Matching soaps & creams with most effective brush fibers

[brothers]

It took a long time to figure this out, but I've always been a slow learner. This is me. Your experiences may differ.

For me:
Boar brushes soaked in water seem to work well with Taylors, Harris, and AOS soft shaving creams that are spread on the face prior to building lather. This is where they (boar brushes) are impressive.
Boar brushes soaked in water seem measurably less efficient when used to build lather on the face when the soap has been applied by shaving soap sticks.
Boar brushes soaked in water seem to load and build lather marginally well with my specific shaving soaps in the puck/bowl before applying the lather on the face.

Badger and synthetic brushes seem to work well at building lather on the face with shaving soap sticks.
Badger and synthetic brushes seem to work better than boars when lathering shaving soaps in the puck/bowl. Boar brushes are better known for loading on the soap puck because of their stiffness.
Badger and synthetic brushes are capable of lathering soft shaving creams.

[CMur12]

Gary, I simplified my bowl-lathering routine to simply lathering on top of the cake of soap. While I preferred badger to boar when lathering in a bowl, I find that for lathering on top of the cake of soap that boar has a decided advantage. This is where my Semogue 1305 beats every other brush that I have (boar, badger, and synthetic).

This may well be why barbers often used boar brushes on top of soap in a mug.

- Murray

[fallingwickets]

a side affect of fidelity is not having to be confounded by all these different permutations

clive

[brothers]

Gary, I simplified my bowl-lathering routine to simply lathering on top of the cake of soap. While I preferred badger to boar when lathering in a bowl, I find that for lathering on top of the cake of soap that boar has a decided advantage. This is where my Semogue 1305 beats every other brush that I have (boar, badger, and synthetic).

This may well be why barbers often used boar brushes on top of soap in a mug.

- Murray

Murray, After just a few days of lathering with boars, I must say you are quite right when you say boar performs as well if not better than other popular fibers when it comes to both loading and lathering on the soap before moving to the face for the shave. I've been testing my favorite boar brushes making the lather on the soap, and the lathers have been outstanding. I want to say thanks for pointing that out! I've got a small handful of other boar brushes coming up, and that makes me very happy. It's just when the stick is used to face-lather the soap with a boar brush that doesn't work well for me.

[churchilllafemme]

I use only Rooney Finest badger brushes, and all of them are excellent on all soaps and creams, so I don't need to work at matching. I use my brushes and software on regular daily rotations each month, using a written schedule. No need for my aging brain to figure anything out.

[TRBeck]

It's just when the stick is used to face-lather the soap with a boar brush that doesn't work well for me.

Gary, I'm in agreement. As much as I love boars - I think I've tried every knot Semogue offers except the SOC boar, and I have tried 15 or so different Omegas, a couple of Zeniths, etc. - they don't face lather sticks well. They spill water quickly, which when lathering or loading on the puck is no problem, but when face lathering, it leads to either runny lather or - more often - to losing all of the water and having a pasty, thin lather that's hard to recover to proper texture.

I tend to prefer my badger/boar mix these days as a best-of-all-possible-worlds natural hair brush.

[ShadowsDad]

When I was more active on the various forums I would run across this theory fairly often. I was puzzled about it then and still am. I have a rotation of 30 some odd brushes; badger, boar, synthetic, hybrid boar/badger, and basically I felt then, and still do, that it just comes down to knowing the brush. Back then I only knew the brush I'd be using on that day, the soap was a mystery until I opened the cabinet and decided what I wanted to use. There was no matching of brushes with a soap. They all worked fine if the brush was used correctly.

Today I still have the same brush rotation, maybe one or 2 more brushes than back then, and I only use 2 soaps. Again, all of the brushes work fine with those soaps.

[drmoss_ca]

But if we didn't fuss about the details what kind of wet shavers would we be?

[brothers]

I was enjoying the Marlborough stick as I moved through my favorite brushes, synthetic and badger. Perfect results every time, so I became curious as to how it would perform with my new boar brushes. Started with the Omega 80005, and that's the very first time I'd experienced that brush's inability to remove the stick-applied soap and create a beautiful lather. That experience was all I ever shall need to know about boars and stick-applied soap. Now after lathering with boar brushes on a bowl full of soap for 5 days I am adamant in my finding - confirmed by others who've posted on the topic - stick-soap lathering is limited to synthetic and badger brushes. My boar brushes perform like magic on bowl-soap-loaded and lathered soap. I may have to buy another puck of DRH tallow first soap and leave it in a bowl so I can use my user-friendly boars more often. This could be attributed to the rumor that I'm an obsessive nut, but I'm comfortable with that! (It's only a non-threatening momentary escape from those other matters one must perpetually address.)

[brothers]

When I was more active on the various forums I would run across this theory fairly often. I was puzzled about it then and still am. I have a rotation of 30 some odd brushes; badger, boar, synthetic, hybrid boar/badger, and basically I felt then, and still do, that it just comes down to knowing the brush. Back then I only knew the brush I'd be using on that day, the soap was a mystery until I opened the cabinet and decided what I wanted to use. There was no matching of brushes with a soap. They all worked fine if the brush was used correctly.

