How does the 'Manchurian Badger' distinguish itself from other grades?

There's been so much of a to-do on the shaving forums about Simpson's 'Manchurian Badger' brushes that I almost went and bought myself one.

I've read the threads on the forums, but I wonder about this hair 'grade'.

I've used Simpson's brushes in their usual three 'grades' - Best, Super and 2-band. In fact, in some cases, I've used the same model brush in each of these grades. The hair grades are clearly different.

In my experience, Best is nice, with a little scritch, and a pretty large bloom. Super is softer at the tips, but blooms as much as Best, and is pretty dense. 2-band is dense, with more backbone, softish tips and it doesn't bloom much. ----------------- the grades feel clearly different.

I got a GYLE in their 'Special Silvertip' grade, and it's pretty hard to distinguish it from regular Super - maybe you could say it is an in-betweenie - like a mix of regular Super and 2-band. Nice, but it doesn't quite distinguish itself from the rest.

So, my question to people who've used the new Manchurian grade in addition to Simpson's other grades is - how does it distinguish itself from the other grades?

Note, I'm not asking if it is better, or worth the money - just: what makes it special? I mean, I could randomly pluck some badger hair and say it's 'Ming Dynasty Super-Rare Grade', and nobody would have a clue if it was really any different from what any other brush maker was offering.

Once the new-brush placebo has worn off, is this just marketing? Or is this hair grade really different?

------------

NOTE: I'm not trying to start a fight here, I just want to get all the information I can before shelling out $300 for a brush.

I have the manchurian rover, also have some 2 bands, silvertips and best from simpson and my feeling is that the manchurian is a mix of the silvertip softness with the backbone of the 2 bands, works great in face lather, but have a lot of flowtrough too for bowl use, bloom is middle of two bands/best, not as dense as a silvertip or 2 bands

In my mind, a great allround hair !

since i have this brush, all my other simpsons are gone in B/S/T, just keep a M&F blonde badger, thäter 2 bands and this Rover.

This question interests me also. Anyone else want to chime in?

Check out this thread.

MajorBurnz said:

........ I wonder about this hair 'grade'.

I've used Simpson's brushes in their usual three 'grades' - Best, Super and 2-band....... The hair grades are clearly different.

In my experience, Best is nice, with a little scritch, and a pretty large bloom. Super is softer at the tips, but blooms as much as Best, and is pretty dense. 2-band is dense, with more backbone, softish tips and it doesn't bloom much. ----------------- the grades feel clearly different.

I got a GYLE in their 'Special Silvertip' grade, and it's pretty hard to distinguish it from regular Super - maybe you could say it is an in-betweenie - like a mix of regular Super and 2-band. Nice, but it doesn't quite distinguish itself from the rest.

So, my question to people who've used the new Manchurian grade in addition to Simpson's other grades is - how does it distinguish itself from the other grades?

....... Once the new-brush placebo has worn off, is this just marketing? Or is this hair grade really different?

Click to expand...

I'll start out by saying I agree with everything you've said about the various hair grades that are normally offered by Simpson, that includes your assessment of the GYLE.

As a point of reference I own these Simpsons:

2 GYLEs
LE Chubby 2 in Super
Duke 3 & Wee Scott in Best
Emperor 3 & Classic 1 in Super 2 Banded
M7, a Hive, & a Tulip 3 in Manchurian

This pic shows the GYLE, M7 Manchurian, & Emperor 3


After this post of yours I gave the Manchurians a long, hard look and compared the hairs with Super 3 Banded & 2 Banded. The Manchurian hair does indeed distinguish itself. If you look at the individual hairs of the 3 types there are some distinct differences. Which I will now bore you with.

A Super 3 Banded hair has a relatively short black band that switches to a still relatively short slivery/beige tip. While the 2 Banded hairs black band is over twice long and switches to a much whiter and much longer tip.

The Manchurian hair has a black band of a length very similar to the 2 Banded, but switches to relatively short slivery/beige tip similar to the Super. The Manchurian truly looks and feels like a hybrid of the 2 & 3 Banded hairs. If I were to quantify it, I would say Manchurian feels and acts more like a 2 banded with a little bit more softness and give than 2 Banded normally has. This may be partly due to the Manchurian hair lending itself to more of a fan/bulb shape than their 2 Banded brothers. Whatever it is, I really like this run of Manchurian brushes.

beginish said:

Check out this thread.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I did - but apart from Intrigued's first post it seemed to be mostly a thread about how cool the brushes looked, and what people were going to get.

