Anticipating my increased travel schedule this Summer, I purchased two inexpensive brushes to try: A Parker Synthetic in white and a Vie-Long 13710 Horse Hair. Each arrived in basic plastic packaging.
The Vie-Long is the very inexpensive version with a molded plastic "maroon" colored handle(actually brownish-red). "20mm knot and 51mm loft"
It was very dirty and reeked of ungroomed horse, but cleaned up well, thanks to the suggestions from you members. Lost a lot of hairs in the early going. The ends of the bristles are fairly soft and comfortable. It isn't exactly floppy---well, OK, it is. I like the feeling of the hairs It just seems that the loft is just too high for these hairs, and that it would benefit greatly from shortening the loft and possibly packing the knot more tightly (maybe they are more densely packed on the more expensive ones?). I could see this working very well if those two factors were improved. It therefore lathers soap of creams well in a bowl, but is a mess for face lathering. I may try the O-Ring trick to see if I can effectively shorten the loft and tighten up the knot. Also, it seems to take much longer to dry than my badgers. (Savile Row 3824, Rooney Super 3/1)
The Parker is my first synthetic brush, so hopefully Siv will do his comparative review for you. It looks good, with a traditional-looking ivory-colored handle, though the decal rubs off easily. The bristles tips are soft on the face, and the shafts have a very springy quality. Not stiff and not floppy, but different from any natural-hair brush I have used. It lathers soap and cream easily either on the face or in a bowl, but not in the way that a silver-tip can. We are talking about a $19 brush here.
This morning, I face-lathered using a Valobra stick and had just enough to do a three-pass shave. It both rinses out and dries very quickly. So this may be the traveler.
I would enjoy any comments and education about how these compare for those of you who have more experience with this.
JR
The Vie-Long is the very inexpensive version with a molded plastic "maroon" colored handle(actually brownish-red). "20mm knot and 51mm loft"
It was very dirty and reeked of ungroomed horse, but cleaned up well, thanks to the suggestions from you members. Lost a lot of hairs in the early going. The ends of the bristles are fairly soft and comfortable. It isn't exactly floppy---well, OK, it is. I like the feeling of the hairs It just seems that the loft is just too high for these hairs, and that it would benefit greatly from shortening the loft and possibly packing the knot more tightly (maybe they are more densely packed on the more expensive ones?). I could see this working very well if those two factors were improved. It therefore lathers soap of creams well in a bowl, but is a mess for face lathering. I may try the O-Ring trick to see if I can effectively shorten the loft and tighten up the knot. Also, it seems to take much longer to dry than my badgers. (Savile Row 3824, Rooney Super 3/1)
The Parker is my first synthetic brush, so hopefully Siv will do his comparative review for you. It looks good, with a traditional-looking ivory-colored handle, though the decal rubs off easily. The bristles tips are soft on the face, and the shafts have a very springy quality. Not stiff and not floppy, but different from any natural-hair brush I have used. It lathers soap and cream easily either on the face or in a bowl, but not in the way that a silver-tip can. We are talking about a $19 brush here.
This morning, I face-lathered using a Valobra stick and had just enough to do a three-pass shave. It both rinses out and dries very quickly. So this may be the traveler.
I would enjoy any comments and education about how these compare for those of you who have more experience with this.
JR
