Can you thoroughly clean your brush too much?

[IAMSPARTACUSRTY]

Just curious if you there is a limit to how many times a year one should thoroughly clean their brushes, specifically animal fur brushes?

I see YTers say once or twice a year, but let's say you wash it with dawn and condition (hair conditioner) it every couple months, would that damage the brush?

 

[malocchio]

Just curious if you there is a limit to how many times a year one should thoroughly clean their brushes, specifically animal fur brushes?

I see YTers say once or twice a year, but let's say you wash it with dawn and condition (hair conditioner) it every couple months, would that damage the brush?

Shaving brushes are made to get wet even on a daily basis if you only have one brush . "Cleaning " a brush and disinfecting a brush are 2 different things . I give my brushes a 3 minute dip in properly diluted Mar-V-Cide or Barbicide every 60 days . For a thorough cleaning and conditioning I use "SHIP-SHAPE " twice a year , mainly for the conditioning of the hair .

 

[brucered]

Shaving brushes are self cleaning and come with a built in razor stand.

Neither are needed.

The only time I would consider throughout cleaning a brush is if it was used. Even then, I would be careful what I use.

 

[IAMSPARTACUSRTY]

Okay so any conditioning beyond twice a yeah is unnecessary and overkill. Thanks guys. I appreciate the feedback.

 

[brucered]

Okay so any conditioning beyond twice a yeah is unnecessary and overkill. Thanks guys. I appreciate the feedback.

Twice a year IS unnecessary and overkill.

 

[Tanuki]

I will just say that soap is probably sufficient. I used a strong hairdresser's disinfectant (similar to and slightly stronger than Barbicide) on a vintage boar. The knot has never had the same backbone.

That said, a small worm fell out of the knot, freshly killed by the 'Salon Care'. I probably could have washed him out with a thorough soap or detergent washing and a strong rinse.

 

[Rudy Vey]

You also can do major damage to a brush!!
Here is was just happened to one of mine. I made a customer a brush from Bog Oak, resin stabilized by a professional company. Wood was too precious for me to do it myself, which I normally do.
Customer has a certain procedure he uses for all his new brushes. I list here what he told me:

"1) I soaked it for about 5 minutes in mildly warm water approximately halfway up the bristles.
2) I rinsed the bristles under mildly warm water for about 30 seconds to wash off any dust or residue.
3) I lathered the brush and then stood the brush upright with the lather on the bristles. I left the brush alone for a couple of hours with the lather on the bristles.
4) I thoroughly rinsed the soap out of the brush by holding the brush under mildly warm running water & ran my fingers through the bristles numerous times for a few minutes."

I would never recommend this procedure, it might be fine for a resin handled brush, but it is very bad for a wooden brush handle, even resin stabilized wood.
The soap/water mix. i.e. the lather, will wick into the knot, especially if the brush stands upright. The knot will swell a bit, and in this case the knot was a D01 three band knot, an extremely densely stuffed knot of very thin three band hair, which will swell quite a bit. So, the swell, only if a little, will crack the wooden handle!! This was a Keyhole style, where the top is pretty thin.
Also, do not forget, even while the wood is resin stabilized, it still has its grain directions, and these wooden brushes, unless they are made from burl wood, have the long grain facing up/down. So, the logically cracking appears along the grain.....

In all the years I have used wood, stabilized or not, this has never happened to me before. I have made a lot of Bog Oak brushes, but never had a customer reporting a similar issue.
The other fact is that with this procedure, you will introduce soap very deep into the knot itself. Soap does damage to hairs, especially the very thin three band hairs of a D01 knot. I also like to mention that the same customer had two prior knot failure, shedding, with also D01 three band knots. Whenever I cut these off, I saw the abundance of soap residues inside these knots.

To sum this up, I know now why the two earlier knots started to shed pretty fast after receipt, and I also know now why the wood cracked so fast, brush was not even used once for shaving.

