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A shaving brush or shave brush is a small brush with a handle parallel to the bristles used to make lather from shaving soap or
shaving cream Shaving cream or shave cream is a category of cream cosmetics used for shaving preparation. The purpose of shaving cream is to soften the hair by providing lubrication. Different types of shaving creams include aerosol shaving cream (also kn ...
and apply it to the face when shaving. Shave brushes are often decorative; antique handles are often made from materials such as
ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and Tooth, teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mamm ...
or even
gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
, though the bristle load may be composed of any number of natural or synthetic materials. The shave brush is used most often today by " wet shavers" in tandem with a single- or double-edged
safety razor A safety razor is a shaving implement with a protective device positioned between the edge of the blade and the skin. The initial purpose of these protective devices was to reduce the level of skill needed for injury-free shaving, thereby reduci ...
or a
straight razor A straight razor is a razor with a blade that can fold into its handle. They are also called open razors and cut-throat razors. The predecessors of the modern straight razors include bronze razors, with cutting edges and fixed handles, produced ...
. However, this is not always the case, as shavers of all varieties may employ the tool.


History

The modern shaving brush may be traced to
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
during the 1750s. The French call a shaving brush ''blaireau'' or "badger, because high-end brushes use badger hair." Quality of these brushes differed greatly, as materials used to fashion the handles varied from the common to the exotic. It was not uncommon for handles to be made of ivory, gold,
silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...
, tortoiseshell,
crystal A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macros ...
, or
porcelain Porcelain (), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating Industrial mineral, raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to oth ...
. The more expensive brushes used badger hair, with cheaper ones using
boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a Suidae, suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The speci ...
's or horse's hair. In the 1800s, the folding-handle straight razor design made it practical for men to shave themselves rather than visit a barber. A shave brush became a status symbol, and an expensive or eccentric brush was a way of asserting one's personality or even affluence. The recent rapid rise in the popularity of "wet shaving" has raised demand for high-quality and custom shaving brushes.


Shave brush handles

Modern shave brushes are similar in appearance, composition and function to their centuries-old predecessors. Although a variety of different materials are still used to fashion shave brush handles, synthetic handles of
nylon Nylon is a family of synthetic polymers characterised by amide linkages, typically connecting aliphatic or Polyamide#Classification, semi-aromatic groups. Nylons are generally brownish in color and can possess a soft texture, with some varieti ...
, urethane or
plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic polymers, synthetic or Semisynthesis, semisynthetic materials composed primarily of Polymer, polymers. Their defining characteristic, Plasticity (physics), plasticity, allows them to be Injection moulding ...
are the most common even with the most expensive shave brush manufacturers. Benefits of synthetic handles include a lesser chance of breakage and resistance to damage by moisture. A limited number of consumers prefer natural materials such as
wood Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...
or exotic materials such as tortoiseshell. A shave brush's handle, regardless of its material composition, rarely affects the overall performance of the brush.


Bristle knot

A shave brush's price is usually determined more by its bristle load than any other factor, except for brushes with very exotic handles. The most expensive brushes often use exotic materials in the handle. The bristles are fixed together into a knot that is installed into the handle. The best quality brushes are hand knotted. Badger and boar brushes are the most commonly found animals used for shaving brush fibers. Badger species include the
Eurasian badger The European badger (''Meles meles''), also known as the Eurasian badger, is a badger species in the Family (biology), family Mustelidae native to Europe and West Asia and parts of Central Asia. It is classified as least concern on the IUCN Red L ...
and the
hog badger Hog badgers are three species of mustelid in the genus ''Arctonyx''. They represent one of the two genera in the subfamily Melinae, alongside the true badgers (genus ''Meles''). Taxonomy ''Arctonyx'' was formerly considered a monotypic gen ...
. Badger brushes are often referred to as two band, or three band. Perhaps all badger hair fibers have three bands, but those used in the brushes conceal the lighter bottom band. Nonetheless, both types of bristle make desirable shaving brushes. Lower-quality brushes are often machine made and the bristles may be trimmed, resulting in sharp, prickly tips.
Synthetic Synthetic may refer to: Science * Synthetic biology * Synthetic chemical or compound, produced by the process of chemical synthesis * Synthetic elements, chemical elements that are not naturally found on Earth and therefore have to be created in ...
shave brushes, most often made using nylon bristles, are available in a range of prices and gradations in quality. Comparable to traditional shaving brushes, synthetic fiber brushes can quickly create a rich lather using relatively little shaving soap or cream. The synthetic fibers dry faster than natural hair and are less sensitive to everyday use. Boar's hair brushes are relatively inexpensive, but can be of very high quality. A well-made boar brush will break in with use; the bristles begin to split at their tips, resulting in a brush that is very soft but has considerable backbone. Unlike badger hair and synthetic fibers, boar bristles absorb water, so the brush should be soaked before use. Badger hair brushes come in a variety of grades, but there is not an industry standard that specifically defines grades of badger hair. Generally speaking, though, there are basic classifications that many manufacturers use to describe the quality of hair used in their brushes. The most common gradations of badger hair are "pure" badger, "best" badger, and "super" or "silvertip" badger. While some companies insist on using other gradations (for example, Vulfix's high-end brushes distinguish between "super" and "silvertip"), these three are commonly accepted among wet shavers and are most often used to describe the quality of a shave brush.


