How long does it take a boar brush to break in and soften up?

I've been using a Simpson Duke 3 Finest for the past couple of years. It has served me well but hanging out on B&B has peaked my interest in other brushes, including badger and boar. While the Duke is still my only badger, I just purchased several boar brushes, including two from Semogue (SOC and 1250) and two from Omega (10049 and 10066). Out of the box, the four brushes were reasonably similar, at least compared to a badger (of course).

I gave the SOC a try this morning and found it to be quite a different experience than any I've had to-date. On the positive side, the SOC had no trouble boring into the DH Harris Marlborough soap puck. On the downside, the facial feel was very scratchy and the brush was less able to hold lather than my Duke. By this I mean that it was necessary on the second and third passes to add a bit of soap to the tips since whatever was there was buried closer to the handle. This has never been an issue with the Duke which always seems to have soap available at the tips, where I need it.

My expectations for the SOC were low for its very first use since even I know that these things take time to break in and improve. My question is, how long and what will the boar experience be like once the brush is fully broken in? In addition, other than price, what is the argument for boar over badger? I can't imagine this has been covered on B&B before ;-)

Thanks.
John

I have a 1250, which is my preferred brush for soaps. Boars are cheaper, as you mention, but they also have more backbone than badger, which is a real plus for loading soaps. As I recall, mine began to break in noticeably after two or three weeks and it's now a fav for face lathering. Alternate between your boar brushes to allow each to dry for as long as possible and they'll break in faster, which in turn softens them.

For me, my SOC broke in faster than my other boars and with little funk. Maybe 10 shaves...

I've found the Semogue boars to take a while to break in; maybe 20 or so shaves, and it will continue to improve for a while after that.
The Omegas, IME, take less break-in time, maybe 6 or 8 shaves, but will also continue to improve after that. I'd say that you'd need a minimum of a dozen or so uses, probably a few more with the Semogue, to really judge the performance.

As to the case for boar over badger, to me it's pretty simple: you can get the best boar there is for twenty or thirty bucks. Badgers at that same price point are almost uniformly dreadful, in my experience. That's why for newbies, I always counsel boar. Quality badger is fantastic, don't get me wrong, but it cna't begin to compare with the price/value ratio of good boar. The performance of boar is different, but not inferior, IMO, once you get the difference in technique down, and the brush is properly broken in.

Have fun.

I believe it is all different for different brushes.. my omega 10066 took about 10 shaves to break in.. today actually it felt better than ever before... im waiting on my semogue and ppl say it takes about 15 to 20.

I've always heard it takes about a month to break in a boar brush. That's about how long it took mine to break in. You'll see the hairs split at the ends and the brush will get noticeably softer. You can speed this up by doing some extra lathers if you'd like.

As far as the boar over badger thing goes I prefer badger myself, especially for soft soaps. There's the obvious price difference as your money will go farther with a boar. But then again a well broken in boar will be soft but never as soft as a badger. I do enjoy using a boar occasionally on the hard soaps because it has a bit more backbone that seems to help there. It's nice to have both but I use a badger brush 95% of the time.

I would plan on 15-20 shaves to start the bristle splitting, 30+ for stage II, and continued refinement from there.

BSAGuy said:

I would plan on 15-20 shaves to start the bristle splitting, 30+ for stage II, and continued refinement from there.

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Matty T said:

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Thanks for all the responses. Good things come to those who wait ... while shaving.

Keeping the Semogue SOC in heavy rotation, as the Omega 10049 waits in the wings.