Thread: Boar Hair vs Badger Hair

Oooooo.......where do I get a raccoon brush???

Originally Posted by medicevans

Oooooo.......where do I get a raccoon brush???

The raccoon brushes are technically tanooki(aka raccoon dog) hair and can be found on several asian shave sites. I had one that my aunt brought back from a trip to Japan around 5 years ago. It was a great brush that felt a bit like a combo boar/badger. Got rid of it after reading how the hair was harvested by some companies.. Not for the faint of heart.

I have yet to try out a boar brush. Being a noob to wet shaving in general, it took me a bit to figure out how to build a decent lather using a badger brush and a hard soap. Once I figured out what gugi mention in his post about the badger brush holding water (I was drying my brush out too much) I was suddenly able to build a nice, thick, lather from a hard soap pretty quickly from a badger brush. I wouldn't say that it takes a lot of elbow grease or work, just takes a little bit of patience and practice. I'll probably always prefer badger because, from what I understand, it is best for creams hands down and I'm actually wanting to start into making uber lathers...but I appreciate the feedback on boar brushes I'm seeing in here. There's absolutely nothing wrong with having a good boar brush for making a quick lather on those days where time is short.

Personally have a preference for boar and horse. I find badger too soft for lathering and applying to my beard. I have 7 brushes in my rotation (inexpensive brushes), 2 are badger; 2 are horse; 3 are boar. The badger are the nicest looking but i could live without them.