Badger brushes

Just looking for advice on cleaning badger brushes. Any help will be appreciated.

Hoping kehole or others with extensive knowledge advise

Tyro here using multi step organic pet shampoo and distilled white vinegar regimen. Surely there a better methodology

When a badger brush is new, if it has any animal funk, wash it a few times with shampoo and then create a lather in a mug or bowl using a highly scented soap or cream and leave it out over night. Rinse the brush the next morning. Repeat the process until the funk is gone. I use TOBS sandalwood for new badger brushes as it is a highly scented cream, but any soap with a strong scent will work..

If you have hard water, calcium salts of the fatty acids in the soap or cream you use will build up in the base of the knot. You can remove this by soaking the brush in vinegar. Try not to soak the handle of the brush, however, Do not soak it any longer than necessary to dissolve the soap scum.

Periodically, wash your brush in shampoo and then apply hair conditioner. Badger hair is much like human hair, so the same products that work on your head should work on your brush.

We all have different opinions on it. I can't recommend leaving a brush lathered overnight with anything. Especially a shaving soap or cream. It is acidic and it will eat away at the hair. Many a person has lost a brush prematurely due to terrible brush care. Here's looking at you grandpa. I think people make a bigger stink about brush stink than how bad it is, but that's just me. Out of hundreds of brushes I've only had it present in under 10 brushes. If it is bothersome, my take is lather up with it, rinse it out, and repeat a few times over day. It's the repeated drying and time that helps it go away. I've never had a brush have a smell past 2 shaves. A few had a faint odor on the second usage, but I do mean faint. 

What I have used for the care of my brushes is the QED USA's care instructions. 

As per their site:

"There are all kinds of methods for cleaning a brush. The issue really comes down to just what is it that you are trying to remove from the brush. Hard water scale? Fats (soap scum)? Two different problems. Here are some simple solutions.

Hard-water scale: Borax (commercially available 20 Mule Team Borax will do the trick). One teaspoon per 8oz of water, soak for 15 minutes, rinse thoroughly.

Fats (soap scum): Shampoo (yep, the same stuff you use on your head). Use a small amount of shampoo (preferably one containing Sodium Laurel Sulfate), lather away for 30 seconds or so, rinse thoroughly. Some men like to give a second shampoo, to insure a good cleansing. There are even men who apply a conditioner. Of course, the easiest solution to this problem is to thoroughly rinse your brush after each use so scum does not build up.

All purpose: First, soak the brush with dishwashing liquid (like Dawn) for about 5 minutes, to rid the brush of soap scum. Then in a solution of 1 part vinegar, 4 parts water, and a dash of glycerin, soak the brush for about 10 minutes, to strip hard-water scale build up and to condition the hair.

Some gents are not practicing good brush hygiene. I soak my brush in 120F+ water everyday before using it. I rinse, rinse, rinse the brush after use ensuring all soap is removed. In the last 5 or 6, or is it 12 or 15 years, I have cleansed brushes with borax twice. I have cleansed each NEW brush with shampoo and lightly conditioned it with conditioner prior to its first use. I think I have also shampooed and conditioned a brush or two on one or two other occasions. I keep them clean and do not have especially hard water with which to deal. - Author wishes to remain anonymous (excerpt from an actual email received by QED)

Personally I have used the all purpose for years. I have seen brush manufacturers say shampoo and conditioner is fine. I've seen people say the 4:1 water to vinegar ratio is too strong and they use a 1:10 vinegar/water ratio. I personally think it is too weak. I don't feel good about using borax for some reason I can't fully explain. I believe it is more to do with an image perception upon my part. I choose the all purpose as it feels like the best to me. I know vinegar rinses have been used for cleaning hair for some time, and figure if dawn can be used for cleaning animals in oil spills that's good enough for me. I've never bothered with conditioner, but have considered doing some recently to see if it helps with a brush I acquired recently whose hair isn't in the best shape it could be. Be prepared for a barrage of information and how people do it. My advice is pick out what you feel best from what you read.

