Are Boar Hair Brushes Lather "Hogs"

I bought a Semogue 1305, a few weeks ago, and am in the slow process of breaking it in. I am in no great hurry, because I have some other brushes that work well.
I like the feel of the Semogue, even though very few hairs have started to split, yet. I use my homemade lathering bowl, which has dots and lines throughout. I lather it up every other day. So, I know I should be on the right track, on breaking it in.

My dilemma is, I have noticed that the Semogue needs about twice the amount of soap my other brushes need. I use a horse hair and some badgers.
I have also noticed the Boar hair Semogue needs to be reloaded with lather, more often.

Are boar hair brushes lather "hogs", or lather "pigs", typically? Sorry for the play on words. It seemed appropriate.

Will this thirst for lather fade, when fully broken in?

I am not bashing these brushes, in any way. I really like the feel, and want it to improve, and succeed.

I have a 1305, as well. What I found is that I was using too much product and pushing too hard when lathering forcing the soap or cream deep inside the brush. Once it's broken in, it's extremely soft and while it does grab some of the product and hold it in the middle, it's not greedy. There's plenty of product on the outside and at the tip for a great shave. I'll admit, I wasn't terribly impressed at first but I adore it now. I would give it a little time and more wet/dry cycles. Be prepared for the paint to crack on the outside. Mine is just a hairline crack (not chipping though) but it seems common for this brush. I think you'll like it much more after more uses.

My Semogue 1520 seems to keep most of its lather to itself but my Omegas and Vulfixes in boar certainly don't, just like my small badgers don't. It often has to do with the density of the knot, not so much with the kind of hairs.

Allowed to dry thoroughly between uses, the outer bristles split first; It can take quite a while for a quality boar brush to break in. It will behave differently when it does.

I find boars across the board to be much less of a lather hogs than my badgers. Probably due to less knot density and coarser hair.

Once it breaks in, it should release lather with the best of them. Typically, boars are not known to be lather hogs when compared to a densely packed badger.

The only thing I can think of is because of the bristles' coarser nature, boars 'grab' more of the soap off the puck, other variables being equal. For that reason, I tend to use mine almost exclusively for harder and triple milled soaps.

NavyShave said:

I find boars across the board to be much less of a lather hogs than my badgers. Probably due to less knot density and coarser hair.

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+1

From reading this forum, and from my own experiences, I get the impression that Semogues are lather hogs.

Omega boar brushes certainly aren't.

Eeyore said:

From reading this forum, and from my own experiences, I get the impression that Semogues are lather hogs.

Omega boar brushes certainly aren't.

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I tend to disagree, I have the 48 and the 49, both of which I consider lather hogs compared to my synthetic. Maybe because synthetics do not absorb the lather but hands down my synthetic out preforms the two Omegas. Granted I have had my Omegas a short period of time and are still being broken in 2 weeks and counting but synthetic did great it's very first time ever and has continued to do great ever since. Just used it (synthetic) this morning, I forgot what it was like to have lather spilling out of the bowl. Meanwhile great effort is used with the Omegas and repeat loading just to get a minimum to shave with after squeezing the brush.

Synthetic takes all of 45 seconds with any soap and the bowl is spilling over.

shavetech said:

I tend to disagree, I have the 48 and the 49, both of which I consider lather hogs compared to my synthetic.

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Good point!

I refered to the Semogue being a lather hog, relative to other boar brushes. It is hard to compare my Omega 20102 to one of my synthetics (WD and TGC), because the Omega has a much larger knot.

I feel that the synthetics make lather more quickly, but do not produce a larger amount of lather than my Omega 20102.

shavetech said:

I tend to disagree, I have the 48 and the 49, both of which I consider lather hogs compared to my synthetic. Maybe because synthetics do not absorb the lather but hands down my synthetic out preforms the two Omegas. Granted I have had my Omegas a short period of time and are still being broken in 2 weeks and counting but synthetic did great it's very first time ever and has continued to do great ever since. Just used it (synthetic) this morning, I forgot what it was like to have lather spilling out of the bowl. Meanwhile great effort is used with the Omegas and repeat loading just to get a minimum to shave with after squeezing the brush.

Synthetic takes all of 45 seconds with any soap and the bowl is spilling over.

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I have exactly the same brushes and I cannot explain better.

I think that probably boar needs a little bit more knowledge (do you soak enoughand shake well before using them?).

After that they become lathering machines.

My 2c

Stupid question, but you didn't mention: do you soak the brush for 5min. or so before lathering with it? If you don't, it could explain why it's soaking up lather. Just a thought. I'd soak it 5min. in warm water, then only shake it gently before making "break in" lathers.

Yes, I soak it while I shower, and prep with a hot towel, and preshave oil. I do shake the water out, but leave enough to load. I tried again, last night. I loaded it with so much soap, it was lathering up. I added some water to the load. "Uber Load". I then transferred it to my lather bowl, added more water and worked the lather. I had enough for a normal shave, with plenty left over. With the amount of soap I loaded with, if I used my badgers or horse hair, the lather would have been enough for three shaves.
But, on the lighter side, the Semogue felt great, on the face.
I will just have to get use to this quirkiness of the boar hair.
Since I use Arko, the wasted soap isn't a concern, it's inexpensive, and I have 12 unused sticks, in reserve.
As others have said, time might help with this brush. I am patient, sort of.

My Omega 48 is a lathering beast. If anything it makes too much lather, even with what I today thought was a modest load over a soft soap. (Mickey Lee's Italian Stallion)

I bowl lather and have had great results with the Omega from day 1, but it's really getting good now with 3 weeks of being in the rotation. It makes a high quality lather with any soap or cream I have tried it with. I soak it for at least 5 minutes while I shower and such, and I just shake it gently a couple times to get some of the water out and go to town.

My SOC is a bit of a hog. The size and splay are the biggest contributing factors to this behavior IMO. It's almost like it hugs the lather a bit, and it had the size to hold a good bit, so you need to load it up pretty good.

The Omega 49 is a bigger brush, but manages to hog a bit less somehow... Probably due to the increased backbone. I tend to not care, because I always do 3 passes and I'm not annoyed by having to pull the lather out and do a cleanup pass with my hand.

What isn't a lather hog is my stubby little WD. It's got me thinking that I might be better off with shorter boar knots.

While i don't own a Semogue, i do own an Omega and one other boar, and i DO NOT find either to be lather hogs, or more soap hungry. BUT they were more so before they broke in. Took more product/loading to get the lather i was after. But a couple of weeks use eased these, and they are not any more 'hungry' than my badger.

My boars work great. No more hoggish than my badgers.

DaltonGang said:

Will this thirst for lather fade, when fully broken in?

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Yes, it will. I found my 1305 to be something of a disappointment for long enough that I was about to give up on it. In particular, it just didn't seem to create and hold lather like my Omega boars. I stayed with it and finally, it came into its own, and I now find it to be an excellent brush. It took a long time to break in, but once it did, it generates and gives up lather with the best of them. So, my advice is to hang with it, and it will prove itself.

" Are Boar Hair Brushes Lather "Hogs" "

I see what you did there