First a little background (you can skip down to the next paragraph if you're the impatient type). Several months ago I switched off of the 5 gazillion blades in a razor trend and went with a DE like I recall my father using as I grew up. I picked up a Merkur Futur. After a few niks and cuts I've gotten pretty good at not drawing blood . However, I continued using my Lab Series Shave Cream and just applied by hand. That tub finally ran out and I was determined to switch to a brush. In a rush (was headed out on a long trip) I grabbed the Art of Shaving travel kit. It got me a quick intro in using a brush as well as pre-shave oil for the first time. But the brush is a travel brush and obviously too small to continue using full-time. And once the AOS shave cream ran out I found myself in a hurry for some soap. I grabbed a puck of Van Der Hagen from Walgreens and like my dad before me, threw it in a mug and just started lathering directly on the puck. It's been pretty decent so far.
So here I am ready to get a real brush, some better pre-shave oil, and perhaps try some other soaps. But for the purpose of this post I'll focus on the brush.
Thanks for all the quality posts in this forum. Based on what I've been reading it seems I can't go wrong with a Simpson. I've also determined that I might be happiest with a Best Badger. Since I prefer lathering on the puck in a mug I'm also thinking I want a bit more loft and a longer handle. So I'm looking really hard at the Simpson Commodore X3 Best Badger. For reference, my budget for a brush is sub $100.
What do you guys think? Any input for a newbie?
So here I am ready to get a real brush, some better pre-shave oil, and perhaps try some other soaps. But for the purpose of this post I'll focus on the brush.
Thanks for all the quality posts in this forum. Based on what I've been reading it seems I can't go wrong with a Simpson. I've also determined that I might be happiest with a Best Badger. Since I prefer lathering on the puck in a mug I'm also thinking I want a bit more loft and a longer handle. So I'm looking really hard at the Simpson Commodore X3 Best Badger. For reference, my budget for a brush is sub $100.
What do you guys think? Any input for a newbie?