Men-U Synthetic Shaving Brush!

This was my first shaving brush and I've now owned it for two years. I've now bought a Bluebeard's Revenge synthetic brush so have something to compare with.

The brush handle feels solid and nicely weighted. Very comfortable to hold and to use. Synthetic brushes don't really hold/absorb water like badger hair brushes do. The bristles feel nice and soft but are stiff compared to other brushes. I like it.

Latherability - it does well with both soap and cream. The stiffness of the bristles means it does take longer to generate lather but the lather is thick and creamy. You cannot face-lather with this brush. It around 12-18 months of regular use for the bristles to splay out enough to even comtemplate face lathering. The splaying of bristles has also helped with generating lather.

Where it falls down is in price. It is not worth the £40 I paid for it.

I've been using this brush for the 3 years I've been wet shaving. Have no useful points of comparison with other brushes having only ever tried (very briefly) a cheapish second hand boar brush given to me by a friend. However with the MenU I've found I'm able to produce lovely creamy lather very quickly with small quantities of both cream and soap. This is the case on my hand, face or more normally in a coffee mug. Feels soft on my skin but stiff enough to pick up soap from a cake and to work the lather into the face. I've been particularly impressed with it's durability - while the plastic handle did feel disappointingly cheap and lacking solidity when I first opened the packet, 3 years later it's showing zero signs of doing anything other than lasting forever. There's also been no bristle loss over this time and it works as well today as when I got it.

Having seen other brushes on shaving videos and in stores I can see how the aesthetics of this brush don't rival others in the same price bracket, so if weight, looks and a solid feeling handle are things you value in a brush then you may want to look elsewhere. Personally, despite having been tempted to try different razors, soaps and balms over the years, I've never had a moment when I wanted to experiment with another brush; consistently gives me lots of great lather easily and distributes it well on the face.

I have compared this brush to 13 others at <http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?p=1991663#post1991663>

The Men-U is, in my experience, the best synthetic brush on the market in terms of latherability. I wish there was an 11 for this metric.

I only have synthetic brushes and this is my go-to brush when all else fails. I have even accidentally made lather from cream which is supposedly non-lather with this brush. It performs excellently, feels great on the face and isn't ridiculously priced.

My only complaint is that the handle is light and feels cheap. I wish it was heavier - hell, I may even get another, cut the knot out and put it in a new handle! If it came with a heavier, more solid handle, I would score it all 10s.

As one of the lucky guys who won the contest to try out this brush, I was really looking forward to what a synthetic brush could do.

After trying it for a few weeks, I have come to the realization that this is not the brush for me. The bristles are stiff and flexy, the tips are pretty soft though. The handle is very cheap feeling and light. It fits well in the hand. It really does lather well, and it probably uses less soap than my other brush does. Nothing about this brush screams luxury...and that takes a lot of the fun out of it

I would put this in as an average brush if you compare it to all the badger brushes out there. It might be great compared to the other synthetic brushes but I have no basis for comparison there. The big thing is, is it worth the $50 that others would have to pay to purchase it? My answer would be a resounding no. Is it a good alternative for those of us who don't like the idea of using animal bristles? I would say yes, but even then there are cheaper alternatives that would probably work almost as well.

I also won this brush here on B&B. I tried the included cream which was runny and VERY difficult to lather and almost gave up. Afer some checking I found these results were not typical. I tried again with my favorite soaps and creams and found that it lathered as well as most of my badger brushes. I found it too stiff and scritchy for my liking (my favorite brush is the Savile Row 3226) but liked the fact that you could easily fan it out with one finger to get to the place under my nose with out filling my nostrils with lather. Ergonomics are OK on this but for $50 felt a bit cheap. Overall this is a brush that I wouldn't have felt bad spending $20 on but $50 would have led to much disappointment.

I won this brush on B&B and am very happy for the chance to try it out. After reading the reviews of others I was a bit surprised by the brush itself. It has been said that the handle felt cheap and lightweight plastic I disagreed at first.

The brush lathers great, with just a little bit of cream or soap this thing turns out tons of slick rich lather like a champ. It feels soft on the face and I have had zero problems with it shedding. The reason I am saying however that it is not worth the price is that for $10 my Tweezerman almost does as good of a job. Both handles are a bit on the light side which is why I first didn't think the Menu felt very cheap, however in reality the Menu at $40 more should feel like it is much better quality. It is a good brush, I enjoy using it, I just wouldn't pay $50. $25 for this brush i think would be an appropriate price.

