Can I use badger brush daily?

lgbran

lgbran

Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2014
ive 3 brushes now. Rather then rotate the 3 say every few days I was planning to use 1 for a week then change. My WD sivertip badger arrived and used it yesterday. Even though in a stand it was still wet 24 hours later when I bext used it. It's now drying on the lounge room window. My other brushes are a OMEGA pro 48 and a little omega synthetic which dry pretty quick. I want to get the best out of my brushes without mothering them.
 
I shake my brush of all the excess water and then gently brush it on a towel. I then place it on its end to dry. It's usually dry at the end of the day. Depending on the humidity it could take longer.
 
filobiblic said:
I shake my brush of all the excess water and then gently brush it on a towel. I then place it on its end to dry. It's usually dry at the end of the day. Depending on the humidity it could take longer.
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Lord love a bloody duck. Next thing someone is going to come along telling us they dry each strand of hair on a pure silk scarf after use. It's a shaving brush - it gets wet when it is used, when you use it again the next day it will get wet again! This is the nature of the beast.
 
I prefer to let my brushes dry out inbetween

If I use one occasionally and it hasn't dried out I don't sweat it but I wouldn't do it all the time.

Things that are wet all the tinme tend to get a bit funky IME. Check out GT's avatar and you'll catch my drift...:p
 
filobiblic said:
I shake my brush of all the excess water and then gently brush it on a towel. I then place it on its end to dry. It's usually dry at the end of the day. Depending on the humidity it could take longer.
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I do this. Takes half a minute and even my Classic is dry next day, and it's a dense brush.

Nothing wrong with using the same brush daily. People were known to own just the one, before the net made that unacceptable.
 
lgbran said:
ive 3 brushes now. Rather then rotate the 3 say every few days I was planning to use 1 for a week then change. My WD sivertip badger arrived and used it yesterday. Even though in a stand it was still wet 24 hours later when I bext used it. It's now drying on the lounge room window. My other brushes are a OMEGA pro 48 and a little omega synthetic which dry pretty quick. I want to get the best out of my brushes without mothering them.
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That's probably a new brush thing. They tend to be a bit slower drying when they're still full of badger gunk. I could give you the whole tired spiel on capillary action but putting it in a stand makes absolutely no difference to drying time. In fact you could justifiably argue that it'll slow it down.
 
Gentlemen,

I was reliably informed that brushes take seven days to dry so we should all have a seven day set. Mine are in vintage butterscotch and largely Simpsons.

At one point I thought you needed to let them dry for a month but I've since been told I was mistaken.

Every does have a seven day set don't they? Isn't that what our grandfather's did?
 
Help me here. Most bafgers and boars should be soaked for a while before lathering, I have taken the advice of soaking it during my shower. So the brush is wet again before it touches either the puck or my face. Right? So what I've never quite understood is why must the brush be completely dry before it's thoroughly wettened again?
 
My understanding is as follows...
You soak the brush so the natural fibres soften and absorb water, you then remove as much as possible, so you're left with damp soft bristles to smash whatever soap you're using and can add water to the mix as required.
Easier to add, than remove water then add soap if the mix is too watery due to too much water.
 
stillshunter said:
Help me here. Most bafgers and boars should be soaked for a while before lathering, I have taken the advice of soaking it during my shower. So the brush is wet again before it touches either the puck or my face. Right? So what I've never quite understood is why must the brush be completely dry before it's thoroughly wettened again?
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Well I never soak them before use. Just dip it in hot water give it squeeze and away you go. Doing this, a boar brush will take all of two seconds to become as soft and wet as it ever gets and a with a badger, irrespective of how dense the knot is, it makes no difference at all in my experience. Personally I think the whole soaking before use is a typical internet/shaving forum thing that gets taken completely out of proportion. It goes from: "You have to have a wet brush to pick up any soap and turn it in to lather, to soaking it in 85.6 degrees water for a minimum of 23.5 minutes and, depending on which soap you're using, you shake it moderately hard to very hard at an angle of 35 degrees to the perpendicular". Try it without soaking and the quick dip method and see if you can notice a difference. You have to face lather to really tell the difference.

