the brush, the salesman said that the brush should last about a year or so.

Sometimes new brushes will lose a few hairs and then stop. Othertimes, there can be no end and the brush should be returned for a replacement. I once had a brush that turned out to be a shedder and was given the following test to run on it before sending it back. You might give this a try and see how things turn out.

Email from the vendor:

First however, what I ask that you do is this. Give your brush a good aggressive shampoo with your normal hair shampoo. Thoroughly rinse it out and let it dry out. When it is dry, comb it thoroughly with whatever wide gap comb or brush you have available. Then use it exclusively for a week or so to see if the shedding continues. At that point, you will have done everything that we would do with our own brushes before we classify them a “true shedder” and banish them to the shaving brush wasteland.

Although some do, I feel they shouldn't if the company does some thorough QA before sending it to you.

Pabster