When I begun with wet shaving around end of 2012 I bought a cheap badger brush. It was so bad that the synthetic brushes (Mühle, Yaqi) I bought after felt like a huge upgrade. Still the idea of using something that is probably letting out micro plastic particles into the environment did not appeal to me so recently I decided to get a new brush with real hair: the Omega Boar! First I put it to soak, then to wash it I decided do some palm lathering. There I noticed to my disappointment it shed quite a bit of hair. I rinsed it properly and lathered up in my cup. From here on it impressed me. The lathering performance is on a completely different level than the few brushes I have used so far. With my synthetic brushes I had to work a lot more in order to get a dense lather. This one just created it without any effort. Also when lathering the face, it got really easily a great protecting layer of lather. With the synthetic I had to put a lot of more effort also for this part of the process. So it is a great brush for lathering but the hair shedding worries me a bit.
My 3 synthetic brushes went to the trash bin. I was for a second considering a PIF, but I do not think anyone is interested in cheap synthetic brushes and real brushes can be had for less than what the shipping would be from my country.
I have a couple of nice badgers and a couple of nice synthetics but I rarely use them. Most of my brushes are boar. I prefer a dense knot with a lot of backbone.
I have owned several Omega boars and never had a shedding problem. They all become excellent brushes after they broke in.
The one I bought was a beautiful red 49. I think I will also get a 48 so by alternating between them they have better chance to dry up between uses. The 48 is supposed to be slightly longer so it becomes a slight variation.
Despite the fact that I got some years of experience as I was beginning with DE and brush in late 2012 and despite the fact that my Omega Boar #49 was my fifth brush I am still surprised how much more enjoyment a good brush gives to the shave. Now I have done several shaves with this new brush I am just even more in love with Omega Boar. It is so much easier to get a good lather with this brush than with the junk I used earlier.
Almost all boars shed a bit at first. After a few uses (sometimes up to a week or two) the shedding settles down, but usually the hair loss is at about 1-3 bristles for the first few shaves. After that it might shed a hair every now and again, but it will still last years and years. My omega 49 was my third brush, and I've used it almost exclusively for two years. I recently got a synthetic and I've been using that for two months, and went back to the omega for my Christmas eve shave, and I've forgotten how beautiful it is. Its absolutely fantastic. Each type of knot has advantages and disadvantages, its about finding what works for you. Sent from my Redmi S2 using Tapatalk
Now I have had for some time both #48 and #49 and I have been alternating between them (so they dry up better). They both got about the same much use but my #48 is much softer. I do not know if the difference comes from the boar itself, but I definitely prefer my #48. I can imagine that in the same way as some people got thicker hair, so also some boar got ticker than other.
