Two-Band Love

[Piper Down]

Several months ago, I purchased a new Simpsons Emperor 3 two-band brush. I bowl lather and really like silver tip brushes, the softer the better. When the Emperor arrived, I tried it and hated it. It was like sandpaper on my face in comparison to my three-band brushes. I tried my best to break it in, using it 20 or 30 times, bowl lathering, face lathering, soap, cream, you name it. It was just scratchy and unpleasant.

I wound up selling it on the B/S/T to someone who wanted it more than i did.

On a whim, I recently purchased another Simpsons two-band, this time a Tulip 2. I similar sized brush with the same two-band hair. This brush couldn't be more different. While the knot presents tremendous backbone, much more than the typical three-band silver tip, the brush is soft and luxurious. I've only used it once so far, but I'm blown away by the contrast between the two brushes.

I'm glad I persevered.

[SOS]

What was the shape of the knot? I've noticed fan shaped knots have a softer face feel in comparison to bulbs.

[cessnabird]

Congrats on falling in love with a two band, and a beautiful Tulip to boot!

[arm017]

Very Nice. My tulip has a bit of scritch that I will purposefully pull for when needed. Two band is special!

[alabamalawyer]

Most of my Simpson 2-band brushes don't have any scritch. However, I did have one, a Tulip 3, that had a notieable scritch to it. It was not all that bad, but was certainly more than any of my other 2-bands.

[cvac]

I have a Tulip 3 2-band purchased a couple months ago. The brush has very little, if any scritch at all. I'm pretty sensitive to scritch but took a chance on this one and was rewarded. I'm kinda leery of buying another Simpsons 2-band for fear that it might be scritchy...

[alabamalawyer]

I have a Tulip 3 2-band purchased a couple months ago. The brush has very little, if any scritch at all. I'm pretty sensitive to scritch but took a chance on this one and was rewarded. I'm kinda leery of buying another Simpsons 2-band for fear that it might be scritchy...

I have 6 Simpson 2-bands with another couple on the way. Only one of them had any noticeable scritch on my face.

[Face&Head]

I'm not normally a fan of Simpson's 2-bands for the reasons you mentioned. But I too have a Tulip3 in 2-band and a Persian Jar 3 in it as well; both are fantastic! I recently tried a friend's Chubby in Manchurian and I thought it was going to take the skin off my face. But others, whose opinions I trust & respect, say they're wonderful. Go figure. Someone needs to breed badgers with perfectly consistent & uniform hair.

[Oscroft]

Someone needs to breed badgers with perfectly consistent & uniform hair

Hmm, I wonder if you could cross a badger with a horse - it wouldn't jump fences very well, but it would make great brushes.