I recently received an Escali razor/brush stand and 2 badger brushes from a client of mine. I have never used a badger brush before but always wanted one, now I have two! WOW, I've never seen a lather whipped up so fast in my life. After my shower I soaked my brush for about 2 minutes in hot water, squeezed the excess water out and began building my lather with my old trusty Van Der Hagen Luxury soap. Building up a nice lather with VDH Luxury isn't difficult at all with my boar or synthetic brushes, but it's incredibly easy with a badger brush. For years I wondered what the big deal was with badger brushes. Are they really that much better than Boar or synthetic brushes, I thought? Well now I know. I'm really looking forward to using my new brush with a variety of soaps to see how it performs !!!
Awesome that you're enjoying the new equipment! My wife loves her synthetic brush so I decided to try a couple different ones. They are decent performers but I for me nothing compares to the feel of a quality silvertip. Just can't let them go.
You can find $10 Badgers and $25 Badgers and $100 Badgers and OMG ones. Some shed. Some are scrubby. Some are floppy. Some are dense, others not so much. There are small ones and huge ones, brushes with backbone, brushes without. There are pure ones and best and silvertip and on and on.
Yes, pictures would be nice. I just test lathered my Jayaruh #274 boar brush. See... http://jrshaving.blogspot.com/2018/04/firsts-lathering-for-jayaruh-274.html