Brushes

Shaving Brushes

In an age when shaving foam can be squirted from a can, a shaving brush might sound anachronistic. But if you want a luxurious, smooth shave with thick, rich lather, a shaving brush is essential.
Like all accessories, a huge variety of brushes is available, with a correspondingly huge range of prices. How do you choose the right one?
Not to worry! Amazing Shaving has a brush to suit every wallet and lather every beard.
Shaving brushes are made with synthetic or natural bristles. Synthetic bristles do not meet our standards for performance, so we do not carry them. Natural brushes may be either boar bristle or badger. Or a bristle/badger blend.
The job of the shaving brush is to whip up a rich lather. The better the quality of the brush, the more water it will whip into the lather. The bristles aerate the water and soap to form the lather. The lather is used to lubricate and protect the skin during shaving. The bristles also mildly exfoliate the skin.
Better-quality brushes more thoroughly wet the beard and the skin, more effectively distribute the lubrication provided by your lather, and, generally, aid you in achieving a smoother, closer shave.

Choosing Your Brush

Boar bristles are thicker, stiffer and hold less water than badger brushes. They are also less expensive.

Most badger bristles are obtained from China, where badgers are plentiful and are commonly hunted.

Amazing Shaving offers several varieties of badger brushes. At the lower end of the price and luxury scale, we offer pure badger shaving brushes. These are made from  the bristles on the badger’s back. Pure badger brushes tend to be the stiffest of the badger brushes, and the bristles have a dark color.

Next in line are our deluxe badger shaving brushes. These are a good middle-of-the-road brush choice. Deluxe badger bristles exhibit white tips and a dark band toward the brush handle.

Our top-of-the-line brushes are silvertip badger. These are made using the very soft white bristles from the badger’s neck. The bristles have a smaller dark band near the brush handle.  The bristles’ flared tips make them supremely efficient at absorbing and spreading water and lather, leading to a heavenly feel when used.

Shaving brushes come in varying sizes and with many different styles of handle. These variations, as well as the bristle type, determine the brush’s price. Selection of size and handle style is a matter of personal taste. Your brush should fit comfortably and feel good in your hand. Bristles should be tightly packed.

The diameter of the bristles at the handle end is called “knot size.” This is used to measure how large the brush is. Larger knot-sized brushes more easily create larger amounts of lather but are sometimes hard to use on smaller faces. Once again, the size of your brush is a matter of personal preference.

Use your brush to create lather, to lather the skin, and to add moisture and lather during the shave. If the lather becomes dry ,the razor stops cutting.

Proper care will ensure that your brush provides years of service. After shaving, rinse your shaving brush with warm water until all the lather has been removed. Flick out the excess water. Store the brush with bristles down if you have a wooden handle. A shaving stand offers the ideal place to hang your shaving brush to air dry.