New brush break in question

Howdy,

Noob here. I'm getting a Rooney 3/1 tomorrow and was looking at the new brush break in wiki, which says to let your brush dry overnight with the lather on, bristles up. Everything else I've read says to never dry your brush on end. What am I missing?

http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/How_to_Break_in_a_Shaving_Brush

Old wives tale. When you have 30 brushes you don't have stands for them all. Some don't fit in stands. They dry fine on end.
The dry with the lather trick works great.

I bought a Rooney 3/1 Silvertip a couple months ago. It didn't smell bad to me, so I didn't bother with a break in. I test lathered with it once then shaved with it next.

i broke in an omega 10098 a few days ago and as mentioned the lather overnight on end is awsome.

With a quality badger, just lather up some soap, rinse, repeat... You'll be good to go.

Do NOT let the lather set over night... you don't need to do this with a badger.

(Omega boar brushes, on the other hand... you'll WANT to de-funk and they will still smell like pig poo for weeks when they are wet.)

Thanks for the info guys. I'll give it the sniff test tomorrow and go from there.

Leaving the lather on overnight is highly unnecessary. Build a couple test lathers with it...either in a bowl or in your palm. Thoroughly rinse out the brush, shake out the water, and gently fluff it on a towel. Let it dry, then it's ready for use. Enjoy your brush.

I have a Rooney 3/1 in silvertip, and a 3/1 in best.

Neither needed any breaking in - a quick bit of lathering on my palm and then a rinse, and in both cases they were ready to go.

And they're both excellent brushes.

I have one stand and the brush I just shaved with goes there, bristles down. The rest are stored bristles up. I agree on the need to just do a couple of test lathers to get most of the funk out, though a quick wash with dish soap before running your lathers certainly doesn't hurt.

I'll mirror the above. I don't have that many brushes, but my Rooney 3/1 was the least funky of them all. A lathering with a strong scented cream (I used C&E Sandalwood) and then rinsing it out was all it needed.

Brush in stand or brush on base isn't going to matter. A bit counterintuitively the water won't run into and ruin the knot due to surface tension/capillary action. That being said I use a stand - I just like my small set of brushes in the stands for some reason.

Whenever I've broken in a new brush, I've just given it a couple of good shampoo's followed by some conditioner. The flick out any moisture, and paint it a few times on a towel. That's it, and its always worked fine for me.

As for letting them dry, you can just set them on their base, but I don't like doing that. It may be just me, but I don't like the fact that any moisture remaining can get into the handle. I prefer it to drip away from the handle, and that's why I use a stand.

My Rooney 3/1 sits on its base and drys just fine, as do all my other brushes. With my Rooney I didn't do any break-in, I just used it. With new Simpsons I do a couple of test lathers to get rid of any loose hairs, but only let it sit with lather for about 30 minutes at most (and even that's not necessary).

Noob here. I'm getting a Rooney 3/1 tomorrow and was looking at the new brush break in wiki, which says to let your brush dry overnight with the lather on, bristles up. Everything else I've read says to never dry your brush on end. What am I missing?

Click to expand...

My guess would be that everything else which you have been reading was written by someone who was in the business of selling brush stands......


Welcome to B&B.

bkfist said:

With a quality badger, just lather up some soap, rinse, repeat... You'll be good to go.

Do NOT let the lather set over night... you don't need to do this with a badger.

(Omega boar brushes, on the other hand... you'll WANT to de-funk and they will still smell like pig poo for weeks when they are wet.)

Click to expand...

My boar, several of them, have been near odor free. Most of my badger have been near odor free too, but one took a MONTH to get to smelling neutral! That was one stanky brush! It took dish soap, borax, and vinegar to get it tolerable. The odor of the brush is from what that batch of hair was like, and I am sure all brush makers and hair suppliers try to make it low odor, or at least neutral smelling.

Phil

Oh yes, my two 3/1 brushes were also odour-free when they arrived, and there was no sign of any dirt or funk coming out of them on their first lathering - the hair in them was very clean and well prepared.

Hoping my 3/1 Super coming in is funk and smelly free!

bkfist said:

With a quality badger, just lather up some soap, rinse, repeat... You'll be good to go.

Do NOT let the lather set over night... you don't need to do this with a badger.

(Omega boar brushes, on the other hand... you'll WANT to de-funk and they will still smell like pig poo for weeks when they are wet.)

Click to expand...

+1

No smell detected. Will try lathering with reckless abandon tonight.