Do you have a favorite synthetic brush?

My Plissons are 4 currently. I have two from L'Occitane from before the label change where they added "Pour L'Occitane" or whatever to it. As was said above it is a real wood handle (though I forget what they claim it to be) with a laquer top coat (which in some can be a piss-poor effort). My other two are from Plisson in France with the acetate material; one is Pearly Gray & the other is Faux Horn.

To my senses the knots in all 4 are the same. I just prefer the extra heft, feel, & looks of the acetate handles over the wood ones.

Thanks for the clarification, Brian. All I know is that my Plisson Pour L'Occitane was an eye opener as to what synthetics could be.

The Plisson makes wonderful lather, but now there's there's ways to get that with some lovely backbone. My go to brush for the foreseeable future is this 22mm Whipped Dog synthetic. I believe it's the same knot that Nathan Clark uses in his custom synthetic offerings. I'll probably get myself a 30mm version for shaving my head.

I have a number of, as far as I know, either later generation or current generation of synthetic fibers. They range from TGN knotted brushes, a Franks Shaving, Muhle, a pearl grey Plisson, and a few Simpsons.

I get along nicely with them all, but there were a few surprises. The Plisson when I first handled it I thought, "You have got to be kidding me! I might not even bother trying this thing!". But I did and it's a very nice brush. Why did I think that? Well, my other synthetics have oodles of backbone and the Plisson was lacking in that, yet it's an excellent brush.

Today the 2 least favorite of my synthetics are the Franks Shaving and the Muhle. My favorite, to return to the topic and answer the question, has to be the Simpson CH2 with a 54mm loft. I tested a similar brush as a prototype and loved it then. When I was able to I bought it's twin. It has incredibly soft tips and plenty of backbone. The backbone can be off putting to some folks, but once one figures out how to use it it's just a fantastic brush. To compare the Plisson to the Simpson, well there is no comparison. That isn't to say the Plisson is bad, it's just a very different synthetic. Clearly Plisson and Simpson went in different directions with their synthetic brushes. They both work fine however.

Today the 2 least favorite of my synthetics are the Franks Shaving...

Brian, I have a Frank Shaving Synthetic brush and what I dislike most about it is that when lathering the soap, the bristles form huge doughnut holes.  Although the brush produced lather, I found the doughnut holes off-putting and just stopped using it.

I have an Omega S-brush, Whipped Dog 30mm synthetic, The Grooming Co., Plisson pour L'Occitane, and a Fine "Angel Hair" on the way.
My favorite so far is the TGC. I recently purchased the L'Occitane brush, and didn't care for it. I prefer the backbone on the TGC over the floppiness of the L'Occitane.
The WD is a good brush, as well. But it's taken a backseat to a Rooney 1/2 silvertip for lathering my head.


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I don't notice that so much with my FS brush. It's a monster, 28 x 54mm, the same size knot as the Simpsons. But it's just a tank in the hand, and maybe it's the glue bump, but I suspect it's just the fibers used, it feels "coarser" and not as nice on the skin. It looks and feels not as refined as the Simpsons. It simply lacks the quality. There is aword used in Maine, I have no idea if it's in use elsewhere... the brush is just gaumy.

I got mine before the price began escalating on them; I paid about $60. When I saw a month or so later that they were selling for close to Simpson price, well, it just isn't worth that IMO. I certainly wouldn't buy one at that price. I have no idea what they sell for today. But I wouldn't pay more than $60 for one with that knot.

Too, it came to me crammed into the box with no care whatsoever. It took quite a few uses before the fibers in the knot assumed the correct attitude and the "part" in the fibers disappeared. Clearly they just didn't care and it was a special request type of brush at the time. I still don't know if it's a catalogued brush.

I like my The Grooming Co but the first batch, Plisson and The Golden Nib 3 band.

The only two synthetics I've used are the Mühle Black Fibre and the L'Occitane Plisson. The Plisson is by far my favorite.

Wondering if anyone has used RazorRocks new synthetic brush over at italianbarber.com? How is it compared to a muhle, omega or plisson knot for example?

Is this the one you mean?

http://www.italianbarber.com/collections...brush-22mm

The price is certainly attractive but I know nothing about it other than what I just read.