I am increasingly intrigued by what seems to be a somewhat hidden, or little appreciated, paradox: the denser the brush, especially with ultra-fine hair grades, the worse the brush is at producing lather. As best I can determine, this is because a brush needs a decent amount of space between the follicles in order for the soap, water, and air to work together to produce a good foam. And in the ultra-fine brushes -- e.g., a silver-tip, with extra density -- the hairs are so tightly packed there's just not much room left for the lather (maybe this is why the lather in a Chubby Super, for example, feeling trapped, seems to squirt downward toward the handle instead of forward toward your face).
Assuming this is true, or at least a common experience for other shavers, I am wondering if anyone has quantified the hair thicknesses of the various grades. Boar bristles and horse hair are obviously thick, leaving ample lathering space, and maybe that is why they have such a following. But what about the badgers? Would it be fair to say that pure Badger hair is thickest (and thus leaves most room inside the knot, even when somewhat densely packed)? Might Simpson's "Best" (or others' "Finest") be next, followed by 2-band silver tips, with the thinnest of all being the Silvertips (a.k.a. "Super" in Simpson-land)?
And if the above is true, what does this say about the advisability (or inadvisability) of getting any dense silver tip, assuming one cares about easy and prolific lather? Wouldn't most shavers be better off with a medium grade badger at average density? After all, aren't there plenty of ways to gain backbone without stuffing a brush to the gills?
New to SRP, and curious...
