2-band advice for guys with sensitive skin

This advice is mostly for face latherer and people who would like to enjoy a rough 2-band badger brush.

I have a little advice for you guys out there, that like the backbone you get from the more rough 2-banders, but dislike if they feel a tad too scrubby, especially on 2.nd and 3.rd pass, where the skin is free from most of the protective beard stubbles..........

We all soak our badgers, or at least I do. Some fo the more soft badgers, don't really need a lot of soaking, if any - some just run them under the warm tap water.

I soak my softer badgers for 2-3 minutes in warm water, not hot water.

My trick for you guys, that feel the Manchurians and the Shavemac D01 2-band Silvertips are too rough is this.

Try to soak your 2-bander like it was a boar brush.

I soak my harder feeling denser 2-band brushes for 10+ minutes in warm water.
This really takes the scrubby feel away from the brush, and makes even very dense rough feeling 2-banders considerably softer in feel.

Try it, you may like it....in the end 

That trick didn't work for the Shavemacs D01 or the Simpson Manchurians that I had long, long ago, but it works great with my Rooney Finest brushes, which can be a tad scritchy at times. I tend to avoid scritchy brushes now.

i always soak all my brushes the entire time i'm in the shower, even my 2 band simpsons or shavemac 2 band silvertip. i may start soaking the latter for only a couple minutes, though. i think they could used some help in the backbone department.

(02-09-2016, 04:17 PM)chamm Wrote: That trick didn't work for the Shavemacs D01 or the Simpson Manchurians that I had long, long ago, but it works great with my Rooney Finest brushes, which can be a tad scritchy at times. I tend to avoid scritchy brushes now.

The latest batch of manchurian share a completely different story - amazing soft tips with fantastic backbone.

I guess just running it under warm tap water for 5-10 seconds the way I do won't help, then, right, Claus?

I do noticed that badgers tend to fully absorb the water after about 30 seconds or so.

Also, don't be afraid of a little more loft.  A lot of the gents here like 26mm 2-band bulbs set at 50mm or so, but try a smaller knot with more loft.  For bulbs, try 23x54 or 24x56.  For fans, try 24x50 or 23x48.


I also try not to use the scrubbiest brushes every day as it can irritate my skin.  I switch over to my 3-band quite often.

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

I tend to soak all my brushes for at least 5-10 minutes before using them. I agree that the scrubbier/scritchier a brush may be, the more benefit there is to a longer soak.

(02-10-2016, 08:00 AM)jarick Wrote: I do noticed that badgers tend to fully absorb the water after about 30 seconds or so

I did some some tests a while back and found that for badgers, it's around 60 - 120 seconds. The synthetic saturated very quickly (10-30 seconds as expected), while none of the brushes did well with the "quick wetting" method of holding the brush under the tap. I can post the results and graph if anyone is interested, but I didn't want to derail this thread too much.

Thanks mate, I will keep this in mind when I receive my 2 band shave mac.

Did this today with my D01 2 band just to see what the outcome would be and surprisingly it didn't feel like a brick wall of badger. There was decent backbone but no scritch and felt really good. I would imagine the hairs would soak up some of that water just like human hair gets dried out. Not going to be rubbing any Vidal Sassoon in it or nothing like that here soon but you get what I'm saying .

I used to soak my brushes religiously before the shave, but tend to just rinse them these days. In most cases, I don't feel a difference. But for knots with some scritch or scratch, I do agree that soaking can make them feel softer.

(02-09-2016, 08:42 PM)celestino Wrote: I guess just running it under warm tap water for 5-10 seconds the way I do won't help, then, right, Claus?

(02-10-2016, 06:30 PM)shevek Wrote: I used to soak my brushes religiously before the shave, but tend to just rinse them these days. In most cases, I don't feel a difference. But for knots with some scritch or scratch, I do agree that soaking can make them feel softer.

As said, my friends - I just gave the tip to people, who think their 2-bander are too rough.

If soaking them for 10 minutes doesn't help, then soak them for 15 minutes, in warm water, NOT HOT WATER.

And just make sure, that you don't soak the brush too high up in the bristles, so the glue in the knot will begin to absorb the water.

When I shave with one of my soft 3-bands and in a hurry, I often just wet the brush under the tap water, like Celestino says.

But preferably, I like to soak my soft badgers for at least 1-2 minutes.

Another tip that can help if you find something a bit too coarse for your liking is to start using more paintbrush strokes as opposed to circular strokes when face lathering.  Paintbrush strokes greatly reduce the coarseness of a brush.  This is also the method brush manufacturers recommend to use their brushes, most seem to discourage circular strokes on the face.  I used to only use circular strokes but have transformed to a combination of both.  I find the paint brush stroke to be very effective for tempering coarseness and building/applying lather.

This, when I began wet shaving,  was one of the hardest things for me to understand.  How can fur be irritating?   I mean, I can for sure tell the differences in grades but they are all fur.
I've grown up enough since then to know I'm just lucky. They are just fewer things that bother my face , much, much, fewer than do. Instead of the usual coarse tuff beard paired with sensitive skin I'm just the opposite. My beard, though heavy, isn't coarse and my skin, though ugly as hell, is far from sensitive............lucky

Claus, I'm disappointed in you.  You know full well that the answer is to buy one of these: