I picked up yet another brush recently. I’ve had this one on the wishlist for a while, having decided after seeing it that a d20 die suspended in an acrylic brush handle looked really cool.
So I present to you the Yaqi R2002-S Lucky Dice synthetic brush.
Yaqi, the Chinese brand that generally makes knockoffs of popular western razors, seems to crank out a delightful collection of acrylic-handled synthetic shaving brushes for bargain basement prices. Neither of the two Yaqi brushes I own have cost over $20, and the Rainbow handled synthetic is one of my favorites.
For those of you scoring at home, this is brush number 9 in the collection, and 10 overall (I’d like to say we just need to forget the Bamboo Switch brush, but it taught some important lessons in it’s very short time with me). After having started the shave year last August with just three brushes, and a desire to grab a synthetic brush to see what it’s like, I’ve quickly built up the collection to the point where now synthetic bristled brushes dominate…as shown above.
So let’s have a quick talk about why I’m finding them so nice to use.
On the whole, synthetic bristle brushes offer several advantages over boar or badger (or other animal hair) brushes.
The first and probably most obvious, is that they aren’t collected from the animals themselves. I wasn’t really aware of how the bristles are collected, but had made some assumptions, and I was mostly right, as proven by a Google search, but boar bristles come from slaughtered pigs, and badger bristles come from pet, farmed, or hunted badgers, primarily in China. The bristles are sorted individually and then made into brush heads.
Second, synthetic bristles don’t absorb water like boar and badger do. Instead, the water gets trapped between the bristles using capillary action or surface tension.
Third, synthetic brush heads are usually more densely packed than boar or badger heads. The bristles are usually thinner, so you can fit more in the same space. For me, the density leads to better lathering and more comfortable application of lather.
Finally, synthetic bristles can range from soft to wiry, making for an interesting range in feel for brushes from the super soft bristles of my Yaqi Rainbow brush to the firm boar-like bristles of the Omega S10049.
And before I go too much farther, there are some downsides too. I love my boar brushes because they lather so efficiently. I don’t get that level of efficiency in any of my synthetics, but the Omega S10049 does come close. And yes, synthetic bristles are commonly made from petroleum products, possibly making them less eco-friendly than the animal-based bristles.
But, I have yet to lose a single bristle from one of my synthetic brushes (at least, none that I’ve noticed). While the boar and badger do shed at least one bristle per shave.
So yes, I’m a convert and love my bristle brushes. And while I’m at a point where I don’t think I need any more brushes, I’m not going to say no to adding others. There are a couple of artisans out on Etsy who make some beautiful brushes that I’d love to get, but I’m going to have to convince myself to drop $60+ on a shaving brush. For now, the most expensive one I own cost me $35, and that feels extravagant.