Horsehair brush- what should I expect?

I bought a Vie-Long(12601) 35%main/65%Tail. It has great backbone, but is a little rough on the scritch. Do they soften any like a boar? Do they break in much? What should I expect? Thanks in advance!

 

I think they act a lot like a boar. I love my horse brushes. I have 3 now.

 

I hope so, because if it will soften a little, it may become may favorite.

 

My guess is it will. The mixed brush like you have is a favorite. Do you have a pic of it?

 

I wish you well. I piffed my horse. Too much scritch for me.

 

I don't have a horse hair brush, but am interested!

 

I just shaved with my Vi Long horse hair brush on Monday. See below photo. It does act much like a boar brush. Mine took about 2 dozen shaves to break in and is just fine now. I like the backbone of this brush - makes for great lather. A new horse hair brush may have a bit of wet horse smell. If you soak it in warm water, with some shampoo, a couple times (letting it dry out in between soaks) it will get rid of the scent.

 

Better looking then mine. And I see a few others like them too. There you go.
Carry on.

 

My favorite is a Vie-Long horse. I never noticed any face irritation. My problem has been finding a second horse, the ones I've tried have no backbone.

 

I have the Vie Long Cachuro (spelling might be off.) it is a 50/50 between mane and tail. My experience is the scritch is from the tail portion of hairs. It hasn't softened up really that much after months of using it. I like the mane portion as it is really soft but the tail...still really scritchy. Hope that helps a bit.

 

This one seems to have good back bone,but it is brand new. Have you had the same experience as Zykris with the degree of scritch remaining the same after months?

 

Very nice. Has it not softened at all?

 

I have a Vie-Long that has softened some, but I don't use it often enough for it to be fully broken in. When I used it for the first couple of times I noticed a pronounced scritch that was very off putting to me. After examining the bristles I found one that was as stiff and thick as a small copper wire. I clipped it off and have had much more comfortable sessions with it since.

 

The tips of the mane have gotten softer. More so than my WD High Mountain Badger. The tail part is what is really scratchy no matter how much I've used it. That was my only exclusively brush for months. It has at least 50-60 shaves on it.

 

That's supposedly the one which is also OEM'ed by Cremo.

I have one of the Cremo ones and it does soften up somewhat. More precisely, it does eventually stop poking randomly you with the tail hairs. A good brush though, if a bit small.

 

Thank you for adding that, I'm glad to hear it.