Will a "Scritchy" brush always be scritchy?

[craig94yj]

Good Ladies and Gentlemen,

In your experiences does a scritchy brush ever soften up or should I just move on? Thank you in advance for your contributions.

 

[sychodelix]

If it's badger, no. If it's boar, it should soften up.

 

[deruitem]

A boar will for sure! A badger will to some extent but not a lot. If you look at a finest for example after some use the tips will somtimes for a little hook, makes the tips less scritchy. You will not get a night and day type of change though

 

[craig94yj]

It's the VDH Pure Badger. I alternate it in my rotation, but the VDH boar is nice and soft and the badger remains scritchy.

 

[Loric]

The VDH Pure is always going to be skritchy I'm afraid.

 

[cb91710]

Pure even more than best or higher grade.

Remember the basic structure of a "pure" is the knot is trimmed to shape, rather than the natural tips being aligned into the fan or bulb.

 

[Le Buzz]

I have a best badger about 2years old and still scritchy. In my limited experience badger brushes don't lose scritch, I don't think the tips split as boars do.

 

[craig94yj]

Pure even more than best or higher grade.

Remember the basic structure of a "pure" is the knot is trimmed to shape, rather than the natural tips being aligned into the fan or bulb.

Thank you for the education.

 

[celestino]

If it's badger, no. If it's boar, it should soften up.

+1

 

[CHSeifert]

I have been given some advice by very experienced shavers, including Teiste and a lot of the more experienced users in here on B&B - especially owners of the Shavmac 2-Band D01, and they all say that fir instance my D01 2-Band WILL soften up some after 25-30 shaves.
While I don't know whether they are right or wrong, I have no reason to not believe they know what they are talking about - so in their views, certain type of badger, or maybe all type of badger hair, will tend to soften up after continued use.

 

[ackvil]

To help a badger brush that is scritchy I apply a tiny bit of hair conditioner to the bristles, gently massage it in, let it stand for a few minutes, and then wash it out. I do this every few months and whenever I clean a brush. It seems to help.

 

[auk1124]

I have a black badger that is beyond scritchy, into poke-your-eye-out territory. I used it every day for 4 or 5 months and the pokiness/scritch really toned down over that time. And it became a really good brush - good backbone, still a bit of scritch but nothing like it was before, and it became a soap-devouring monster.

I think the scritchier grades of badger were originally intended to be used every day. I think by rotating multiple brushes we are losing the potential that these scritchier grades of badger may have.

 

[CHSeifert]

To help a badger brush that is scritchy I apply a tiny bit of hair conditioner to the bristles, gently massage it in, let it stand for a few minutes, and then wash it out. I do this every few months and whenever I clean a brush. It seems to help.

Thanks for the tip - I will try that on my D01 2-Band Shavemac

 

[craig94yj]

I have used shampoo and conditioner to get rid of the initial smell and to soften it up. I will continue to use it to see if it gets any better. Thank you everyone for your input.