IMO, a lot of the reason why not many are talking about Yaqi is they hear Chinese and they think, "cheap", not realizing that almost all of the knots and probably most of the brushes from companies like WCS, Razorock and Stirling are made in China anyways, probably by Yaqi. I'll admit, Ive considered picking a few up because the prices are right but I honestly dont need any more brushes right now.
They definitely have a few I like, but I have 15 to 20 brushes to restore on hand. I only have one face to shave, so how many brushes do I need?
Amen to that. The other day I was on the site, looking at their brushes, with a few in my cart and I was like, "do I really need more brushes???" The obvious answer was no and Im trying to live a simplier life, so I stopped myself.
Keeping it apples to apples (2 Band Finest), I will just leave it at Shavemac. Somewhat similarly, any of the denser Simpson Best models have more hair.
People start having problems... In the beginning the customer service seemed correct, now it is not existent! If you have a problem (poor manufacturing, quality issue, non-existent quality controls etc.) you are teased... This is a "Sagrada Familia" synthetic brush (around 9.25€ and 4.22€ for shipment, a bit less than $US 17): This is the YAQI factory reply: "Dear ... May our people are busying sending parcel, so they made a mistake that not check it very well. Sorry for the inconvenience, to show our sorry, Please provide us your paypal account, we can return you 3 dollars. Next time, when you buy, we will send you a reazor as a gift. Chen Lijun" It's not funny? Think about it before spending $US 30/35 or more (with shipment) bucks to buy a defective, poorly manufacturer, probably a product with quality issues, rejected by OEM/business customers and sold to private users... DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY! Risk is high... P.S.: AliExpress never reply to your request to get back your money. Everything will be lost in China's sea...
Got a slivertip on the way, tracking says it's in Chicago, should be here soon. FYI, bought it off aliexpress, however couldn't figure out how to use the 4 dollar off coupon.
My 3 Yaqi brushes arrived the other day and theyre perfect. Ive been using my 24mm badger with the mysterious space handle and its been a wonderful brush thus far. It shed a few hairs at first (as all badger brushes do) but since then it hasnt shed any hairs. Even if it starts to shed at some point in time or even if the knot falls out, I'll just reknot it because I love the handle. The other 2 brushes I have are 24mm synthetics, kind of like Yaqi's take on a tuxedo knot and they seem great. Theyre very soft and very densely packed. All in all, Im very happy with my purchase, so much so infact, that I recently put in an order for a travel badger brush.
Have you tried combing the knot? I notice many times that when I have a "hole" in the knot it is simply due to fibers being bent down and trapped by other fibers. A quick combing usually get them all realigned and standing straight.
I have 5 Yaqi brushes now and have had no problems with them. I will say that the silver tip badger had a good bit of funk to it that I'm still working out. Be sure to check out the knot dimensions in the description of each brush because each synthetic has a very different feel to it as well. The 26mm Evil Zebrahas a high loft (60mm) and feels a bit floppy, the 28mm Tuxedo has fantastic backbone and feels very much like a Simpson's synthetic( I'm comparing it to a Chubby 2), and the 30mm black knot is super dense but has less backbone then the 28mm. The 24mm Boar knot is much smaller then the Stirling Boar, in use it almost seems too small.
Just got my new slivertip Yaqi. What a thing of beauty, haven't had chance to use it yet, just shampoo wash before work. So excited to get home and take it for spin.
I got a new brush and a partial refund so ymmv. Regardless file a claim with aliexpress and upload the required video clip and you will get a full refund.
It kind of makes you wonder how bad we're all getting ripped off buying all these $100+ brushes. The knots all come from China anyways, so its not like they have a ton of money in the knots and theres no way any handle costs that much to make.
Not all knots come from China. Paladin, Shavemac, Simpson's, M&F and I'm sure a few other high end brushes use hand tied knots. Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
