Thread: Best brush for Mitchell's Wool Fat for face lathering ?

Hey all,

For personal reasons I tried to use a synthetic material brush but I'm finding it very hard to get good lather with it. I've tried soaking the brush in hot water for a couple minutes, I've used the 3-finger hold for loading the brush and also for applying on my face and I pre-soak the soap in warm/hot water before loading. I either get a really dry lather or I spend ages to get something that's creamy and thick but which dries out rather quickly (I'm not the fastest shaver in the West either...).

Which brush do you recommend? If there is a high quality synthetic brush I'd prefer to give that a go but if no such option exists then I'll go for a badger/boar brush.

If you think my lather issues are not because of the brush but something else then I'm all ears!

Many thanks!

PenSword,

You could try :

1) Take the puck of MWF and rub it on your face like a shave stick; you can then face lather with your synthetic. This works extremely well !

2) Mill the MWF with a grater, then repack it down, this will leave the surface of the puck 'softer' and easier to load. This also works extremely well !


I have a Taylors (Of Bond Street) synthetic that has enough back-bone to directly load the brush from the puck.


Have fun !

Best regards

Russ

Thanks Russ,

I should rub the puck after it's been soaked I presume...

should I grate the whole puck and then pack it back into the same bowl (I have the ceramic bowl the puck came with)? Sorry if I'm asking obvious questions, just want to be sure.

Cheers!

First let me say that I have not personally used MWF but from what you are saying I would tend to think its more of a lathering issue then a brush issue. While some brushes seem to work better for different aplications but all will work with any soap or cream just might take more time.

Now for your issue what I would suggest is trying to load you brush how you do to get to where you have the really dry lather. Once you are at that point pass your hand under a running faucet and then put it over the brush and let some of the water drip on the brush then try and face lather if still to dry repeat till you get the right amount of water in the mix. You could also try this while palm lathering. You would again load your brush up to the put you get the dry lather and then wet your off hand and then begain to build a lather in the palm of your off hand. You would then keep adding a little water to your off hand till you get a nice creamy lather that will stay on your for a good amount of time.

Check out this video by manitc 59 YouTube - How To Build And Apply Traditional Shaving Lather