Starter brush while C&E BB brush is out of stock?

This is my first experience wet-shaving since I recently realized that my Gillette Fusion isn't cutting it anymore.

Therefore, I just ordered myself a Merkur Heavy Classic razor and a tub of Taylor of Old Bond Street St. James shaving cream from Vintage Blade LLC and the DE Blade Sampler Packs from West Coast Shaving. Now all I need is a brush.

I was looking at the C&E Best Badger brush but they are out of stock locally and online. The lady at the store said they won't receive anything until May 15 and that is way too long to go without shaving as I'm on my last Fusion cartridge.

So what's a good starter brush to get instead of the C&E brush? I was going to get a cheap brush in the meantime until the C&E is in stock again but I realized that I could just spend that $10 on a better brush. I'm looking at about $45 including shipping.

I'm also interested in seeing what a good starting brush is. I am heading home this weekend (no C&E around here) to see if I can find that brush in the store. Hopefully it is there, but if not I will have to get something else. I'm looking to spend around $40, and I always hear Vulfix is good.

If your just starting out, i would say to buy the Tweezerman badger brush, then get the C&E BBB when they come back in stock, THEN purchase a higher end brush when you get the hang of it.

who knows, not everyone likes wet shaving, i would say to buy an inexpensive brush first just in case.

I recently bought a pure badger travel brush from C.O. Bigelow, which usually has expensive brushes, but the travel size was only 25$ and it works pretty well having a good velocity. It worked great for me for a few months untill I got a Savile Row Super Badger brush which works great and has an ok price tag.

I started with the Vulfix 2234 which (to me) was a very good starter brush. I have quite a few others now and no longer use it, but it certainly isn't a purchase that I regret.

On the other hand, if you just want to give things a test run, maybe try something really cheap like the Proraso Omega Boar brush... this is a decent brush (after the stink wears off) but you can certainly get better.

My first "real" brush was an inexpensive Savile Row from Charles at QED. He has a couple of pure badger brushes that are both high quality and easy on the wallet. Plus, you get to deal with an excellent business that provides customer service in spades. A word of caution, give him a call... don't attempt to complete your order through the website .

(Personally, I would order another soap, cream or AS at the same time just to "stretch" the shipping costs... but I'd probably do this with any online business )

rtheen said:

I recently bought a pure badger travel brush from C.O. Bigelow, which usually has expensive brushes, but the travel size was only 25$ and it works pretty well having a good velocity. It worked great for me for a few months untill I got a Savile Row Super Badger brush which works great and has an ok price tag.

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+1 (I just put together a starter set for one of my friends I'm trying to convert, and, so far he's very happy with that brush)

An option might be to call Lee at Lee's Razors or Charles at QED. Tell them the situation and that you wanted a C&E BBB but no stock is expected for a while. Tell them your range, ask what they recommend. They might have something that fits the bill they are looking to move and will give you a great deal.

Dennis