So, please do not any of these obscure "cleaning" procedures for any shaving brush, it is not needed!!! The hair in the badgers I use is cleaned, and sterilized before it is made into a knot. So, do what I do with any new brush I get: wet it, lather up with some cream in your hand, rinse out very well with warm water and the brush is ready for use.
I also do not see the need to regularly clean a brush: you clean it every time you use it with soap, i.e. making lather, and after use you rinse all the lather (soap, cream) out!! Let run the water into the knot from the top and "milk" the knot, meaning squeezing frequently, like one would milk a cow.

I also posted this in my vendor forum with a picture.

 

[IAMSPARTACUSRTY]

Twice a year IS unnecessary and overkill.

Okay. Thanks. I tend to get OCD when I get new items that are typically more expensive than something I would normally buy. I automatically go into, "I need this to last forever" mode. I'll dial it down and follow the advice here.

 

[Omega48]

Isn't the shaving soap that we use while shaving, good enough already for keeping the brush clean and for sanitizing it?

 

[Omega48]

...
I also do not see the need to regularly clean a brush: you clean it every time you use it with soap, i.e. making lather, and after use you rinse all the lather (soap, cream) out!! Let run the water into the knot from the top and "milk" the knot, meaning squeezing frequently, like one would milk a cow.

Oh! I see now that my question was already answered before I posted it, thanks .
That is what I have always doing.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

No, brushes are not self cleaning.

I think some of it depends on water qualities.

Before I started adjusting water in a mug for my brush with citric acid, I used to suffer a lot of build up/deposits on my brushes. It didn't matter how much I rinsed, there would be noticeable deposits at the base of the knot. I think that was a primary cause in why I was suffering short brush life.

Here's an example from before I started adjusting the water.





Periodically, I would clean the brush with a clarifying shampoo, which did do a good job of degunking it, however, it would always return quite soon after.

I don't suffer that build up at all now, since adding citric acid to my brush water. I also tweaked how I rinse the brushes too. Instead of holding them bristles up under a running tap (I can't correct water chemistry that way), I now "bowl lather" them submerged under the adjusted water in a lather mug.





This helps "work" the bristles, to better let the adjusted water flush the depths of the knot.

 

[luvmysuper]

I have never cleaned a brush of mine specifically, and have never had any issue with any brush.
I do wash it with soap and water every time I use it. It's inevitable as you are using soap and water with it.
What is likely more important than cleaning a brush is ensuring that it is thoroughly rinsed out well after use.
What people are "cleaning" from their brushes is residual soap from not being thoroughly rinsed.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

I have never cleaned a brush of mine specifically.
I do wash it with soap and water every time I use one. It's inevitable.
What is likely more important than cleaning a brush is ensuring that it is thoroughly rinsed out well after use.
What people are "cleaning" from their brushes is residual soap from not being thoroughly rinsed.

Here is the full extent of the rinsing I was doing before I started adding citric acid...

After lathering for my final pass, I would drop my brush into the sink water, and leave it there to soften any soap deep in the knot, while I shaved that final pass. (I should add that I rinse my razor in a second mug, so there was no added detritus from the sink water).

I still do this.

Instead of just rinsing the soap off my face by hand, I paint water on with the brush. Dunk, paint, dunk, paint, dunk, paint, until the face is entirely clear of soap. This minimises splashing water everywhere, and also helps work the knot, and provisionally flush it through.

I still do that too.

Then I would do the flush under a running tap with bristles upwards, working the knot with my fingers as I did so. There was no reasonable excuse for any soap being left in the knot, and yet I still suffered the build up as shown in the pics a couple of posts up.

Switching this final step to a mug rinse in adjusted water made all the difference.

EDIT: I should also add that after thorough rinsing, the brush always looked perfectly clean. It was only as the brush dried that those bright deposits became apparent.

 

[Omega48]

I think some of it depends on water qualities.

