just ordered a razor but...

[matthiew]

Just ordered a razor from razordesigns.com, but was intimidated by the cost of boar hair brushes. Are they expensive because of the handles or what? Are there cheaper alternatives? What exactly is one paying for in a brush?

[LegalBeagle]

Brushes are like any other piece of your shaving equipment. It's an upfront investment because, if well cared for, it will last you a very long time. You can get an inexpensive brush (like a Van der Hagen from Walmart/Target) or you can spend more for a nice Omega Boar or go all out on a nice silvertip Badger Brush from Plisson or Shavemac. You can also spend anywhere in between. In the beginning you really can't appreciate the differences because you simply don't know what you don't know.

That said, spend only that which you are comfortable spending. There is always room as you learn more to try different options down the road. After all, there are lots of guys who have the cheapest brush they can find, use nothing but a puck of Williams, strop on the most inexpensive piece of leather they can get their hands on and are shaving with a straight they found for a song and honed up themselves. The only difference between that guy, and the one who uses a custom ground razor, lathers his expensive Italian cream in a custom scuttle with a vintage two band Silvertip HMW Plisson, and strops on a Kanayama 90000 is that the second guy is a lot lighter in the wallet. They both get a good shave!

[red96ta]

Don't freak out over brush costs...I've been shaving for a year with a $7 VanDerHagen boar brush from Walgreens and it works every bit as well as a fancy badger brush. IMHO, the difference is in the 'luxury' factor...kinda like why pay for a $300 fountain pen when you can use a $1 Bic. Try going cheap and if you like it and can afford the luxury of a badger, go for it.

[markevens]

I've got a badger hair tweezerman for 15 bucks, and it works fine for me.

[mcjacob71990]

make your own, i made this brush with a knot purchased from thegoldennib.com and materials from Menards (im sure any hardware store would do the trick). Its total cost was about 25$ and i had materials left over to make probably 10 more brushes (excluding the knot, the knot is the most expensive part). I made the stand with materials purchased from Menards and the total cost of stand and brush was about 30$.

If your looking for a VERY cheap alternative, there is always the Von Der Hagen brush from Walgreens or Wal Mart but badger is DEF better (i was amazed at the difference)

Brush works GREAT its a silvertip badger knot. Making a brush is hands down the best way to go imho. and not to mention you get the satisfaction of using something that you crafted with your own hands.

[thebigspendur]

What you ask is not any easy or short answer. Check out our brush forum and read the wiki for a primer on brushes. As far as Boar brushes go most are in the $20 category or so. Some cheaper some a bit more.

[SoCal]

You can find boar brushes for under $20, as far as badger, they go up in cost due to the type of hair, and quality of it, and the material in the handle. There are also horse hair brushes, and synthetic brushes as well, just depends on your preference, and what you want to use it with.

[gugi]

Just ordered a razor from razordesigns.com, but was intimidated by the cost of boar hair brushes. Are they expensive because of the handles or what? Are there cheaper alternatives? What exactly is one paying for in a brush?

You probably mean badger, not boar, boar brushes aren't expensive, or at least not intimidatingly so.
You're basically paying for the ability to create nice lather quickly and feel nice on the face. And for the difficulty of harvesting the hair, then sorting it and creating a brush out of it, and profit margins along the process.
Some synthetic brushes can be excellent too, but then they cost quite a bit too.