Brush Cleaning

Went looking for some info and found this OLD thread. Figured I'd revive it for 2023.

I'm thinking I need to clean my brushes, considering they've never had a cleaning. All are synthetics. I believe I do have hard water. My question... Can I just use dish detergent or should I get a brush cleaner? I see PAA and Zingari make one, fwiw.

Thanks folks.

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Hey Paul. This is just my take on it, anecdotal only. I have slightly hard water, enough so that shave soaps made by artisans form soap scum in my sink. Commercial soaps (hand, hair, or shave gels) do not do this. My thinking is that for scents, baby shampoo or mild dish detergent is the right idea. But for build up, a different approach is needed. 

At the time last year that I decided I needed to remove possible build up, I was unaware of the Zingari Man cleaner. I purchased the PAA one. I have recently cleaned all my brushes with it, as I have embarked on using only distilled water to soak or wet the brushes in prior to building and applying lather. I sill rinse the brush under running tap water. So far, things are going very well. I should note, though, that I wasn't seeing any drop in performance with synthetics or badgers, but only in boars. Between using the PAA cleaner (follow the directions for best results!!) and using distilled water for the soak, the boars have greatly improved and now hold lather for 3 passes, whereas prior to cleaning I had to return to the puck for every re-lather. 

Is scum still forming on the bristles, since I am using tap water to rinse? Maybe, but it would have to be slight. It does make me think that maybe I should do an after rinse dunk in the distilled water just for the reason of that water having no "hardness" to be left on the bristles. 

Hope that can help!

Ahh. Thanks for the info. I personally don't have any formation on the bristles, but I get a lot in the sink. One of the brushes I've used often, my Fluffy brush, is more pokey than normal. I'm guessing it's buildup giving the tips an armor coating of sorts... Maybe. Figure it's worth cleaning since I've never cleaned them.

I'll probably try Zingari as I'm a big fan of their unscented soaps. Though PAA makes some good products too. Also, I think Frank does a brush cleaner now?

Decisions decisions.

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