The Boars have longer break-in period than Badgers. From the other side don't worry too much, my SOC refuses to build a 3 pass lather no matter how i have tried It's far beyond my other brushes.
It just depends on the brush/hair as I ordered two Omega pro 48's and one of them had such a strong odor and the other nothing. Same brush, shop, and order but one with strong smell and one with literally none.
Funny thing was I didn't know the other one was smell free till my youngest brother opened it up.... Lucky sob. The odor eventually went away with use but I can tell you the odor can be very strong.
I believe mine took about two and half weeks with shaving everyday and using it almost that. There is something to say about a broken in boar brush with no odor, pure magic. I'm honestly surprised that high end badgers still interest me after having used my boar so well.
I only have a single brush which is boar and I found the following to be true : 1. You want to defunk it as fast as possible 2. You want it to get split ends as fast as possible To get the funk out, the best thing is very warm water with borax. Let it sit in there Dry the brush completely Then lather some soap and let it dry into the brush. Strong smelling soap like proraso are the best here. Rinse and repeat I did vinegar at first and it did very little. Borax with warm water wasn't all that great either, borax with really warm water (as in, you wouldn't put your hand in it warm) cut into the smell big time. What gives you split end is, just like with human hair, mostly the drying process. I personally used a hair dryer. Don't be stupid, use the gentlest setting on your blow dryer and keep the thing moving so you never overheat and damage your brush. You won't believe how fast those ends will start to split In 3 days my very, very smelly Omega pro 49 boar was 100% smell free and had a LOT of split ends. Comparing it with other pictures online I'd say I got about a month of daily use of break in in those 2-3 days. I'm not sure if I'd do that with a more expensive semogue brush, but you bet I'll do it again if I buy another cheap boar.
I honestly let my super foul Omega pro 48 defunk naturally as the shavw gods intended....with very strong scented shave soap. It ended up working very well for me and gave me a great appreciation for the boar brush.
Sounds like you don't have enough water in the SC. It needs more water to foam and you have squeezed and shook all the water out of the boar brush. (It's new and hasn't absorbed as much water as it will in the future.) That's just my humble opinion but you might put extra water (not too much at a time) and try to get the mix ratio correct. Badger brushes have more of a capillary action which holds the water in the knot of hairs and the boars actually absorb the water into the bristles if I'm not mistaken. Hope that helps! [/quote] If you want the stink out, and you'd like a quicker break-in, try this: Fetch a cereal bowl from the kitchen. (or anything that is approximately 5 inches in diameter and 2 inches deep) Soak your brush in warm water for 2-3 minutes. Remove the brush and hold it over the sink with the business end pointing down for 5 seconds. DON'T SQUEEZE IT, AND DON'T SHAKE IT. Un-cork the Weleda again, and squeeze a nickel size dollop into the bowl. (Don't get cheap here, put in plenty. What you spend whilst learning will matter little 6 months from now...) Put the brush into the bowl, push down a bit and start agitating. Don't just swirl in a circular motion! Move brush toward and away from you, then left and right also. See what you get for lather. It may be ok, but most likely it will be thin, watery, and frothy with lots of bubbles. (Too much water) That's ok though. You are going through this process so you can discover a good starting point. Rinse out the bowl and brush, and start over. But, this time when you pull the brush from the water, give it ONE brisk shake. The idea is to remove some water so that you are starting with a brush that isn't quite as wet as the first time. Squeeze Miss Weleda again, insert brush and have at it. Better lather this time? Probably. If so, now you know! Soak brush for 2-3 minutes, remove and give 1 brisk shake. If it's still too wet, repeat the process but give the brush 2 brisk shakes. You will find the correct combination of water/soap by doing this. You'll also de-stinkerize your brush, and help it break in sooner. So practice lathering in that bowl! Once you get the soak, shake, soap & agitate program down to a science, you'll be ready to take on face lathering! Big lather in the bowl =