How do you avoid mould?

Here, in the south of the Great White North, we have had a very tropical, humid summer. We have had heat in the high 90F (if my math is correct) and 80-90% humidity. One of my favorite boar brushes started to smell a bit off. When I'm done with it I dry it on a towel and hang it upside down on a stand in the open. Never gets a chance to dry! Even if I rotate brushes daily it takes 3 days to dry. Don't even want to mention how long my silvertip badger takes! It's retired till fall.

So what do you good people in the south do to avoid mould - synthetics?

John R

Yikes.

Try a hair dryer on low temperature and high speed?

Try rinsing it in alcohol, it dries much quicker.

Shake the he'll out of it before towel drying, make sure you get all that you can out.

Here in Okinawa we have similar weather, and mine always dries so idk

You need to kill the microbes. Since you can't boil the brush use properly diluted Mar-V-Cide ,it costs half of what Barbicide does per use...

A stand in the open, as in out of the bathroom? That is probably the most humid room in the house, lasting for hours after a shower. I live between Toronto and Barrie and haven't had any issues at all. I shake my brush as dry as possible then place it on its end on top of the cabinet in the bathroom. It's always perfectly dry by the next day. I've been using the same brush for several years, although it's just been the last 6 months that it gets daily use.

Thanks for the replies, Gentlemen. Never thought of a hair dryer. Guess it is because of the lack of needing one....
I'll try the alcohol method when things don't dry well. Maybe get some for internal use as well and won't care as much.
I do hang mine out in the open in the bathroom, but it is taking a long time to dry anyway. The funky one didn't get a chance to dry so perhaps a rotation would be a good idea. My Better Half is pretty tolerant.

Would a synthetic be a good idea? Not had much experience with them. I have tried a "Body Shop" cheapie and, yes, you get what you pay for. Bit like what I expect a paint brush would feel like.

Thanks all.
John R

I'm in banana belt Canada. When finished with it, i just hang the brush, either horse or boar, on a stand in the bedroom and they dry in time for the next day's shave. No air conditioning, just a ceiling fan for air movement.

A small fan directed at the wet brush should soon turn it to a dry brush.

dave

Good call on the Mar-V-Cide

Place it on a window sill of a south facing window. As Louis Brandeis said "Sunlight it the best disinfectant."

Yes, a synthetic would be a good choice since it dries much faster.

When I lived in FL, the climate was similar to what you describe. Even is an AC house, my brushes would take two days to dry. I have quite a few brushes in my rotation so I never had a problem having them eventually dry.

BSAGuy said:

Place it on a window sill of a south facing window.

Click to expand...

+1. Easy peasy. And as Freebase 8244 said, get it out of the bathroom.

The true solution, of course, is to have enough brushes that they each have enough time to dry.

I don't think you would be disappointed with a synthetic brush.

BSAGuy said:

Place it on a window sill of a south facing window. As Louis Brandeis said "Sunlight it the best disinfectant."

Click to expand...

good advice, never thought about it. our climate is nothing compared to USA's, especially to southern US, but there is always a possibility for mole to show up.

davent said:

I'm in banana belt Canada. When finished with it, i just hang the brush, either horse or boar, on a stand in the bedroom and they dry in time for the next day's shave. No air conditioning, just a ceiling fan for air movement.

A small fan directed at the wet brush should soon turn it to a dry brush.

dave

Click to expand...

^^^ This

A small fan directed at it from several feet away will fix the problem. I assume you vigorously shake the brush after the rinsing? I give my badger brush about a dozen very sharp flicks then hang it on the stand. That opens up the hairs so they can dry naturally and of course gets as much water out of it as possible.