The older I get, the faster life seems to move. I really don't want to "speed things along." But that's me.
@DaltonGang as long as you don't scrub your bum with you're own boar brush without any harm or damage to the knot.
Hmm, that's an idea, for the brushes I don't like. Payback for them sucking. They become "The Bum Brush".
Thanks for the post. The brush looks good! Like some have said, I just break a new brush in by using it. But I like to hear about different techniques, even if I may never use them. I found myself wondering what difference is made by keeping it in the fridge rather than just at room temp. Thanks for sharing!
So cool thing I learned. Was talking to my best friends father. He was a barber. He said he soaked all his new boar brushes in cold water for days before using so it gives this method credence. Sent from my LGUS997 using Tapatalk
I'm in. I'm also impatient. I've got a Semogue a Stirling and a JR boar all soaking in the fridge as we speak.
It is an interesting idea, but I actually like breaking them in. It is kind of cool to see them progress. Kind of like little plastic handled children.
I have 4 boar brushes (including the new Stirling) and tried this on all of them. There is no question this made all 4 knots bloom significantly and did help to break them in. I'm not sure it did a lot in the hair splitting department to soften up the tips. My understanding is this occurs a little each time the bristles get wet and dry again. I've also heard wetting them and then drying them with a hair dryer can expedite this. @Drygulch - your Shavey brush was only used once or twice after the hairdryer trick. I remember it split the ends reasonably well, but the brush didn't soften up enough for me and I didn't feel like using it a bunch to see if things would change. Did you find that it softened up much on you after a number of uses or do you feel like it was reasonably broken and when you got it?
It wasn't as soft as my 10066 that I have had for 4 years, but was getting there. I have pretty much only used it for the last two months. Its getting much softer. I have also noticed that different brands of boar brushes break in differently. My Omegas start fairly soft and get soft tips with a lot of backbone. My Semoges take longer, but get softer than the Omegas. The Chinese boar knot I have is no where near broken in yet, and will need a lot of work to get there.
I don't think it needs to sit continuously in the fridge for all 3 days. My version of this method is to leave it in the fridge during the day - say from morning till evening, spend a few minutes drying it on a clean dry bath towel while watching TV, leave it to dry upright overnight and repeat a couple of times more. In 3 days, there's a very noticeable difference in that most of the hairs are split, even 3 or 4 way splits for some. The brush was also noticeable softer afterwards. I myself would hesitate to use a hair dryer on my brush, but I can vouch for the fridge method working miracles in softening up the boar bristles by inducing split ends very quickly
Thanks for you insight and input @vsp; Please feel free to stop by and post in the welcome center so we came properly welcome you to TSD.