How much shedding makes a shedder?

I think people tend to over call shedders by a long shot. 1-2 hairs per shave is not a shedder. 5-10 hairs per shave might be a shedder, or it might not have been used enough to tease loose the hairs that weren't incorporated into the knot.

I have owned several true shedders. I have also owned some brushes that never lost a single hair. And then I have owned some brushes that I thought were shedders, only to see them stop losing any hair after enough uses.

Here are some photos from my true shedders:



After having shed about 20 hairs during a shave, I was trying to remove a loose hair, only to be surprised by the tuft that emerged. Yikes.



Here's a shedder after about 15 seconds of loading on a hard soap. That hair is practically jumping out of the knot.



And here's what I collected from just one shave with a true shedder. High Mountain White, no less. And this was after about 30 uses.


I think hand made badger brushes need a little leeway in the shedding department. If you notice a few hairs come loose from your new brush, keep using it. Give it a couple months or about 30 uses before you decide it is truly a shedder.

That plisson pic is what I would class as a shedder. Great post there.

Here is what my shedder looked like.

A search brought me to this thread. I've only owned 3 brushes since I started wet shaving over 6 years ago, starting with a Vulfix Pure Badger, then a Rooney Super Badger, and now a Semogue 620 boar. With each one, I consistently pick 1 or 2 hairs off of the puck after each shave. There must be a gazillion bristles in each one, because you'd think they'd eventually run out, but that's not the case. With the exception of the Rooney, which developed a "crater" smack in the middle/breech, they appear to be as full as the day I got them, and performance has not been impacted at all as far as I can tell. I was thinking I had a perfectly valid "reason" to buy a new brush, but after reading this thread, it seems that losing 1 or 2 hairs per shave is not that unusual or necessarily a problem. Now I just need to come up with another justification for a new one!