I've been using the Semogue 2-band for a few months now. Just when I think I got the hang of producing a good lather with it, I am put in my place. Sometimes I get a great lather, but sometimes it eats up much of the lather. I've been using more product to make up for its hunger, but sometimes it still won't do. It almost seems as tough the Semogue works better with certain creams than with others but I have yet to make out exactly which ones. I remember getting great lathers with the Palmolive and the Speick. Last time I used it on the Trumper's Coconut and the lather was rather mediocre. Thus, more and more often I've been using the synthetic Muehle Silvertip Fibre which yields great results with all creams and has almost the same backbone as the Semogue 2-band. Maybe I need to use more water on the brush. I wonder what your experiences are with 2-bands and other hungry brushes.
If I could only have one brush for both soaps and creams, I'd pick a Muhle silvertip fibre. It makes great lathers with ease, from any vaguely decent soap or cream. perhaps more importantly, the Muehle synthetics are able to make lather with less product than other brushes. That last may be part of your issue. Different brush types require a different technique. Boar you load heavily and really beat the lather, horse you have to be gentle with, badger hold a lot of water, etc. I have challanges with badger, as well, incidentally. I attribute it to their water holding, which is bad when you have water as hard as mine.
I used the 2-band three days ago with my Trumper's coconut cream. Used more product than before and kept the brush a bit more wet. Yet, the results were only slightly better: First lather was quite okay but took long as the stiff backbone tends to wipe off the cream. And the following two passes saw the lather diminish more and more. I managed to get enough lather but the brush did devour most of it. Tonight I shaved with my Muehle silvertip fibre using the T&H Grafton cream: Amazing lather, easily applied. The fibres are a bit softer and less stiff so that I can apply the cream with much more ease. The Muehle is definitely my standard brush now while the 2-band becomes more and more annoying as I constantly have to worry about the lather.
