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Large Bloom: Good or Bad?

When I used a boar brush, I thought I understood bloom. I've been using a C&E BBB for two weeks now, and I've been surprised how much it's bloomed. I've seen first hand why Mantic holds his brush the way he does.

I've seen quite a few posts in which B&B members have remarked how wonderfully their brushes have bloomed. So, I was wondering if there is an advantage to a brush having a large bloom, and if so, why?

-Clarke
 
I think lots of bloom will more easily transform a dollop of cream into mounds of creamy lather. Less bloom will make loading the brush from a soap puck easier. Personal thing indeed.
 
My preference is usually for brushes that bloom a bit less.

Reason: I like stiffer, firmer brushes, and the two are partly correlated. When a brush blooms, the hairs are bending outward. Stiffer hair bends less, and therefore blooms less. My Simpson PJ3 for example, which is two band super hair, has bloomed almost not at all. I love it. Also, I will point out that no matter how dense the knot at the base is, more bloom means that it is functionally less dense in the working end than a brush of similar density that blooms less.

On the other hand, I think it is fair to say that to a minor extent, greater density can make a brush bloom a little more, because there is more outward pressure. I think this effect is fairly minimal, though.

I do think that a brush that blooms more can whip up a greater volume of lather more quickly in a bowl. It's a density thing. Because it has bloomed more, it is functionally less dense. And, in my experience, brushes a little less dense than the densest out there are easier to whip up a lot of lather with.

-Mo
 
+1 on preference, and mine changes with time :biggrin:

Luckily, I have representatives of both. I find that even very soft, big blooms can work great with hard soaps. On the other hand, some of the very dense and stiff brushes do not work as well with creams, as they are harder to soak, lack space / air inside the bristles and cannot aerate the cream as well as a less dense brush, it seems

Cheers
Ivo
 
It's all about personal preferences.

I don't like a brush that blooms and prefere a much more dense, stiff, scratchy brush like my Rooney S3/1. And it works excellent with creams.
 
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