Today I still have the same brush rotation, maybe one or 2 more brushes than back then, and I only use 2 soaps. Again, all of the brushes work fine with those soaps.

Brian, are either of your soaps in stick format?

[drmoss_ca]

I can certainly agree that a boar brush, full of water that it is unwilling to retain, just makes a mess when trying to make lather from the soap of a shaving stick crayoned into one's beard. I know that all too well.

Most soaps and probably all creams can be made to work with brushes of any sort. But I have noticed something lately, and as always it indicates I'm a slow learner. I like firm brushes - I like the feel of them on my face. I have little regard for soft and floppy brushes. Now consider there are some soaps held, generally, in high regard that I have never been keen on. MWF and Martin de Candre come quickly to mind. Lately, I have discovered that floppy brushes make rather enjoyable lather from these soaps. The kind of brushes I would normally prefer can't cope with them at all. Damn - how many good shaves have I missed out on?

[ShadowsDad]

When I was more active on the various forums I would run across this theory fairly often. I was puzzled about it then and still am. I have a rotation of 30 some odd brushes; badger, boar, synthetic, hybrid boar/badger, and basically I felt then, and still do, that it just comes down to knowing the brush. Back then I only knew the brush I'd be using on that day, the soap was a mystery until I opened the cabinet and decided what I wanted to use. There was no matching of brushes with a soap. They all worked fine if the brush was used correctly.

Today I still have the same brush rotation, maybe one or 2 more brushes than back then, and I only use 2 soaps. Again, all of the brushes work fine with those soaps.

Brian, are either of your soaps in stick format?

My soaps, no. But I have used stick soaps that I bought with all of my brushes.

[CMur12]

I have found that floppy brushes are very efficient for bowl-lathering - better than stiff brushes and better than dense ones, and they don't pull the lather into the knot. (This is how I lather.)

Obviously, they are not well suited to face-lathering. (This isn't how I lather.)

- Murray

[fallingwickets]

hard to say no to a floppy brush

[brothers]

A large part of my intensive (little or none obviously) research was face lathering with the Marlborough stick. As others who are not currently using soap sticks in tandem with face lathering boar brushes have pointed out, my Rooney Finest, Thater, Made Rite TGN Finest, and the SilkSmoke synthetic have absolutely zero problem building a luxurious lather when face-loading with the Marlborough stick or any other soap/cream with or without a soap stick. Then along came the sweet little Omega boar brush. That's what opened my eyes to the boar brush's disappointingly glaring inability to build shave stick lather on the face.

[Sam]

Following this thread. Maybe it has not been the soap but my brush. I have eschewed soaps and found I prefer creams but have been using only a synthetic brush - the tuxedo knot. Maybe need to consider a Rooney or Shavemac

[pausted]

Sam, I have not found a soap yet that couldn’t be lathered with a Tuxedo. I find the brush to be extremely efficient.

[brothers]

As my experiences have evolved, I've learned that the boar brush– currently the Zenith - does excel when loading the brush on hard soap in a dish. Still not working when loading from a stick onto the face. However, the boar also excels at shaving cream, obviously, as do most others.

[drmoss_ca]

I have found that floppy brushes are very efficient for bowl-lathering - better than stiff brushes and better than dense ones, and they don't pull the lather into the knot. (This is how I lather.)

Obviously, they are not well suited to face-lathering. (This isn't how I lather.)

- Murray

You are absolutely right - a floppy brush makes stupendous amounts of lather on a hard soap, and this is worth commenting on as it is so unexpected. It was the reason why the old Kent BK4 existed, and it works for many other brushes of low density. Having said that, we can probably agree that it is only half the story in that the lather must translate to faceful of hair that is softened and permeated with moisture and soap. To solve this, some people will spend a lot of time on beard prep with hot water, hand soap, detergents, conditioners, and then apply the lovely lather to well-softened beard. Others build the lather on the face with a brush a bit stiffer than mentioned above as this will kill two birds with one stone - make lather and soften beard. I had imagined the Variable Loft Brush* being used this way, at full loft to make lather, then shortened into something stiffer for the application. Maybe we need a double-ended brush, or to use two brushes to get the ideal lather, then the ideal application?

*Apart from the restrictions of the mechanical design, I don't think the hair available to Shavemac was the best for this job. A coarser and stiffer hair (boar or synthetic?) might have done the job better than the silky hair Bernd Blos could obtain. These days I would make the mechanism much simpler, with either a push-it-through-the-handle smooth-walled design, or at the most complex, a Whitworth threaded handle and knot-holder that could be separated and rinsed clean. I have learned to live with choosing one way or the other - a soft floppy brush and good prep, or a firmer brush and face lathering - but I'd still like the option of an all-terrain brush that could do it all!

[Rufus]

I only face-lather and I find the Kent BK4 an excellent brush for lathering. As far as I’m concerned, the shavemac 3-band silver tip, Simpson (Colonel) best badger, Muhle silvertip, Semogue 3-band silvertip, VP Leonhardy 3-band silvertip and other similar brushes are excellent for face-lathering. On the other hand, I find most of the 2-band silvertips can’t compete with the aforementioned for face-lathering. Dense, high backbone brushes don’t make the grade with me.