Question on Synthetic vs Boar ease of lathering

Chris,

I think this comes down to nature.  Natural hair by it's composition, is made to repel and shed a certain amount of "debris", oil, etc.  Think of a dogs coat or a horses coat when you wash them.  It takes a lot of water and rubbing in of shampoo or oil to get that material in the hair because the hair itself has properties designed to resist foreign material.  Synthetic brushes however, are designed to soak up material with ease, think of makeup brushes here.  They are specifically engineered to accept a material for application.  Shaving brushes out of necessity back in the day were made of the materials they had at hand (animal hair: boar, badger, horse, etc).... but, there is a reason you don't see boar and badger make up brushes in your wife's medicine cabinet because synthetics do a better job of accepting the material for which they are applying.

I think the opposite might be true.   Natural fibers are absorbent, so soap and water have a tendency to stick to the hair.  Hence boar and badger have to become really saturated with product before they can be coaxed to release it.  Synthetics, on the other hand are hydrophobic,  so less product is needed to saturate the brush and that product releases more readily.

.

I could get into a pissing match; but, I won't. I encourage you do a little research on animal hair and their propensity to repel water. Any mammal that spends a large time in the water has hair that naturally repels water and this even varies by species.  There is a reason I duck hunt with my Labrador Retriever and not my Boston Terrier.  His hair is different in composition because he was bred that way and genetically needs to be able to retrieve things in the water, the Boston Terriers coat need not have this functionality, so it doesn't!  Mammal hair is made to repel water in many species.  Theretofore, it takes a lot of water to saturate the "coat" containing the hairs.  I've trapped and killed many of badgers, bobcats, and shot many of raccoons in my day.  All of these coats on these animals are designed to repel water so the species can survive the climate and topography in which they live.  Don't take my word for it though read some trapping books there is also a reason certain hairs and feathers are used in the art of fly tying while some are not.  You can't have a fly made of material that absorbs a huge amount of water or the fly will sink, rendering it useless as the fly must stay above, or barely above the water to be effective.

Hence why you need to soak natural hair brushes for a few minutes before using them. Synthetics only need a quick dip before use.

Soaps are typically alkaline in pH, whereas animals tend to be more neutral, around a pH of 7.3. Perhaps there is a pH difference between natural vs synthetic fibers that has an effect?
-Chris

I have found the inability of my boar brush to load soap too much of a hassle for me.  In fact, i loaded the brush for almost 2 minutes on Friday and still never had enough soap to make a lather on my face. I was attempting to load Stirling Barbershop. My synth was loaded and ready to lather in about 10-15 seconds. The brush I'm referring to has about 40 uses now and I can't find a reason to want to use it again. It only leads to frustration. I don't know why; but, I just can't get my boar to accumulate enough soap to generate a lather.

Pretty close to my experience.  I had a member on another forum PIF me an Omega S Brush.  I was amazed at the difference.  I thought it was just a hard water issue.  Nope, it was a brush issue.  I was getting decent lathers with my boars, but almost instantly got great lather from my synthetic.

+1---I have given up on boars and went back to synths and badger. I can't get the boars to hold enough lather. I do a 3 pass shave and than head-shave and with my shavemac 2-band and synts I don't have this problem. I just put my 620 in the closet today and I am going to order a chubby 2 synth to take its place.

Easy folks.... Be kind


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Well... I've always used boar brushes, ever since I started shaving and I find no trouble in making lather with them.
Badgers and synthetics are just a bit quicker, that's all...

Personally, I have no issues with badger, boars and synthetics and can coax wonderful lather from all of them, in relatively, the same amount of time. However, 2-Band badgers are my preferred brushes.

Exactly, celestino.
At the end, it's only a matter of personal preference.