Pure badger

Pure badger are badger hair brushes that use the most common hair from the underbelly of a
badger Badgers are medium-sized short-legged omnivores in the superfamily Musteloidea. Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united by their squat bodies and adaptions for fossorial activity rather than by the ...
, the hair which covers around 60% of a badger's body. This hair varies greatly in softness, pliability and color. Pure badger hair is usually dark in color, but fluctuates from a light tan to a near-black or silvery sheen. The hair is coarser than 'best' or 'silvertip' hair due to its larger shaft. Brushes made exclusively with pure badger hair cost significantly less than finer badger hair. Most often, pure badger brush hairs are trimmed to shape, resulting in somewhat stiff, rough ends.


Best badger

Best badger are brushes made with the finer and more pliable hairs from 20 - 25% of the badger's body. It is longer in length and lighter in color than 'pure' badger hair. A 'best' badger brush is more densely filled with hair than the 'pure' badger brush and will produce a correspondingly greater lather. However, some wet shavers argue that the variance between the quality of a 'pure' and a 'best' badger brush is negligible. Best badger and better quality brush hairs are often fit so that the ends do not have to be cut to shape.


Super badger

A super badger brush is more expensive than either 'best' or 'pure'. While some call this hair 'silvertip', it is often highly graded 'pure' hair bleached on the ends to resemble silvertip. Though it is composed of 'pure' badger hairs, 'super' is graded and sorted to such a degree that its performance is superior to that of 'best'. The brush is not prickly. One way to determine if a brush bears a 'super' or 'silvertip' badger hair load is to look at the color of the bristle tips. A true 'silvertip' brush has tips that are an off-white. A 'super' brush on the other hand has bristle tips that are a more sterile, slightly greyed white; moreover, the light color of the tips does not extend as far down the shaft of the hair.


Silvertip badger

Silvertip badger is the most expensive and rare type of badger hair. The tips on this hair appear white naturally, without bleaching. A "flared" bristle load results in the 'silvertip' brush's fluffy appearance and lends the brush its ability to hold a large amount of water. Due to its water retention capacity, a 'silvertip' brush can create well-formed shaving lather quickly and easily. Some manufacturers such as Plisson, Simpsons and Rooney sell shaving brushes in a grade beyond silvertip. While the names these companies give this 'extra silvertip' vary, the properties remain fairly consistent between manufacturers as compared to the 'ordinary silvertip' brush. These brushes differ in appearance (the tip is whiter and extends further down the shaft; additionally, the hair under the tip is pure black as opposed to dark grey in color) and feel (the extra silvertip feels slightly firmer and less "prickly" on the face when lathering). Another feature that badger bristles may show are the so called “gel tips”, a combination of two distinct traits: a little “hook” in many hair tips and a gel, slick sensation of the knot tips when wet. When dry, the shaving brush knots with gel tips are not fully recognizable: the presence of little hooks is not sufficient to provide the second, and also most distinct trait: the “slick”, soapy feeling. The feeling of gel tips can be discerned pretty easily: once wet, the hair tips clump together in little groups and after lathering up, it will seems that the soap in the knot cannot be fully rinsed away. There is no standard for this feature, so every person will have to feel it himself, especially when rubbing the wet shaving brush knot near the lips, where the skin is more sensitive.


