Ideally shave straight after a shower or hold a hot, wet towel over your face for a few minutes to soften the hairs. Whilst doing this soak the 'loft' of your shaving brush in hot water to soften the bristlesand aid the lathering process. Dimensions A.

The Loft - This is the hair length from the top of the handle to the uttermost tip of the hair. if you look very closely at the way these hairs are shaped, you will notice that most are a bulb shape, but others are a fan shape. Again this is down to personal preference. Wet shavers often discuss which style is better, but for us it is simply down to personal choice. They are made from two pieces, the handle and the hairs on the brush. In the old days handles were either made from wood or from ivory. Ivory is of course not allowed to be used for obvious reasons, so many manufacturers now use imitation ivory, which works perfectly well and offers a very nice style. Horse hair - this hair is taken from the horse's tail or mane, and is starting to be used once again, having fallen out of favour for a time

Wilkinson Sword

so i assume that the shaving brush that comes in horse hair would be way too soft too, or maybe im wrong assuming that? i dont know... If you like tradition or simply prefer wood, then these will be a great choice for you. Some people object to these because they say they are not hygienic, similar in a way to wooden chopping boards. This is just not the case. If a brush with a wooden handle is washed out and hung to dry, it does not in itself carry any more bacteria than any other type of handle. i did ask a scholar i know in regards to using boar hair brushes and he said its impure so we arent allowed to use is at all and tbh i was kinda gutted as i really liked my kent brushes for my beard tbh, ill have to ask him about badger hair shaving brushes now or i might just avoid them all as yea i think im just going to stay away from any animal related shaving brushes, just better and safer option to use synthetic and by the sounds of it im not going to be missing out on much as apparently from what i understand synthetic brushes have come a long way from what they once were i do have a muhle badger hair brush yea its good quality and all but believe it or not i prefered the synthetic brush over it, You can apply shaving soap or shaving creams by hand, but nothing does it as well or as efficiently as a good quality shaving brush. Your dad, and most definitely your grandfather will have made use of one of these, and suffice to say that the best barbers still use these every single day.

My favourite brush though has been around the forum a bit, it’s. a Mervyn Cadman shaped tuxedo knot, set in a carbon fibre handle, it suits me perfectly and I love it. The brush bristles should be wet (not soaking) before use. Load the loft with soap or cream and apply to the areas to be shaved, using a strong circular motion. This softens the hairs and also raises them ready for shaving. Size of Brush - You will hear some fancy terms when it comes to describing the size of a brush (loft, knot and overall height). We explain those later but for now, you simply want the handle of the brush to fit snugly in your hand. The simple rule to follow is the bigger the brush the easier it is to use and the better lather you can makeWe mentioned in our buying tips a little about the size of hair brushes. Here we explain those in a lot more detail. There are three clearly defined measurements when it comes to understand the size of brushes. We have listed those just below:

Here at the Emporium, we believe that proper wet shaving needs to be done using a brush and either a DE safety razor or a straight razor. I also found a discussion around whether the fur of a non Halal animal is acceptable to use as apparently there is a Hadith where it’s stated that the fur of any animal other than pig becomes Halal after the tanning process? I think you’d have to speak to your Imam about that to be certain.

in a nutshell within traditinal sunni islam theres four main schools of thought all of whom are right they just have difference of opinions on some maatters and subjects/topics Overall Height - This is the easiest one to understand and is the length of the handle plus the length of the loft (hair length) That is a step too far for some people, and we understand that. We would recommend if you find that as being too cruel, that you can still get a very good synthetic shaving brush. Those are created from man made fibres, and they are also very good quality. Think Hair Type - Boar and badger do mean killing the animal which some people will not like. If that is the case then horse hair (taken from the tail) or a synthetic brush work perfectly well.