Who Else Smashes Their Brushes?

I am a "smasher" for two reasons:

1.  it helps initially to get lather under the hairs thereby lifting them

2.  95% of the time I use a Cashmere synthetic with lots of splay


I do admit that after building the lather on my face as such I then delicately "paint" the final coat. It works damn well and synthetic brushes are cheap (if I wear one out).

Those abbreviations are really tough for non native speakers. CCW means counter clock wise? CW means clock wise?

br
godek

I'm an unrepentant smasher, too. Like BPman I prefer a cashmere synthetic, which offers plenty of splay. Smashing and mashing it requires no effort and leads to no guilt or sorrow. After all, it cost less than $20, and after a year's rank abuse, it still looks and acts like it just came out of the box. If a hole appears in a few years, I'll get another and treat it just as barbarously as I did the first.

Those abbreviations are really tough for non native speakers. CCW means counter clock wise? CW means clock wise?

br
godek

Yes sir!  Sorry that's a good point I'll try to keep in mind.

I'm an unrepentant smasher, too. Like BPman I prefer a cashmere synthetic, which offers plenty of splay. Smashing and mashing it requires no effort and leads to no guilt or sorrow. After all, it cost less than $20, and after a year's rank abuse, it still looks and acts like it just came out of the box. If a hole appears in a few years, I'll get another and treat it just as barbarously as I did the first.

From lamp black Somerset Simpsons to recent Varlet’s I have used them all. The 30mm ApShaveCo Cashmere set to a 59mm loft easily matches, and mostly surpasses, all of them. 

Smashing and mashing them is a joy and they are easily replaced. 

I definitely push my brushes down on my face. I dare not call it smashing as I don’t feel the plastic handle against my skin or anything. I just splay the knot for coverage and use a circular and figure 8 pattern to lather. The painting technique to cover my face. I like my synthetic ones for this a lot. The badger gets a little gentler treatment but the cheap boar knot gets abused and will be replaced eventually.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Those abbreviations are really tough for non native speakers. CCW means counter clock wise? CW means clock wise?

br
godek

The abbreviations are difficult for native speakers, as well, because there are just too many of them, everywhere. I had never heard of these, before.

I'm an unrepentant smasher, too. Like BPman I prefer a cashmere synthetic, which offers plenty of splay. Smashing and mashing it requires no effort and leads to no guilt or sorrow. After all, it cost less than $20, and after a year's rank abuse, it still looks and acts like it just came out of the box. If a hole appears in a few years, I'll get another and treat it just as barbarously as I did the first.

I'm in the " it's just a tool camp" I've never worried about wearing one out
the ones I collect I never use LOL

I'm an unrepentant smasher, too. Like BPman I prefer a cashmere synthetic, which offers plenty of splay. Smashing and mashing it requires no effort and leads to no guilt or sorrow. After all, it cost less than $20, and after a year's rank abuse, it still looks and acts like it just came out of the box. If a hole appears in a few years, I'll get another and treat it just as barbarously as I did the first.

I'm in the " it's just a tool camp" I've never worried about wearing one out
the ones I collect I never use LOL

I wouldn't say that I'm a non-smasher because I'm afraid of damaging the brush.  I'm a non-smasher because that's the technique I like and that works for me.  Its just a bonus that it also keeps brushes in good shape.  Furthermore, having worked as a carpenter in a previous career, tools were respected. No doubt that the block plane I carried in my tool belt may have seen harder use than my bench planes, but it was never abused and always sharp.  Kept in good repair and treated well those tools will last forever.  Now a shaving brush has a more "consumable" aspect to it for sure.  No knot, however well treated, will last forever though, and if you have enough of them and cycle through most, they will still last a long time.

i could be wrong but i dont think they smashing it like you think. it just seems like that because most of them record themselves with their phones and the focus n other things sucks.