The brush doesn't have to be dry, it's the moldy thing that people get worried about. Although that sort of makes sense I'm not quite sure how many bacteria can actually live and thrive on what is essentially a soap substrate. But then again it's amazing where bacteria can live.

I've heard stories of people just plonking their brush on top of the puck after use and leaving it there until the next use and doing this for years on end.
 
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I hardly "soak". Even boars. Not real benefit to leaving it in water while you shower or do a spot of tiling and grouting. Brushes take on water very quickly. Blame the net for all the instructions and ritual that goes along with this stuff.

Just dip in the water prior to loading. A few stiffer boars, I'll swirl in the water for a bit.

The main reason to get it damp is to lift off soap efficiently. If you leave it too wet, your lather will suds up and take longer to make proper lather.
 
Thanks fellas. Lucky I sought the answer here rather than YKW or elsewhere.

I'm hoping GT will chime in to balance out the Drubbing Way.

Must say though I'm a little disturbed that no one has highlighted the requirement, as we are in the Southern Hemisphere, to ensure any swirling is done clockwise. Following what we see done further North can have detrimental effects on the consequent lather not to mention the brush fibres. Even synthetic knots have been adversely affected by anti-gravitational scalding (I think Italians, like Marco, refer to this phenomenon as "polloni muti cadono per nulla").

See I is learning stuff….
 
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stillshunter said:
Thanks fellas. Lucky I sought the answer here rather than YKW or elsewhere.

I'm hoping GT will chime in to balance out the Drubbing Way.

Must say though I'm a little disturbed that no one has highlighted the requirement, as we are in the Southern Hemisphere, to ensure any swirling is done clockwise. Following what we see done further North can have detrimental effects on the consequent lather not to mention the brush fibres. Even synthetic knots have been adversely affected by anti-gravitational scalding (I think Italians, like Marco, refer to this phenomenon as "polloni muti cadono per nulla").

See I is learning stuff….
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I agree with @Drubbing 100%. Wet the brush , pick up the soap apply. Not too wet & not too dry. Easy shit
 
stillshunter said:
...
Must say though I'm a little disturbed that no one has highlighted the requirement, as we are in the Southern Hemisphere, to ensure any swirling is done clockwise. ….
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This was asked about in the famous thread YKW - it provoked quite some discussion ...
 
Yes. That was a real thread. Taken seriously, and discussed as if it were important.

There's being a hobby nerd, and there's being a fucking bunch of fuckwits. If there was ever a line between the two, those dickwads crossed it so many years ago they don't know whether their head's up their own arses, or in downtown Bogota.
 
Drubbing said:
Yes. That was a real thread. Taken seriously, and discussed as if it were important.

There's being a hobby nerd, and there's being a fucking bunch of fuckwits. If there was ever a line between the two, those dickwads crossed it so many years ago they don't know whether their head's up their own arses, or in downtown Bogota.
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Yep I actually agree with you @Drubbing , hence the Italian term "polloni muti cadono per nulla"…Google Translate or Luigi down the road's your friend on this one. It's places like YKW that demonstrate that we are definitely s herd animal. For a shaved ape it's pretty darn pathetic what we'll do for acceptance, my avatar would be rolling in his grave! But to keep it on topic, I think Nietzsche (said avatar) would use a badger - albeit a scrubby austere one - left on its puck overnight.
 
Now come on @Drubbing - tell us what you REALLY think ...
 
stillshunter said:
Yep I actually agree with you @Drubbing..... But to keep it on topic, I think Nietzsche (said avatar) would use a badger......
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It's Nietzsche! I was always tossing up between Stalin and Frank Zappa.

Oh and your days at YKW are numbered I'd say. What you're saying is thought crime and they'll pick up on it. I'm sure Nietzsche will be proud of you.
 
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