synthetic brushes- better?

[JohnP]

Pretty sure they've been making synthetic bristles since before the turn of the 20th century (although they weren't necessarily popular compared to boar bristle). I've even seen patents for brushes made completely of vulcanized rubber (early 1920's) which I'm imagining, would be less than adequate for our tastes.
Regardless, I will go on a limb and say my synthetic brushes (the Men-U's as well as the Omega Sintex) are better performers than any boar bristle brush I've owned, size for size. The Men-U has a feel *almost* like badger bristles (it's softer than the Sintex). It performs well.
Why not own an example of each(?).
The Sintex is my favorite travel brush-they sell for around 8 USD and do not care if the water you use is too hot, or if you don't perfectly dry it-it does that on it's own-
I guess, really, there's arguments for and against just about anything we use here.

John P.

[bjrn]

The person who decided to use synthetic bristles in a shaving brush did not think, "This will shave better" - he had something else on his mind.

Really? What was he thinking? Please tell us.

[Scrapyard Ape]

The person who decided to use synthetic bristles in a shaving brush did not think, "This will shave better" - he had something else on his mind.

Really? What was he thinking? Please tell us.

That he could make more money selling 100 synthetic brushes at 35 dollars a pop than 5 natural brushes at 100 dollars each. That would be my guess.

[notthesharpest]

The person who decided to use synthetic bristles in a shaving brush did not think, "This will shave better" - he had something else on his mind.

Really? What was he thinking? Please tell us.

It could have been a lot of things. Money, convenience, reducing the use of animal products, on and on.

[bjrn]

The person who decided to use synthetic bristles in a shaving brush did not think, "This will shave better" - he had something else on his mind.

Really? What was he thinking? Please tell us.

It could have been a lot of things. Money, convenience, reducing the use of animal products, on and on.

Besides the use of animals obviously, don't you think the same goes for the Futur or Vision?

I find it odd that you think that synthetic brushes can't possibly have been conceived in the same way as (say) the Futur. That some altruistic thought about the perfect shave was the thought behind the Futur, but that synthetic brushes were made by money grabbing crooks. I think it's likely the same thought was behind both, something along the lines of "People might want this, and I'll be able to manufacture and sell this."

[tzedekh]

The one thing I hate about the natural-bristle brushes I've used is that they all shed bristles, not just a little at the beginning, but throughout their lives. Do synthetic brushes shed?

So, do synthetic brushes shed? Conceivably, a bristle could be manufactured twice as long, folded in half, and each end fed through a fine mesh. Unless a bristle broke near the bend, there would be no reason that the brush would shed.

[bjrn]

Depends on the brush, I think most of my synthetics have shed one or two hairs when they were new, but not after that.