Best way to eliminate excess water from a shaving brush

I have popped the knot from a brush by accidentally dropping it, but never in normal use. If a brush is damaged by a moderate squeeze or vigorous shaking, it was probably not made right in the first place. I try to squeeze out excess water and then shake the brush hard enough so that excess water is not trapped in the base of the brush where it will mess up the lather, especially during later passes of your shave. When extracting the final lather from the brush, you do not want excess water to dilute the lather.

Some time ago, I read an article on a shaving website about how a wet brush should never be shaken. Personally, I don't think shaking will do harm if done gently. However, I prefer to load a brush that has been squeezed relatively dry after soaking. (Since many soaps won't load if the brush is too dry, I add small amounts of water as I go.)

To me, the thing to remember when squeezing a brush is that the force should never pull the hairs outward. Therefore, when I’m squeezing water out of my brushes, I also very slightly push toward the handle. Just to make sure that the squeezing motion isn’t creating a pulling force on the hairs.

I can understand why they would say not to shake the brush. After having added water to the brush that is a good deal of extra weight on the brush. Shaking it imposes extra burden on the hairs and might lead to weakening some hairs, but the situation this would be the worst in is in a brush that hasn’t been well taken care of and had the lather rinsed our properly. Soap left over time eats away at the hairs weakening it. The extra weight and shaking could take them out. If someone isn’t rinsing the brush properly, they are also likely ones to be mashing it into their face too which would be even worse.

For myself, after soaking the brush, I take it out and gently shake it out. I don’t fling the hairs down to the sink, but hold the handle with the head of the brush over the sink and then give a few flicks up and down. I would have no problem with using my fingers to squeeze out water, just try not to pull down hard.

Once I’ve rinsed the brush well I again hover the brush over the sink knot facing directly downward and gently squeeze a few times and then flick gently. I have done it on occasion where I’m holding it upright and flick down but again gently. After time you settle into your own routine, and we all have our own. There are common steps we can usually agree upon. Like Dan has mentioned about never shaking the brush, I agree with that in principle but haven’t done that. Any amount of shaking does add stress on the hair. The weight of the water being absorbed puts stress on the hair, and anything you do to decrease that stress is a good thing. That’s why manufacturers say to not use circular motions when lathering but painting motions. The circular motions twist the hair up causing stress, and if the brush hasn’t been well rinsed the soap left over has already weakened those hairs making it even more suspectible to breakage.

Seeing such posts gives me a chance to reflect upon what I could do better, and in the future I will avoid shaking and just gently squeeze water out while making sure not to pull downward on the knot. That one I’ve always done. While I’ve never had problems with what I’ve done, there is always something that can be improved and don’t mind being mindful of that.

Experience the residual handle water effect for lack of a better term but better that than risk ruining an expensive brush by shaking. Over the years have also read a few articles by brush experts urging same.

Too lazy to pull out my Thater box or Da Vinci boxes right now, but I’ve found they include some of the most comprehensive instructions on brush care out there.

Pre shave I saturate the bristles under the tap. Give a gentle side to side shake and lather. 

Post shave I used to 'snap' the brush as if cracking a whip 10 times.

Now I do the same pre shave gentle shake a few times, then a couple of 'snaps' and hang the brush overnight.

I’ll edit to add that when I reference a shake I hold the handle and extend a finger or two beyond the rim and use them to support the bristles... so when I do a shake it’s kinda like it’s all one unit if that makes sense. I would caution holding the handle only and allowing a wet knot to flop and hinge on the handle. I have loosened a knot when I first started shaving by just holding the handle and vigorously shaking the knot.

Seeing such posts gives me a chance to reflect upon what I could do better, and in the future I will avoid shaking and just gently squeeze water out while making sure not to pull downward on the knot. That one I’ve always done. While I’ve never had problems with what I’ve done, there is always something that can be improved and don’t mind being mindful of that.

This really resonates with me. The mindfulness part. All of us do a great many things throughout the day by way of routine, because having to think through every detail every day would be a waste of brain processing power.

Yet sometimes, it can be a good idea to reconsider if a routine that we’ve developed is still serving us well, or if there’s a way to do it better. One of the things I like about wet shaving is that even after many years, I can be mindful of my shave and find some little way to make my next shave even better.

I can understand that shaking a wet brush might be unduly stressful to the hairs/bristles/fibers. I would never shake a wet brush right out of the soak. That is why I squeeze as much water from the brush as I can before shaking it.  I follow that practice whether it is a $10 synthetic or a premium white mountain badger brush. 

However, you can certainly do whatever you wish with your brushes. If you are fearful of shaking, you can always use a terry towel to dry the brush.

I am quite fond of the Bob Ross method of brush maintenance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRrIqpANihc

I give my pre-soaked brush one good shake before I load it.  A lot of water is expelled.  When I begin to load if need be, I can add more water instead of starting with a soaking wet brush.

The second question has been asked for ages and, is associated with "how do I dry my brush and should a use a brush stand"?  After I do my three passes I gently squeeze out much of the remaining lather.  I then run warm water over and use my fingers to get more of the lather out.  I then, take a large bowl and fill it with water and I swirl in many directions until all of the lather is gone.  Next I gently squeeze the water out of the brush, dump the water out of the bowl and do the same procedure again.  I then leave the brush submerged in the bowl upside down.  Now I clean up the bath room and get dressed which generally takes about 20 minutes.  I then take the bowl with the submerged brush outside and give it a hard shake.  Most of the water comes out and I then shake it a few time until I can not see and water flying in the air.  I stand the brush upside down and generally, the brush is almost dry in a few hours. We have very low humidity here (I have seen it a low as 2%).  However, most of the times it is in the 30's.  I have 17 brushes, all badger hair and by the time I make a rotation the brush is completely dry.  Badger is a natural hair.  When we get out of the shower we take a towel and attempt to dry our hair.  All we accomplish is getting ride of the residual (water that is clinging to the outside of the hair).  Natural hair absorbs water and the only way to make it 100% dry is let the dampness evaporate or use a hair dryer.  You do not have to hang upside down to dry your hair.

I assume you see I think brush stands are useless.