Good point. I am lucky, where I live tap water always measures 40-45 TDS.

 

[luvmysuper]

Here is the full extent of the rinsing I was doing before I started adding citric acid...

After lathering for my final pass, I would drop my brush into the sink water, and leave it there to soften any soap deep in the knot, while I shaved that final pass. (I should add that I rinse my razor in a second mug, so there was no added detritus from the sink water).

I still do this.

Instead of just rinsing the soap off my face by hand, I paint water on with the brush. Dunk, paint, dunk, paint, dunk, paint, until the face is entirely clear of soap. This minimises splashing water everywhere, and also helps work the knot, and provisionally flush it through.

I still do that too.

Then I would do the flush under a running tap with bristles upwards, working the knot with my fingers as I did so. There was no reasonable excuse for any soap being left in the knot, and yet I still suffered the build up as shown in the pics a couple of posts up.

Switching this final step to a mug rinse in adjusted water made all the difference.

EDIT: I should also add that after thorough rinsing, the brush always looked perfectly clean. It was only as the brush dried that those bright deposits became apparent.

Sorry to hear you have difficulty.
I've lived in areas that have extremely hard water to areas that have relatively soft water for years in each location. I've never had an issue.
My personal belief is that barring some strange compound in ones water, a thorough rinsing is all that is necessary.
I suppose that if you have visual build up on a brush, then it's likely that action needs to be taken, regardless of the root cause. Action necessary as indicated by the visual build up.
I know that there are people out there (I've seen pics here) who are using chemicals to clean brushes that really don't need to have a chemical cleaning done, and just go by the idea that "Hey! it's been six months, or it's been a year... I need to clean my brush!"
No, you don't.

 

[Quaznoid]

In 50 years of shaving I’ve never cleaned a brush. I rinse out the soap in the sink and hang it to dry. That’s it.

 

[luvmysuper]

In 50 years of shaving I’ve never cleaned a brush. I rinse out the soap in the sink and hang it to dry. That’s it.

Ditto!
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go out and change the air in all the tires in our cars.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Sorry to hear you have difficulty.
I've lived in areas that have extremely hard water to areas that have relatively soft water for years in each location. I've never had an issue.
My personal belief is that barring some strange compound in ones water, a thorough rinsing is all that is necessary.
I suppose that if you have visual build up on a brush, then it's likely that action needs to be taken, regardless of the root cause. Action necessary as indicated by the visual build up.
I know that there are people out there (I've seen pics here) who are using chemicals to clean brushes that really don't need to have a chemical cleaning done, and just go by the idea that "Hey! it's been six months, or it's been a year... I need to clean my brush!"
No, you don't.

The water here varies wildly in composition, depending whether they are pulling it from surface sources or aquifers. As such, I wasn't noticing that build up all the time, but when it hit, it could hit hard. I think those pics I chucked up earlier were only a week or so after a deep clean of the brush.

As I mentioned above, the biggest problem is that the build up wasn't as profoundly noticeable until the brush dried. As such, you never knew whether you had done enough, until the limescale (or whatever it is), had dried out too. It was so infuriating to know you'd spent time and effort thoroughly (supposedly) flushing a brush, only to see that on it the following day.

I completely agree on the "if it ain't broke don't fix it till it is broke" mindset. My preventative action might not always be needed, or might not necessarily be enough, due to water fluctuations. There is the risk that the water may be too acidic on some days, but overall, it has helped immensely.

 

[rockrabbit]

Razor Emporium- Clean a Brush

YouTube link on cleaning a brush by someone in the industry

thoughts?

 

[luvmysuper]

I have used plain bath soap on my hair for decades instead of shampoo.
My hair is in excellent condition. There is no "build up" on my hair.
I rinse my hair thoroughly after I wash it. I don't use clarifying shampoo or anything else to get rid of "build up" on my hair, because there isn't any there. Why?
Because I rinse my hair (just like my brushes) thoroughly.