Rooney Heritage line change their 2-band hair?

**krisbarger** · 04-21-2012, 06:46 PM

I wanted to ask some of you if you had noticed any differences between some older Rooney 2-Band and the most recent 2-Band Heritage brushes. I sold a Stubby 2 that I bought no more than 1 1/2 years ago just a month ago So I could get a Urn. I have noticed that the hair on the new Urn is not near as soft on the tips as my Stubby was. This is kind of frustrating to me because the Stubby was extremely soft on the tips and still had great backbone. The Urn that I have now is not bad but it is much more "scrubby", almost scritchy... I am using the Urn again in the morn and I am continuing to monitor it to see if it "breaks in" any. It is a very nice brush and I am not bashing this great brand, I'm just trying to get a ideal if anyone has experienced this...I am not crazy.

That Stubby was my "go to" brush for a while and I know how soft it was.

Has anyone else experienced this?

**GreekGuy** · 04-21-2012, 06:49 PM

The new hair is scrubby? Fantastic! Gel like doesn't appeal to me

In all seriousness I've heard that the regular heritage line including the emillion and others are a little less dense than the XL series, and so tend to display a little more of the scritch feel. Granted, I haven't tried them, but from what I've read concerning the issue that may be the case

**lt114** · 04-21-2012, 07:17 PM

I've owned an Emillion 2 recently and it was too scritchy for me.

**franz** · 04-22-2012, 11:15 AM

Strange; I've never felt any scritch from my Emillion.

However, I do "feel" the individual hairs in a way that is unlike the gel-like feeling of my 3XL. It's true that the profile of the knots in the "turned beauties" is different than the XLs: proportionally taller lofted and probably a bit less dense. Perhaps that's what contributes to the different feel, rather than the hair itself being different.

**maxman** · 04-22-2012, 11:51 AM

Rooney brushes take forever to break in.
My first Rooney took a good month to break in.

**krisbarger** · 04-22-2012, 12:18 PM

I had a better shave with the Urn this morn. It seemed to be a little softer. I think the comment about breaking in is true. I'll continue to watch how it progresses.

**bobfarvour** · 04-22-2012, 04:40 PM

I bought an Emillion and found it wasn't as soft feeling as my 1xl. I am told that is due to the less dense knot, which made sense to me. You get more tips with the dense XL knots. So I sold the Emillion and got a 2xl and am happy again.

Was your stubby an XL ? If so, that may be the answer. That Urn has a very high loft too, so I would predict you are getting a lot more splay, therefore more of the lower portion of the hair is scrubbing your face as opposed to the tips.

**krisbarger** · 04-22-2012, 04:44 PM

Not sure???? It was from Jim on It was a Heritage Stubby 2...

**bobfarvour** · 04-22-2012, 04:45 PM

did it have two rings around the center of the handle or one ?
XL's have two rings around the center of the handle.

**krisbarger** · 04-22-2012, 04:49 PM

This is a pic of it. Not a good one but...

**bobfarvour** · 04-22-2012, 04:52 PM

That's not an XL. I would, however, assume it to be denser than the Urn, and with a shorter loft, which still might explain the different feel you have from it. That Urn has a loft of about 54mm if I recall correctly. I thought long and hard about getting one but that scared me away.
I like the longer handles. I wish they'd put the XL knot in an emillion or urn.

**German** · 04-22-2012, 05:10 PM

+1... Same hair different density/loft size. Now also Roomey Heritage hair will vary with different hair batches.

Originally Posted by franz

Strange; I've never felt any scritch from my Emillion.

However, I do "feel" the individual hairs in a way that is unlike the gel-like feeling of my 3XL. It's true that the profile of the knots in the "turned beauties" is different than the XLs: proportionally taller lofted and probably a bit less dense. Perhaps that's what contributes to the different feel, rather than the hair itself being different.

**cvac** · 04-22-2012, 05:11 PM

I have a Rooney 2XL purchased in the last few months. No older Rooney Heritage brushes.

Here is my experience. The hairs have a ton of backbone and are packed in the knot extremely densely. The hair gives a "wall of badger" feel on the face and feels very soft when applying very little pressure. If I push the brush into my face and cause it to splay even a little, the hairs feel prickly. My guess is, if the hair were more loosely packed (as in non-XL Heritage brushes) and the knot splayed more, I would get the same prickly feel. Just a guess.

Also, the hair feels strange at the tip. Different from my other 2-bands for sure. I wouldn't be surprised if it was treated in some way, but I really have no idea about that.

**krisbarger** · 04-22-2012, 05:40 PM

I am starting to like this Urn more. Im not sure I agree with the ideal that the lesser the density the scrubbier the brush. I just think the tips on heritage hair from a year or so ago was softer.

**Vlad** · 04-22-2012, 06:02 PM

There's definitely variation in badger hair. I have the full XL Stubby line, and I'm hoping the XL2 will soften. It's not quite the perfection of my 1 and 3.

**ben74** · 04-22-2012, 07:58 PM

Originally Posted by Vlad

There's definitely variation in badger hair. I have the full XL Stubby line...

I agree, hair properties do seem to vary between batches (M&F blonde badger is an example of that).

I also have the full line up of XL brushes, but all display the famed gel like tips. I do have other Heritage brushes (purchased around the same time as the XL. From memory they weren't exactly the same as the XL, but the difference was more related to density rather than scritch.