Thanks a lot for your answer!brothers wrote:Hi Zip. It takes about 5 to 7 full multi-pass shaves to get the factory manufacturing odors out of it. Don't baby it or hold back. Use it vigorously, and rinse it before and after with hot water. When I got mine, I test-lathered it about 4 times with different shaving products, soaps mainly, in the palm of my hand to get an idea about how it's going to work. I think that helped a lot with getting it broken in when I started shaving with it.
I face lather with the horse brush by painting and swirling about the same as I do with a badger brush. The painting motion works pretty good with the horse. It handles water differently than a badger. You'll have to use it to understand what I'm trying to say. I think a badger soaks up more water and holds more water, so I don't have to add much during the lathering and shaving process with the badger.
The horse brush needs to be dunked a bit more thoroughly to get water into your lather. Don't be afraid to dunk it a bit more than you do the badger. A couple of drops aren't going to be enough, when you become aware that there's more water that stays in your badger, but the horse doesn't hold as much, and it lets the lather build on the face as opposed to doing what a badger brush does, which is making lather and storing it inside the badger bristles. This is my observation. The more you use it, the sooner you'll be able to understand how you can use it to your greatest advantage.
When I squeeze the lather out of it after the shave, it doesn't have the same volume of unused lather stored down inside as a comparable badger has. This is because it has less water in it. When I go back for the second and third pass, I dunk it and paint it, and the lather just grows.
Congrats on getting a horse brush, I hope you enjoy using yours in rotation with the badgers as much as I do.
After the first use, I have to admit it wasn't the "great love", but I think I'll use this brush alone for a couple of weeks, and see how it works.