Price: At $50 this is very expensive for what you get. While this is a relatively good brush, especially for travel, it should be priced in the $25-30 range, absolutely no more.

Quality: When I held this brush for the first time I was quite disappointed at it feels INCREDIBLY cheap....the plastic handle is hollow so there is no heft at all...this is very important to me as a proper solid feeling is one of the most important criteria of a brush (for me at least). The synthetic hair I guess i decent quality but nothing special. All it looks to me is just some plastic fibers that taper into very thin fibers at the last few millimeters, creating the "soft" points. I haven't had this brush for long so I cannot comment on hair loss but the knot itself seems to be pretty sturdy. Another issue I had with this was the stand they include. They make it a selling point to say that they include a stand...LOL...this is a 5 cent piece of flimsy plastic that just barely holds the brush over the surface it rests on.

Density: This brush is not dense in comparison to the finer badger brushes but I do not think it really needs to be much denser than it already is. Because the hairs are plastic they perform differently than actual badger hairs density is not as important with the plastic hairs. While the brush holds a sufficient amount of lather, it pales in comparison to my Saville Row.

Stiffness of Tips: The stiffness of the tips on this brush is where it really shines. While not at all stiff like a boar brush...this brush is in between a badger hair brush and boar hair, but closer to badger hair. While not too stiff, this brush feels quite nice on the face and I prefer the stiffness of this brush to my SR.

Softness of Tips: Another aspect that surprised me was the softness of the tips...because of the way the hair diameter tapers off at the tips, the feel is surprisingly very soft. While I can definitely tell the difference between a silver tip brush, IMO the difference if negligible.

Ergonomic: The brush is comfortable to hold and make lather...it is a bit on the small side, but I feel this is a good travel brush with respect to the size. As I said early, the hollow, cheap plastic handle really breaks the deal for me.

Latherability: Using this brush is a bit different than using a natural hair brush in that the plastic hairs do NOT absorb water. Do not let this fool you as I was under the impression that I would need to add extra water often....boy was I wrong. The way the plastic hair clumps when saturated with water really traps water inside the knot. I found that it held TOO much water and ruined my first few batches of lather. I would like to add that for some reason this brush does not work well for me in a bowl but works quite well on the face.


Overall a pretty good brush that has a few major shortcomings...The cheap handle really makes this hard for me to recommend as it simply gives it a very cheap feeling. The second, and perhaps bigger issue is the price. $50 for this brush is absolutely crazy. I know there is absolutely no way this thing costs even $12 to produce.....the hairs are plastic and the handle must cost no more than $.99 to produce. This brush should be marketed as a cheap alternative to natural hair brushes and should really be no more than $25. My recommendation to anyone thinking about this brush is to physically get a hold of one before purchasing.



***I will add that the tiny shaving cream sample included in mine had a miserable consistency in the sense that when I attempted to use it was a bit "unmixed" and was very loose. They say to only use a "pea size" amount as any more will be wasted. Well I went by that guideline and ended up using about 5 times that amount to make a good lather. With that said, the cream smells VERY nice but the consistency/quality is not up to par***

This is the worst brush I have ever tried, my 10 year old brush from Body Shop still works better(with soap), I tested yesterday.

this was my first brush; and i have used it since before my DE days; very good travel brush; and produces a good lather; very durable

I am comparing these two brushes for reasons I will explain later.


I bought them both recently. The badger actually cost less than the synthetic, but that's another story!
I watched the You tube competition, where the synthetic brush is supposed to beat the badger hands down. Unfiortunately, this only tells a fraction of the story. I agree, the synthetic does produce more lather for each gram of cream. However, use lots more cream, and work the badger to its best advantage and it will actually hold a mountain of cream in that massive generous knot. Far more than is possible in the synthetic. It uses more cream, but so what, at less than £2 a tube, excessive use of my Ingram and Palmolive creams are hardly going to break the bank.
There is no mention of aesthetics in the clip. The great big fat super badger knot just caresses my face, giving it a sheer luxury experience. The synthetic bristles, feel synthetic, and no where near as user friendly as the badger.
Also, just look at the brushes standing next to one another. The hefty beautiful badger brush has a lathe turned super hard scratchproof ivorine handle, fills the hand and weighs in at over 100grams. The Men-u on the other hand is not nearly as comfortable in the hand, only weighs 40 grams, and has a cheap, nasty, soft plastic moulded handle. You will notice below however, that I have upgraded the black handle considerably. I sanded off the mould lines with 1000 grit wet and dry paper and polished the handle with autosol chrome cleaner. It now looks like a lathe turned handle, even if it doesn't feel like one!