Sources of brush hair

North American badger hair is not appropriate for shaving brushes. Commercial badger hair comes from mainland China, which supplies knots of hair in various grades to brush makers in both China and Europe. In rural areas, badgers multiply to the point of becoming a crop nuisance, and village cooperatives are licensed by the national government to hunt badgers and sell the hair to processors.
Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/con ...
stopped using badger hair in its Art of Shaving products following a
PETA People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA; ) is an American animal rights nonprofit organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president. Founded in March 1980 by Newkirk and animal right ...
investigation of several badger-hair farms and brush-making factories in Shijiazhuang, China, and a video that showed a worker beating a badger with a chair leg before slaughtering it for its fur. Boar bristles are available cheaply from many sources. Brushes made in China or India with boar bristle are supplied wholesale, while even the cheapest wholesale Badger brush costs at least $10; even the cost difference between badger brushes with resin handles vs. expensive horn handles shows that, except with exotic materials such as sterling silver, special woods, ivory, bone or custom materials, badger hair is the costliest element of a brush. It is common for boar-hair brushes to have part of the bristles dyed to resemble badger hair. Brushes with nylon-only bristles are available. Horse hair brushes are coming back, after a hiatus of nearly 100 years following an
anthrax Anthrax is an infection caused by the bacterium '' Bacillus anthracis'' or ''Bacillus cereus'' biovar ''anthracis''. Infection typically occurs by contact with the skin, inhalation, or intestinal absorption. Symptom onset occurs between one ...
scare around
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. Material for horse hair shaving brushes is cut from the horse's mane or tail, and the animal is not harmed.


Benefits of using a shaving brush

A fibrous bristle load holds significant amounts of water which mix with the soap lifted from a shaving mug or scuttle. The more water a brush holds, the moister and richer a lather will be. Thicker and more emollient lather translates to less razor skipping and dragging. Bringing a shave brush across one's skin produces a mild exfoliation. Because a shave brush is most often used with a shave
soap Soap is a salt (chemistry), salt of a fatty acid (sometimes other carboxylic acids) used for cleaning and lubricating products as well as other applications. In a domestic setting, soaps, specifically "toilet soaps", are surfactants usually u ...
, this effect often replaces the pre-shave routine of washing and applying lotion to the face. A shave brush also lifts facial hair before a shave, requiring less pressure from the razor.


See also

* Aftershave *
Barber A barber is a person whose occupation is mainly to cut, dress, groom, style and shave hair or beards. A barber's place of work is known as a barbershop or the barber's. Barbershops have been noted places of social interaction and public discourse ...
* Bay rum *
Beard A beard is the hair that grows on the jaw, chin, upper lip, lower lip, cheeks, and neck of humans and some non-human animals. In humans, beards are most commonly seen on pubescent or adult males, though women have been observed with beards ...
*
Burma-Shave Burma-Shave was an American brand of brushless shaving cream, famous for its advertising gimmick of posting humorous rhyming poems on small sequential highway roadside signs. History Burma-Shave was introduced in 1925 by the Burma-Vita compa ...
*
Colognes Eau de Cologne (; German: ''Kölnisch Wasser'' ; meaning "Water from Cologne") or simply cologne is a perfume originating in Cologne, Germany. Originally mixed by Johann Maria Farina (Giovanni Maria Farina) in 1709, it has since come to be a generi ...
*
Head shaving Head shaving is a form of body modification which involves shaving the hair from a person's head. People throughout history have shaved all or part of their heads for diverse reasons including aesthetics, convenience, culture, fashion, practicalit ...
*
Leg shaving Leg shaving is the practice of removing leg hair by shaving the hair off using a razor or electric shaver. In addition, some people remove leg hair using waxing, sugaring, depilatories, epilators or other depilation devices, or lasers, bu ...
*
Razor A razor is a bladed tool primarily used in the removal of body hair through the act of shaving. Kinds of razors include straight razors, safety razors, disposable razors, and electric razors. While the razor has been in existence since be ...
s *
Shaving cream Shaving cream or shave cream is a category of cream cosmetics used for shaving preparation. The purpose of shaving cream is to soften the hair by providing lubrication. Different types of shaving creams include aerosol shaving cream (also kn ...
* Shaving soap


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shave Brush Personal hygiene products Shaving implements Brushes