Do you clean the brush after every shave. I did this with my first tub of Taylors and used it up fast. I now leave the soap in the brush and I need must less soap to get lather for the next shave.
Is this OK to do?
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Do you clean the brush after every shave. I did this with my first tub of Taylors and used it up fast. I now leave the soap in the brush and I need must less soap to get lather for the next shave.
Is this OK to do?
I have to say that it is not the thing to do.
Having said that I still have and occasionaly use the Ever Ready brush that my father gave me new back in 1969 and I used to leave it in the mug, till the next morning on top of the Williams with all of the lather drying right in it. It is bent over like so many that you find used. Dad's thoery was that the dried soap in the brush would re-constitute when you wet it and started again the next morning. Well he did grow up during the depression.
I would not do that today to any of my brushes. It cannot be any better for them than leaving shampoo on your hair all day and night.
When I got my first badger as a gift I was instructed to be sure to wash it out and stand it up every time I used it. That one still looks great to this day.
Will N.
lol...I was gonna say, try leaving shampoo in your hair and see what you think. I rinse mine and shake it out after every shave..especially since I rotate soaps or creams, you don't want old gunky residue in there for the next shave.
Only when I rotate soaps, every few shaves.
I think, if you like buying new brushes leaving soap in a brush will help you along.
I always "clean" my brush with a real good rinse and careful squeeze to get the soap out. First I "scrape" the excess, leftover lather back into my mug. If your face is clean before shaving, you shouldn't pick up any oils or dirt in the soap. The lather is slightly solidified, a bit "springy" and relathers easier than straight from the soap. I get the same shave from this as from fresh lather off the soap. If I just rinse the lather away, a large puck of Col
Conk might only last 5-6 shaves, not very economical.
I clean any brush after each shave. Like others, I like to rotate soaps and creams. I also have too many things on my "shaving want list". Keeping things as long as possible allows me to purchase more of my "wants".
Cleanliness is next to Godliness..........yep .:p
Just imagine the next time you take a shower and you shampoo your hair what if you just left all the soap in for the next time?
I am always sure to clean out any soap and residue from my brush. I have been shaving for a year now with the same brush, and it still works like it did the first day. It's all about a balance of being gentle, yet firm...
My take on the subject is that if the brush starts feeling a bit hard or stiff to bend or use on the face, I will then set it fully into a solution of half cider vinegar and water for a couple three hours and slosh it around every time that I think of it during that time.
rinse well and dry for the next use. the first lather may be a bit puny but it will get better over a couple days.
I would only need to do this maybe a couple times a year at most. Once in six months on my boar so far.
This also makes a good solution for the cleaning of old brushes, especially in an ultrasonic cleaner.
respectfully
~Richard
PS. I have heard of folks using hair revitalizer shampoo when their brush gets a bit dried out.
I rinse the brush after each shave making sure to rinse out any extra lather. However I only "clean" my brushes once a year or so using a mixture of either borax or vinegar and water. After cleaning the brush I give it a good shampoo and let it dry thoroughly before using it again.
After each use, I gently message the bristles and rinse my brush under running cold water until I see no more soap residue. I then shake the water out of the brush and stand it up or hang it from its stand. My brushes have no residual odor and can be fluffed up using circular motions on the palm of my hand to look as good as when new after they are dry.
Leaving soap residue in the brush probably also leaves some skin residues in the brush. I am currently using a VDH boar and a Merkur Vision Set badger brush. I use MWF, Tabac, and Bigalow (Proraso) soap/cream. I do not know what these brushes would look like after many years of such cleaning, or of leaving the soap residue in the brushes between uses in lieu of cleaning.
I stopped washing my brush about 6 months ago. I use the same brush every day, generally, so a dense brush never really dries out in the center.
I noticed my favorite badger brush, which is pretty dense, started to stink (like a wet towel) when I was rinsing the soap out of it. so I've started to leave the soap in it, and now it doesn't stink. And it's not a perfume of the soap covering it up kind of thing, the stink was too strong for that.
I shake the brush out so that most of the moisture is out, but whatever lather is left on the bristles, I leave on it. I face lather, and the lather does not make it all the way into the base of the brush, so I haven't had any buildup.
I can't imagine that with a tallowate soap like MWF or tabac (the two that I generally use), that a comparison to a P&G-type shampoo product that's filled with both SLS's is a good comparison, but if something adverse happens to my brush over the next few years, I'll report back.
