Have seen a few posts recently from members having issues with denser brushes, and specifically one on the front page re. the Simpsons Chubby.
For the last year or so I have used, to the exclusion of all else, a Chubby 1 and a Duke 2, both in Best. I have, during this time, interspersed use of brushes, badger and boar, described as 'dense', 'scrubby' etc etc. They have all disappointed me, and I realise I've found the brushes with the specs I love, and all other brushes I buy now are just for fun.
These dense brushes provide a unique sensory experience, but also, at least for me, make a better lather, and make it more readily. It must, however, be noted that using such a brush does indeed present some challenges, and as has been noted in the past, a 'Chubby dense' brush really is a unique and new experience, quite different from using a more loosely packed brush.
The first piece of advice you often get, when struggling with a new dense brush, is to 'use more product' - I disagree with this. The lather we shave with is just soap+water+air in a certain ratio, depending on our personal preferences - don't get hung up too much on completely filling every square millimetre of your brush/bowl with creamy lather - as long as the stuff on your face is good thats all that matters.
Use the same amount of product you usually do, but be aware it may look a little different here. A damp Chubby, with almost all the water shaken out of it, will still hold way more moisture than most 'average density' brushes. If we use the 'wetness' of our old brushes as a guage to how we use our denser ones, and leave it with some excess water still dipping when we begin to lather, we will indeed need to load and load more and more product, as there is just so much water contained in there that it needs several minutes loading to produce anything resembling lather.
When using my DUKE 2 with, say, GFT soaps, I will run the brush under the tap for ten seconds, let it drip, shake until all excess water is lost, swirl on the puck 40-50 times, and then lather on my face. No water is added from this point on. When using say, Cella, I will swirl a similarly damp brush 20-30 times and then face lather, perhaps slightly re-wetting the tips again at some point - some soaps are thirstier, of course, and Cella seems one of them.
The last point I'd make, which is actually about the beginning of the process, is that the tips of the brush load a good amount of soap from a puck without too much encouragement; you don't have to press down excessively. This is another mistake I initially made - like using too much water, I tended to think I had to compensate for the brush's muscularity by doing everything more - more water, more product, more pressure. But you don't. Just use gentle pressure - less than with other brushes, a more modest approach to loading the brush, and then enjoy the sensory overload of squishing that brush on your face and feeling it push back at you, while creating lather almost instantly. I know, not the conventional advice, but this is how I have gotten the best from these dense, scrubby-soft brushes, and can't see myself ever really using anything else
~Adam
For the last year or so I have used, to the exclusion of all else, a Chubby 1 and a Duke 2, both in Best. I have, during this time, interspersed use of brushes, badger and boar, described as 'dense', 'scrubby' etc etc. They have all disappointed me, and I realise I've found the brushes with the specs I love, and all other brushes I buy now are just for fun.
These dense brushes provide a unique sensory experience, but also, at least for me, make a better lather, and make it more readily. It must, however, be noted that using such a brush does indeed present some challenges, and as has been noted in the past, a 'Chubby dense' brush really is a unique and new experience, quite different from using a more loosely packed brush.
The first piece of advice you often get, when struggling with a new dense brush, is to 'use more product' - I disagree with this. The lather we shave with is just soap+water+air in a certain ratio, depending on our personal preferences - don't get hung up too much on completely filling every square millimetre of your brush/bowl with creamy lather - as long as the stuff on your face is good thats all that matters.
Use the same amount of product you usually do, but be aware it may look a little different here. A damp Chubby, with almost all the water shaken out of it, will still hold way more moisture than most 'average density' brushes. If we use the 'wetness' of our old brushes as a guage to how we use our denser ones, and leave it with some excess water still dipping when we begin to lather, we will indeed need to load and load more and more product, as there is just so much water contained in there that it needs several minutes loading to produce anything resembling lather.
When using my DUKE 2 with, say, GFT soaps, I will run the brush under the tap for ten seconds, let it drip, shake until all excess water is lost, swirl on the puck 40-50 times, and then lather on my face. No water is added from this point on. When using say, Cella, I will swirl a similarly damp brush 20-30 times and then face lather, perhaps slightly re-wetting the tips again at some point - some soaps are thirstier, of course, and Cella seems one of them.
The last point I'd make, which is actually about the beginning of the process, is that the tips of the brush load a good amount of soap from a puck without too much encouragement; you don't have to press down excessively. This is another mistake I initially made - like using too much water, I tended to think I had to compensate for the brush's muscularity by doing everything more - more water, more product, more pressure. But you don't. Just use gentle pressure - less than with other brushes, a more modest approach to loading the brush, and then enjoy the sensory overload of squishing that brush on your face and feeling it push back at you, while creating lather almost instantly. I know, not the conventional advice, but this is how I have gotten the best from these dense, scrubby-soft brushes, and can't see myself ever really using anything else
~Adam
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Maybe I'll load it less as you suggest and see where that takes me.
