Review Details

Edwin Jagger Imitation Ivory Shaving Brush (Synthetic Silver Tip)

Product Review (submitted on 14 September 2018):

I've owned four brushes: The cheap Wilkinsons Sword, a boar brush from China, a small badger brush and a larger pure badger. This brush beats them all.

I was happy with my badger brush until it started losing hair (and not yet a year old). All of the other brushes I've owned lost hair too, with bristles mainly snapping off at the base. This could be down to my lathering technique, since one is supposed to paint lather onto the face rather than my preferred method of swirling it about any old way.

Buying a synthetic brush felt a bit like giving in, but since I had mucked up some badger brushes I thought I should give it a try. Some online research confirmed that synthetic brushes have come a long way in the last couple of years, and I narrowed my choice down to this one based on good reviews elsewhere. The price was a bit more than I wanted to pay, but there you go.

Bearing in mind that I'd found my small badger brush unusable due to its size, I ordered the extra large version of this brush. Having used it I could easily have gone a size down - read on for why.

The brush has bristles that are thinner at one end than the other. This has the effect of being super silky on the face but provided a surprisingly stiff backbone (I was worried the brush would prove too floppy, a reason for ordering the extra large). The bristles whip up lather wonderfully and hold more than enough water to generate it, in fact I'd advise giving the brush a good shake to get rid of almost all of the water before lathering up with a hard soap; Creams may require other treatment, I don't know. Because of the backbone I naturally have to use the brush as intended, painting lather on the face. Attempting to use it to swirl lather around on the face feels very uncomfortable. I can't see the synthetic hair breaking like a natural product, which it the main reason I bought it, but not the reason I'll happily stay with it. As far as I'm concerned my search for the perfect brush is over.

It lost one hair the first time I tried it, and none in the three weeks since then.

I really can't recommend this brush highly enough. I hope it last for many years, and I can't see why it shouldn't.