Vigshaving Horsehair Brush

I used my new Vigshaving horsehair brush today. This is not a major brand you'll see on B&B, it's made in China and cost me 10 dollars and took 2 weeks to get here. The handle is small, but it's about the same size as some of the Omega brushes, and looks to be the same size as many of the smaller Vie-Long horsehair brushes. The bristles are beige colored.

Because it comes from China and I know nothing about the brush's handling, I sterilized the brush in Dettol for 15 minutes before I used it. The brush stinks really bad, like an animal, even so. I think it'll probably go away after a few shaves. The bristles are very soft right from the start, they feel softer than the synthetic brushes I have tried so far.

The lathering ability is like a floppy badger brush. It worked fairly well lathering Williams Mug Soap, though it took more soap loading than a synthetic brush to make a good lather.

No photos of the brush???????

Pics pics pics pics!!!

I have a few horse hair brushes, and a couple of them were FUNKY when they were new. A few quick soak and rinse cycles in OxyClean followed by a lather and a sit, fixed them right up.

I'll try to upload some pics tomorrow when I recharge my cellphone.

You can find pics on Google too. Look up "Vig shaving brush". One of the brushes I got (I ordered two because they were so cheap, I figured if I didn't like it, I could always sell one on eBay) has a few random "nappy" hairs that don't seem to lay as well as the others, but the brush works fine.

The smell reminds me of horse manure or sweaty dogs.

The tips of the bristles may be cut, I'm not sure. The bristles don't really look like the Turkish horse hair brush I have, they look more like boar hair but they are floppier.

The quality seems decent, I didn't notice but one or two hairs falling out. I'll let you all know how it goes tomorrow.

Those are sold by Virgina Sheng, a vendor who has a generally good reputation around here, at least for synthetics and badgers.

That looks like a nice and well made brush. I just used one of my Vie-Longs last night and I'm glad I discovered horsehairs.

It's a solid performer and makes lather in no time at all. I like the softness of the bristles. This will probably be my go-to brush. The brush is not stiff but since I am mostly only using shave creams or sticks I don't find it a problem.