I'm glad Intrigued weighed in again here. I am always suspect about first impressions of items like razors and brushes - especially expensive ones. There's a strong 'new-broom' effect that could kick in (it sweeps clean).

To hear that, after all this time, Intrigued still thinks this hair grade is actually different --- that's very important. Thanks!!

Intrigued said:

I'll start out by saying I agree with everything you've said about the various hair grades that are normally offered by Simpson, that includes your assessment of the GYLE.

As a point of reference I own these Simpsons:

2 GYLEs
LE Chubby 2 in Super
Duke 3 & Wee Scott in Best
Emperor 3 & Classic 1 in Super 2 Banded
M7, a Hive, & a Tulip 3 in Manchurian

This pic shows the GYLE, M7 Manchurian, & Emperor 3
View attachment 229050

After this post of yours I gave the Manchurians a long, hard look and compared the hairs with Super 3 Banded & 2 Banded. The Manchurian hair does indeed distinguish itself. If you look at the individual hairs of the 3 types there are some distinct differences. Which I will now bore you with.

A Super 3 Banded hair has a relatively short black band that switches to a still relatively short slivery/beige tip. While the 2 Banded hairs black band is over twice long and switches a much whiter and much longer tip.

The Manchurian hair has a black band of a length very similar to the 2 Banded, but switches to relatively short slivery/beige tip similar to the Super. The Manchurian truly looks and feels like a hybrid of the 2 & 3 Banded hairs. If I were to quantify it, I would say Manchurian feels and acts more like a 2 banded with a little bit more softness and give than 2 Banded normally has. This may be partly due to the Manchurian hair lending itself to more of a fan/bulb shape than their 2 Banded brothers. Whatever it is, I really like this run of Manchurian brushes.

Click to expand...

Excellent post. I too own a 'Tulip 3' in Manchurian, and I am more than pleased with it. Not that this will be of any help to anyone out there, but the Manchurian hair just feels 'right'. I'd recommend it to anyone.

True is Manchurian really feels different, softer and nicer scrubbiness than two band, better backbone than 3-band and maybe best flowthrough of all... I'm really having a hard time grabbing another brush in the morning... so a Duke 3 Butterscotch Manchurian is coming!

I have an M7 Manchurian and a Tulip 3 2 band Super. The Tulip was overly stiff when I first got it and was not as soft. Now that it has broken in, I find the Tulip an ideal combination of backbone and soft tips. I've had the M7 for a week and used it 4 times so far. The M7 has just as much backbone as my Tulip but the tips are not as soft. Maybe with some more use the M7 will get softer. Right now, I'm liking the Tulip better.

edwinguz said:

I have an M7 Manchurian and a Tulip 3 2 band Super. The Tulip was overly stiff when I first got it and was not as soft. Now that it has broken in, I find the Tulip an ideal combination of backbone and soft tips. I've had the M7 for a week and used it 4 times so far. The M7 has just as much backbone as my Tulip but the tips are not as soft. Maybe with some more use the M7 will get softer. Right now, I'm liking the Tulip better.

Click to expand...

I find your post to be very telling when it comes to the Manchurian hair compared to the Simpson simply because ultimately it shows just how closely the Manchurian and 2 band resemble each other more than they have true "distinguishing" differences.

I personally don't find ANY of my Simpson 2 bands scritchy and find the tips, especially after they are broken in or a few uses to be incredibly soft if not softer than some of the silvertip 3 bands I've tried in the past. My 2 band CH2 is especially blessed with very soft tips that I dare would say is nearly as soft as the XL 2 I've recently used!

As much as I would like to try a LE Manchurian they are priced incredibly steep for a hair grade that seems to offer minimal differences to those who own 2 band Simpsons. Something just tells me much like you, I will prefer my 2 band Simpson in the end.. but in all fairness as they say.. I won't know until I try it myself..

Well, I decided to find out myself......on a budget! So, I got the Pearlescent in Manchurian.

I've been leaning towards less-dense brushes, and the high loft on this one means that it may suit my tastes better than the Duke in Manchuriuan, for example. I'll post my thoughts after I've had some time to try it out.

Got an M7 in Manchurian and Chubby 2 in 2 band. Both got here at the end of last week, both have seen about 6 latherings. Tips are softer on CH2 2 band, backbone is stronger in M7... Till this point they are doing exactly the opposite of what they were supposed to be, the CH was supposed to be the more backboned and the M7 was supposed to be the softer tips... I'm in love with both of them but I don't know if I should expect a transformation from the M7 to get really soft tips over time... By this point I'm kind of confused.

So, Yohann, have you used the Pearlescent Manchurian enough to answer for us the questions you had at the start of this thread?