It saves gobs of time every day to just shake the brush out briefly (but briskly) and let whatever lather's left dry into the bristles, and I get a good easy lather the next day and use a lot less tabac or MWF.
IMO brushes, whether they be shave, tooth or hair should be cleaned with some level of regularity. It just seems to be the right thing to do.
I couldn't imagine not rinsing my brush out after use. I've got 3-4 that I use consistently in rotation and I've never noticed a wet towel (sour?) smell but they all smell faintly of shaving soap/cream.
I also open or disassemble my razor, rinse, and dry after use rather than just give it a shake like many do. Habit, I guess.
I don't know, i'm still not convinced. After months of this so far, I see no adverse effect at all to the brush (both brushes I've done this with are badger). I'm leaving soap in the brush, not raw meat, so I'm not worried about just letting it sit in the brush.
What's left behind is a tallowate based soap that has not come close to reaching the base of the bristles, they are still fairly clean and looking anew. If anything, the tallowate base of the soap is probably good for the hair on the brush - it doesn't become rancid.
I only use one brush at a time - I don't want to rotate brushes, and as much money as I've spent on stones in my lifetime, I don't want to get into artisan brushes - the $20-$25 star shaving type of brushes work really well for me and I don't feel like I have to baby them.
The extent of skin cells isn't bad, I'm sure. I only shave straight out of the shower, always one pass with buffing (not lots of razor-exfoliated skin floating around), so the brush only touches the face once. A brush that is thoroughly rinsed will have skin cells left in it also, you'll never get them all.
I think in my circumstances (lazy daily straight razor shaver), this is the ideal solution that I'll only stop doing if something bad happens to the brush that I don't expect. If it hasn't in months, I'm guessing it won't.
(but like a lot of you, my wife is really bothered by it ...which just makes me want to do it more :)).
Well, you score points for pissing off the wife anyway... :D
I used to not rinse my brush after shaving, but after a while the hairs started falling out. Now granted it was just a cheap vdh brush and it was probably not completely due to leaving soap in it but it only takes a few extra seconds to rinse it, so I rinse now after every shave. I give them all a good wash maybe once or twice a year.
-dan-
I thought I would pop back in here.
I still don't wash my brush, I actually haven't rinsed it clean, period. My wife still hates that I don't wash it. I still think washing the brush is a waste of time if you're a daily shaver.
What I realized since my last post and after seeing a few other people, is that I face lather and the lather itself only gets within about a half inch of the handle of the brush. I've seen videos where people say to load the brush all the way down to the handle, and I have to wonder why - what are you going to do with the lather that's in that part of the brush? There's no reason for it to be down there intentionally.
The brush I use is a "best" badger brush from star shaving (it was in the neighborhood of $25-$30, and it may release a single hair about once a month. Great brush for the price, still a stink free brush and it still makes great lather every day (I go back and forth between cella and MWF).
Maybe less natural soaps would present some threat, I don't know. I love cella so much I will probably never buy another soap other than cella (once the MWF runs out).
Still shave every single day, perhaps one day since this message I didn't shave because I was traveling and I wasn't happy with the shape my travel straight was in at the time.
Yes. You really should wash it out well after each use if not for the brushes health than for your own. Open soap like that does grow bacteria and you don't need that.
Thanks Richard! I was wondering what was the best way to occasionally clean a nicer brush. My current crummy ones aren't worth the effort, and still too new to worry about it.
I saw the classic brand brush cleaner on CS. Not sure what the equivalent is, but this sounds like it's easy and less expensive.
http://www.classicshaving.com/i/Clas...ushCleaner.jpg
I do rinse mine out thoroughly and hang to dry.
Rob
If you are not cleaning the brush just to save the cost of some soap you should stop using soap and razor and burn the hair off. Fire is cheap and it will do a good job if you give it time to work. Dont,t be so cheap and clean your brush!
Back in the '70s, when I was an ironworker, I'd wear out a pair of Red Wing work boots fairly quickly. I started buying two pair and rotating. Gave the one pair a day to dry out well on the inside. I started getting much more time out of a pair of work boots. I do the same thing with footwear now and certainly with my shaving brushes. I always throughly rinse the brush, shake it out, and hang it in a stand for 24 hours or so. I only have two stands, one for large and the other for small.
