My last post about the Escali shaving brush reminded me of a technique I use to get a little better performance out of any brush. I generally advocate that you hold a shaving brush by the base of the bristles. Do you have to hold it by the base? No. If you have a relatively small brush or a brush with very high quality hair, you may not notice anything. But with a brush of average size and middle-of-the-road hair quality will probably see a difference. Why? Two reasons.
Water Retention And Lather Control
Holding the brush by the base of the bristles helps retain water. The “business end” of mixing water and cream or soap for lather takes place deep inside the center of the brush (sometimes called the “breach”). A properly hydrated breach is more likely to get you a good lather more quickly.
Second, it will give you more control over where you’re lathering, avoiding lather in an ear on up the nose.
Try this technique and report your results back here!
Thanks a lot. It works!
Especially for my floppy large silvertip brushes.
It offers more backbone and finer control.
I use a hybrid of this technique, when I am initially building lather, I do not use this grip and allow the breach to open up more, for exchange of cream and water, once I go to the face, then I switch to this grip (Using a medium EJ Synthetic Silvertip brush) and it works wonders!
Great idea, you just have to be careful not to open the breach too much (don’t mash the brush all the way down).
I thought it would be okay to “mash” in a synthetic fiber brush. Is that false?
I haven’t heard of that before, I’ll have to research it!
Have been using this method for several years now,really works for me…great advice..
Great idea. You may also be prolonging your brush’s life by “splinting” the fibers from mechanical stress at the handle where it meets the knot!
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