The Men-u will get regular use. It is way over priced in my opinion and although it does indeed produce plenty of lather, the reason it seems more in the video, is that the badger wasn't really given a proper showing. The two featured brushes behave differently and need to be used differently.
My gorgeous Crabtree and Evelyn super badger beast would be my "Desert Island brush" over the synthetic every single time!
Cheers,
Martin

I received ones of these for Christmas. Wow, whilst I'm a relative new comer to this world, I'd been using a boar hair brush. The immediate difference was the amount of lather this brush makes - incredible! I'm now using half an almond's worth and still get a rich creamy lather for 2-3 passes. There's no lost bristles, no smell and it feels good on the face. As has been said, the only thing i'd improve is the handle weight.

Joel and bgrn have done a great job with their summary of the Men-U Premier. I would just like to add a few personal opinions. I have both the Omega Syntex and Men-U Premier along with a few boar and badger brushes. The handle is identical to my Omega. I received this brush as a gift, but would definitely replace it if I lost it. I love this brush! It will always stay in my rotation, and will probably be my primary brush for creams.
Let me just say that this is brush generates cream the easiest out of any in my rotation, and I would consider it a great starter brush for this reason. The lather always comes out perfect (dense/hydrated). I have to remember to use half of the product I normally use with other brushes otherwise I'm just dumping unused cream down the drain. The tips are soft like badger, but very springy and respond more like boar. Initially, it's somewhat difficult to get the breech to open when lathering on your face. I would reccomend generating lather in a bowl first.
If you'd like a solid performer that will last generations, then this is the brush for you. If you prefer the feel of badger hair or use soaps more than creams, then I'd stick with badger.



==Tom

Joel has summed up most things quite nicely, but I'll write a little bit about my take on the brush as well.


The Men-U seems to have been the darling synthetic brush for a while now, and has been one of the few synthetic brushes you could find people writing about. And it's not surprising, it's one of the better synthetic brushes out there. It's got a nice knot that's not too dense, which is good with the relatively stiff synthetic bristles, since it allows for a pleasant amount of give. And like Joel mentioned, it works up lather nicely. The tips are reasonably soft, nothing like the Body Shop or Omega Big Boy, but perhaps more like the Omega Sintex.

The handle is too light in my opinion, and I'm thinking about drilling a small hole in the base and filling it up with something to give it a little more weight.

I had NO idea what to expect when comparing a lowly synthetic shaving brush to the gold class – silvertip badger haired brushes. Synthetic usually means cheap… but this isn’t any run of the mill $10 synthetic shaving brush, this sucker will set you back a shocking $50, which is the price of quite a few decent badger brushes!

So – is it worth it? Well, of course, that depends who you ask. Personally – I think it is. While not “super-luxurious” like a Kent or the MP, this brush is surprisingly soft and luxurious against ones face, and does a tremendous job at building lather, and does so with VERY little water. The cost of this brush is lessened by the fact that this brush comes with a shaving stand in the box, as well as a small tube of shaving cream – good for about 30 shaves.

Bristle – Soft, yet not floppy at all. The brush splays readily/easily.

Handle – Cheap and hollow, like a Plisson. Although light, it is comfortable, and with the light brush head, the brush is well balanced.

Quality – All things considered, it’s build decent. Nothing exceptional, however it did not lose a single hair, and will probably have quite a long lifespan.

Overall – This is actually an extremely nice shaving brush for the money. While I would still prefer a C&E/EJ $40 best badger, I think for $50 it’s a decent shaving brush. The Men-U is certainly something different, and for a reasonable price. Since it is synthetic, it dries within a few minutes, so it’s actually an OUTSTANDING travel brush.

To discuss this review – please use THIS thread!