Boar brushes popularity

Only have badger but will get a boar one day. I'm sure I will love it.

I've always loved boars, but alas, I was bitten by the badger bug not long ago. Currently I only have 1 boar in my rotation, a RazorRock blonde boar in Olive wood.

I had a 22mm Zenith boar in faux tortoise, but I sacrifice the knot. I plan on reusing the handle very soon to remedy a heartbreaking loss in my rotation...

I agree with celestino that boars may not have the bells and whistles of badger. They feel more like a tool, but sometimes I wonder if in our search for that scrubby massage, soft tips, and backbone, we don't waste a lot of time and money trying different badger knots until we find one, or several, that actually suits us well. I've found that my boar brushes have achieved this quite easily, almost from the very beginning. And this, at a very reasonable price without sacrificing aesthetics. The Semogue 1305, for example, is must in any collection, IMHO.

Couldn't get a decent picture this morning and was running short of time. I'll upload it as soon as I can.

I've only been wet shaving for 10 months, so I'm still learning the differences between boar-badger-synthetic. I like using the few boar brushes I have and just got the new sterling soap co boar brush, but they don't give me the lather the badger and synthetic brushes produce. Do you think boar require loading more soap?

I love my boar brushes and have several. Semogue 1305, SOC and 2000 are all excellent. I initially didn't think much of boar until I clued in that they needed soaking and break in and then it opened a whole new world to me. There was a bit of problem a while back on the leisure guy blog over the 1305 - I and a few others had expressed our positive experiences with it but LG said he hated it, to his credit he gave it another go and then confirmed his initial opinion even going so far as throwing the brush out - I thought he was pretty uncharitable in his comments on the 1305. I haven't been able to understand how our experiences with the 1305 could be so different. One thought I had was that back when I was first using boar brushes I was also a bowl latherer. I was using a Dirty Bird scuttle that has fairly coarse grooving in the bottom - so coarse that I won't bowl lather in it with any of my badger brushes for fear of damaging them. Its possible that this abrasiveness may have accelerated the boar bristle break in. I think it would take a fair amount of face lathering to achieve the soft, split ends I was able to achieve on my boar brushes in a reasonably short period of time.

Boar brushes also are great value - reasonably priced. That said I have found that when the various vendors put out a really budget priced boar, they're often not the greatest knot. Really excessive shedding can be a problem and I'd rather just avoid those.

I've only been wet shaving for 10 months, so I'm still learning the differences between boar-badger-synthetic.  I like using the few boar brushes I have and just got the new sterling soap co boar brush, but they don't give me the lather the badger and synthetic brushes produce.  Do you think boar require loading more soap?

I don't think boars need more soap, it might be a function of whether or not you've soaked the brush enough before lathering. Minimum 10-15 minutes in a mug of warm (not hot) water. Also, when you first get them wash them with soap (i use sunlight dish soap) and rinse them well. The break in period can be pretty long if you're a face latherer, as long as a month of daily uses which is a long time with an under performing brush but if you're patient you'll have an excellent brush at some point. I mentioned above that I broke in my boars using a shaving scuttle with a coarse textured pattern in the bottom and I think that allowed me to accelerate the break in of my boar brushes.

Good luck

I started with boar because I was looking for an inexpensive shave. My first terrible boar (VDH kit brush) didn't dissuade me from the fiber and I soon found Semogue boars, then Omega. Somewhere in there I found over 100 boars at a liquidation store, and they appeared to be quite good. They were $.50 per and I bought every one of them. I sold them on another forum for what I paid plus shipping. I figured if the brush I put into my rotation lasts even a short time I got my $ worth. I'm still using it today many years later.

I use boar, badger, horse, and synthetic. They all work and boars will always have a spot in my shave den. They may be inexpensive, but that doesn't mean that they are lacking in performance.

BTW, Just yesterday I started my brush rotation all over again, and the boars are up. My rotation goes boar, horse, synthetic, then badger, and then it begins all over again working from left to right on the shelf.

I've only been wet shaving for 10 months, so I'm still learning the differences between boar-badger-synthetic.  I like using the few boar brushes I have and just got the new sterling soap co boar brush, but they don't give me the lather the badger and synthetic brushes produce.  Do you think boar require loading more soap?

I don't think they require more product, but I'm sure they do require more soaking. 10 minutes is the absolute minimum, provided you use them on a regular basis. If you don't, think half an hour as the minimum, and to be honest, if there is a boar brush I haven't used for some time (make that a couple of weeks, for example), I leave them overnight in cold water, being careful enough to keep the water level at least 1 cm (or 0.4") below the handle. When I'm getting in the shower the next morning, I replace that cold water with warm water, and the brush is more than ready. The reason why boar brush tend to devour our lather or seem to require more product is that the bristles require more hydration. If they're not properly hydrated, they will tend to absorb your lather, hence that feeling that boar brushes need more product or that they "eat" our lather. . Once that is sorted out, they lather just fine. I agree, nonetheless, that a good badger brush, and especially a synthetic, will get your lather ready a bit quicker. You just can't have everything, can you? .

Started off with a 1305 as my first brush and absolutely loved it! Still love them all!

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I don't think they require more product, but I'm sure they do require more soaking. 10 minutes is the absolute minimum, provided you use them on a regular basis. If you don't, think half an hour as the minimum, and to be honest, if there is a boar brush I haven't used for some time (make that a couple of weeks, for example), I leave them overnight in cold water, being careful enough to keep the water level at least 1 cm (or 0.75") below the handle. When I'm getting in the shower the next morning, I replace that cold water with warm water, and the brush is more than ready. The reason why boar brush tend to devour our lather or seem to require more product is that the bristles require more hydration. If they're not properly hydrated, they will tend to absorb your lather, hence that feeling that boar brushes need more product or that they "eat" our lather. . Once that is sorted out, they lather just fine. I agree, nonetheless, that a good badger brush, and especially a synthetic, will get your lather ready a bit quicker. You just can't have everything, can you? .

I just wet my boar brushes under running tapwater for 10 seconds or so and start face-lathering even when I haven't used them in many months.