After the 24 hours the brush is moved out of the bathroom and into the hallway countertop where it stands on end. Rotating brushes will give them longer life and they feel better on your face. BTW, I bought my first shaving brush at Hoffritz for Cutlery in about 1973. Cost me $80.00 back then so it must have been a good one. Used it every day I shaved for 35 years before I bought another one. Usually lathered in my hand on a bar of Dove soap.
Then I found the shaving forums in 2006 and 20+ brushes later ..... and high end soap instead of the bar of Dove ....I still use that Hoffritz once in awhile but that daily grind for 35 years took a toll. Anyway, a rotation of at least two is a good way to go IMHO. Gives the brush a chance to rest and dry out thoroughly, plus you can get into SBAD and stimulate the economy.
Small world,my first brush was a Hoffritz (on the rgt) bought in the early 70s at williams cutlery,palo alto calif.< 20 bux I think,was used every day for 20+ yrs,is still in perfect condition,take care of them,they should last a lifetime+.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ittlebrush.jpg
I have 3 brushes I rotate with and I rinse them thoroughly after every shave. When I need to clean them sometimes I just use shampoo but when I was buying gifts for my lady I came across MAC brush cleaner. I got 2 bottles. I soaked one of brushes in that MAC brush cleaner and was amazed at how well it works. Now I generally rinse the brush and once it's dry I'll spray the brush with the cleaner to maintain it and soaking in the MAC cleaner is only needed for deep cleaning. However, the MAC brush cleaner is pretty expensive so that is why only one deep clean is needed then just a little spray across the brush after each use to maintain. I haven't noticed any problems thus far with the badger hairs.
This is just something I tried and thought I would pass on to everyone.
Your brush has to dry properly....Cleaning the brush, washing all the soap out with warm water, allows your brush to do this. Just a matter of the "right thing" to do. My opinion of course..............................:tu
I use generic or drug store brand baby shampoo to clean my brushes that are in shaving rotation about once a month.
It keeps them in tip top condition and they lather my shaving soaps/creams better when I do.
No way whatsoever. You have to clen the brush every single time you use it. And rub the brush against a towel before pt it in a stand. Theirs no other way.
K
Why is leaving the soap on the brush a bad idea?
I've seen bunch of folks using hand waving explanations (e.g. imagine leaving soap on the head etc.) but IMO that is not a convincing argument.
I'd get a quick smack on the head if I said something like there is no way a naturally occurring stone can finish better than a carefully formulated synthetics (or will I?).
Seems to me that in 20+ posts, the only one that has actual extensive experience with this is DaveW and he sees no problem with it.
Is there anyone with actual experience who has seen deterioration in the quality of their brush or shave?
Or what is the basis for condemning the practice (perhaps health concern?)
Cleaning extends the life of the brush and diminishes infectious agents.
Here is what I do to ensure the brush is clean and dry for my next shave.
1) After the shave, I rinse the brush thoroughly with hot water and gently squeeze the knot and shake out the excess water in the sink.
2) Gently squeeze the knot between a dry hand towel a few times.
3) Lastly, fast, smooth arm swings like a backwards softball pitch to sling some more (no whipping or snapping motion as this can damage and weaken the brush)
4) Place upside down in my stand to air dry
My brush is clean and completely drys within 12 hours.
Attachment 95647
I've been very quickly snapping mine to get the water out. It's lasted 30 years now.
My oldest son and I got brushes from Target the same day ($20.00 each) two years ago, I remember thinking that this is cool getting shaving stuff with my son. :tu Since then I still have that brush and his hairs fell out like the ones on my head, I wash out mine and hang it every time I shave 3-4 times a week. He on the other hand does not and only shaves 1-2 times a week and had to replace it about three mounths ago. So just saying maybe somthing to the cleaning thing :shrug:
Rich
All I have to say is YUCK! I don't care how clean your face is there are always some dead skin cells present, which I am sure would be happy to multiply into some sort of nastiness...(Shaving bump party anyone???) Sorry to be so blunt but YUCKKKKK!
I guess a better response would have been that I rinse my brush thoroughly after every shave, shake it out and put it in a stand with the bristles pointing down to dry. I also would like to note that I do not wipe the floor with a washrag before using it on my body in the bath...