My tips are try to use filtered or distilled water rather than hard tap water, don't use to hot of water, I try to keep it around 100F and no hotter than my finger if comfortable to handle if I put it in a mug of warm water. I also think you want to make sure the most important part for the health of the brush knot or base is to thoroughly rinse out any soap residue and then to shake out as much of the water after that. I haven't cleaned any of my brushes in long time but I attribute that more to my first tip regarding avoiding use with hard water (I'm in Los Angeles). That isn't to say that I think you are in trouble if you use the tap, that is a bad thing. I would refer to kooshman7 post above and have similar thoughts on brushes as him. He brought some great points in my opinion.

When one of my badgers need a cleaning, I take in the shower with me and shampoo it.

I have used conditioner as well, but don’t think it helps much.

We all have different opinions on it. I can't recommend leaving a brush lathered overnight with anything. Especially a shaving soap or cream. It is acidic and it will eat away at the hair. Many a person has lost a brush prematurely due to terrible brush care.

Where did you get your information that soaps and creams were acidic?  I hope that was just a misprint in your post. 

Soaps produced by reacting weak organic fatty acids with strong alkalies like sodium and potassium hydroxide. In such a situation, the result is an alkaline product since the strong alkali overpowers the weak organic acids. Most soaps range in pH between 8.0 and 10.0 which is alkaline. Sometimes a soapmaker will intentionally attempt to lower the pH of a soap closer to a neutral pH of 7.0 by adding a weak organic acid like citric acid and  lactic acid or an inorganic acid like boric acid. However, if the pH of the soap were to drop to the acidic side, you would no longer have a soap.

There are some "soaps" that tout themselves as pH balanced, but they are based on synthetic detergents rather than soap. Dove calls itself a "beauty bar" because it cannot be called a soap. It is based on Sodium Lauroyl Isethionate rather than soap as the foaming agent.  


I have heard of budget conscious shavers who use inexpensive soaps and inexpensive brushes who leave their brushes in the mug or bowl with their soap after shaving. They do not rinse the soap out of their brush because that would waste soap. I would not recommend doing that, but leaving lather in a new brush overnight to help remove the animal funk is not going to significantly reduce the life of the brush, at least not in my experience. There might be some minor damage to the brush, but I gladly accept that risk to speed up the break-in period.

Some gents are not practicing good brush hygiene. I soak my brush in 120F+ water everyday before using it. I rinse, rinse, rinse the brush after use ensuring all soap is removed. In the last 5 or 6, or is it 12 or 15 years, I have cleansed brushes with borax twice. I have cleansed each NEW brush with shampoo and lightly conditioned it with conditioner prior to its first use. I think I have also shampooed and conditioned a brush or two on one or two other occasions. I keep them clean and do not have especially hard water with which to deal. - Author wishes to remain anonymous (excerpt from an actual email received by QED)

Joe says it well.  His comments are worth re-reading.  One point especially (from the good folks at QED) bears repetition.  While I think 120+F is a bit too hot for badger hair, fully rinsing the brush immediately after every use is nevertheless essential to long brush life.  Rinsing can be a challenge, especially with hard water, but that can be addressed with either distilled water or periodic cleansing, as discussed above.  The larger point is: we've seen several brushes ruined, including a nearly new $300 M&F, that was lathered then left to dry without rinsing.  Quod erat demonstrandum.

Best wishes for a Happy & Safe Fourth!

In terms of the soap being acid based, acidic need not describe something acidic. It can also be used for something to describe something that has a corrosive effect, and of which soap drying inside a brush knot is shown to do. My source would be the various brushmakers who make this their livelihood off this. Even without them I’ve seen enough old vintage brushes and how they were treated to realize it isn’t a good idea. 

As to the length of time necessary to create appreciable damage, I’ve never been interested to find it out. I’m not concerned with breaking in a brush faster, and find it a bit of a fad. A boar benefits far more from it and even then I’m fine with using it as is, as with any brush. Anyone that wants to do it, that is fine. Just understand there are consequences to it.

I agree with Brad as well on the water, and if I recall right, Thater says specifically not to go over 104 degrees Fahrenheit, or 40 Celsius. It is much lower than that recommendation. I’ve heard the recommendation to treat badger as you would your own hair, but even that isn’t good advice if the person rinses their hair in very hot water.

There's been some good advice here, but I would just say that doing a neutral shampoo scrub a few times before using and then as you continue to use it with various soaps, it will continue to become cleaner. Nothing to stress much over, eventually, it will take the scent of your soaps and become a 'house brush.'