At what point does a shedding Simpson finally become useless?

**jtb** · 06-19-2012, 06:53 PM

I had a shedding duke 2. I stuck it out for about 6 to 8 weeks. Washing and combing didn't help. One thing I did was kept all the hairs, took pictures each day showing the hair lose per day and a picture off all the hairs combined. When I sent this to the vendor, it was replaced immediately.

**awa54** · 06-20-2012, 10:07 AM

"just" 29 today, looks pretty grim.

**insomniac** · 06-20-2012, 11:34 AM

Originally Posted by awa54

"just" 29 today, looks pretty grim.

At this rate, it will stop shedding, I can guarantee that.

**Qhead** · 06-20-2012, 11:44 AM

My only badger brush, a Simpson Duke 1, is also shedding. Started out fine but now after a few months it sheds a few hairs each use. I will try combing and see if that helps. Let us know what you end up doing with your Simpson.

**Ski-Patroller** · 06-20-2012, 11:57 AM

I have 4 Simpson Brushes, 2 Colonels, a Commodore and a Case. 2 I bought new and 2 from BST. None of them shed a single hair on a regular basis. The two I bought new shed a little (very little) in the beginning, but none of them shed now. I will only occasionally find a stray hair.

**awa54** · 06-20-2012, 12:29 PM

Originally Posted by insomniac

At this rate, it will stop shedding, I can guarantee that.

I assume at this point that it will make a pilgrimage back to the Simpsons factory and end its life there, then a shiny (smelly) new one will come to take its place... if not then I will probably re-knot it with a TGN "finest" in the fan shape.

**celestino** · 06-20-2012, 08:26 PM

Good luck to you, sir! Boy, that sucks when that happens!

**awa54** · 06-21-2012, 07:46 AM

34 shed today.

'nuff said :(

**awa54** · 06-21-2012, 01:24 PM

1) My email to the vendor I purchased the brush from (sent Wednesday afternoon):

I know the week isn't up yet, but since I performed the requested comb-out procedure with my Special it has shed over one hundred additional hairs. If I need to keep going for another two days, that's fine, I will continue to use it and document how many hairs are lost, but it seems plain that the shedding was not fixed by this technique.

Please let me know what the next step is.

2) The reply from that vendor's customer service representative (received today):

Oh my! That is quite a lot. The combing out process was only required once, but this is obviously defective. We will send you a replacement brush tomorrow, and will include a return shipping label so you can return the defective one back to us. You may reuse the shipping materials we will send that replacement one in, so that it is all at no cost to you.

Best Regards,

Now I just have to feel lucky with the replacement, which shouldn't be too hard, since my two other Simpsons brushes have been trouble free.

**beginish** · 06-21-2012, 04:04 PM

That's a good vendor.

**awa54** · 06-27-2012, 01:28 PM

Today a new Special in Best badger arrived in my mailbox!

It immediately got test lathered with Col. Conk almond a few times and shed about twenty hairs in total during three load, lather, rinse cycles. About fifteen were shed in the first round and none at all in the third. Only time will tell if this pattern holds, but I take it as a promising sign that it seems to have stopped shedding already.

Now that this is all resolved and there is no chance of damaging any reputations, it's time to disclose which vendor this brush came from and to thank them publicly for their immediate attention to my problem and the excellent response once it was determined that the original brush was defective;

The brush was purchased from West Coast Shaving and Lili was the person who helped me, Thanks for the great customer service Lili and WCS!!

**Krona Kruiser** · 06-27-2012, 01:49 PM

Lili at WCS has always been very helpful ans WCS pushes a lot of Simpsons and I'm glad that they are aware of that issue but 15 hairs, really? All of my 4 of my Simpsons have been from WCS and I haven't had that issue. It may be a "Special" issue.

**awa54** · 06-27-2012, 03:54 PM

It was my observation that most of the hairs shed from my defective special were *very* thin at the base where they were glued to the knot, I wonder if the low loft of the special is in part to make use of short hair that can't be used in a taller loft (read *every other* Simpson model excepting the Wee Scot) brush? If that is the case, then my shedder might just have been a knot that was on the edge of having hair that was too short for even a specials low loft and either wasn't fully bedded in the glue, or only the extremely thin (and therefore more fragile) part of the hair was in the glue at the base.

These are strictly suppositions and there would need to be more people having the same issue with the special to draw any firm conclusions here....

IIRC my Colonel may have only shed a bit over a dozen hairs in total and it's older (and has seen more total use) than either of my Specials.