Thread: Face Lather: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Boar.

Hello,
I recently had a very strange thing happen. See when I got started I went right for a Best Badger it felt luxurious, worked well with the cream I was using and played really well with the bowl lathering I could manage as a total newb. Shortly thereafter I thought I'd experiment and got a VDH Boar brush from the local CVS. I Figured I might as well try and at that price point I just couldn't go wrong.
So I took the VDH brush home gave it a good cleaning and attempted some lather. It was an absolute disaster, my lather was was watery, sloppy, and just wrong. I picked it up again the next time I shaved and tried less water got what looked like a decent lather in the bowl but again it turned to nothing once it hit my face. So I blamed the poor VDH, chucked it to poor quality, inferior materials, the works. I mean, this thing had to suck couldn't be me....
Well it's a couple months later and I decided to pick up the boar once again. The first time I went for the scuttle. A little AOS unscented cream, a little BAirley Farms Cucumber Soap, a couple drops of glycerine and BOOM! fantastic lather up to my elbows in what seemed like 3 swirls (my badger whips up a great lather but never this fast!). The bristles had just the right backbone when they hit my face and when I massaged that awesome hot lather in with the VDH it seemed like a shave revelation!
This was yesterday...I never shave two days in a row but I just couldn't resist, I had to see if it was a fluke. So I reached for the VDH yet again, this time no fancy stuff; the brush would be all alone. I went for a cold face alther with just soap. I figured the little VDH couldn't do it without the help of the Becker scuttle and the uber but boy was I wrong! The boar really performed. I'm blown away at the difference that a little experience made. So I post this as a public apology to all boar kind! It wasn't you, it was me!
So has anyone had this happen? And what else is out there? I've got two horse hair brushes in the mail that I was just taking a flyer on, now I'm thinking this could be the beginning of a new brush journey of discovery? Well done VDH I think you just gave me the B.A.D...BAD!

Of course everyone uses what they like based on their experiences and as long as their happy that's great. Personally, I wouldn't be giving up any of my classic two band brushes for any horse or boar.

The VDH brush is a bargain.
An hour spent with a puck of Williams and a VDH brush
--- priceless ---

Latherin takes practice... Shortly you will go back to
the badger and get an even better lather with a little
tinkering.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Of course everyone uses what they like based on their experiences and as long as their happy that's great. Personally, I wouldn't be giving up any of my classic two band brushes for any horse or boar.

Not to worry...I won't be giving up the badger any time soon. I was just amazed at how good an experince one could have using even a bargain brush like the vdh given a little know how. Makes me think I want to get more brushes to play around with. Not so much to replace the badger...maybe just to give it a few friends....my gf will the thrilled!

I had that same experience with a cheap boar brush. I think it is part experience and part breaking in of the brush.

Last Christmas my brother gave me an Omega boar brush, and I absolutely love it-- I rarely let the badger out of the cabinet anymore. For the last few months I've even been doing the cold water shave, and to me, the cold water and boar are the perfect combination.

From what I hear, the Semogue boars are incomparable, but I haven't tried one yet. Let us know how you like the horse hair, I'm interested in those as well.

Your experience matchs mine to a tee. The Boar's hair brush breaks in and no longer feels harsh.

Originally Posted by chay2K

Last Christmas my brother gave me an Omega boar brush, and I absolutely love it-- I rarely let the badger out of the cabinet anymore. For the last few months I've even been doing the cold water shave, and to me, the cold water and boar are the perfect combination.

From what I hear, the Semogue boars are incomparable, but I haven't tried one yet. Let us know how you like the horse hair, I'm interested in those as well.

The same with me. I have Omega boar brush with long handle, which I prefer. My good budger brush (28mm knot) I use very rarely.
On the photo my Omega with long handle, budger and synthetic brush for comparison.