Synthetic question?

I'm not sure whether it's absorption or retention, but all my Plisson-type synthetics seem to hold a fair amount of water, and do need some shaking or squeezing before lathering, else the lather is often too thin or watery ( depending on soap or cream ).

A rough and ready gauge is to dip the brush as normal, then shake it out into your hand ( or mug/bowl etc. ). That'll give you some idea of how much water it holds, and you can then adjust and work on from there.
 
I tried soaking (really just wetting the knot well with hot water from the tap and then letting the brush sit while I shower) and not soaking, and in my experience boar and horse brushes benefit from soaking, but it has no effect I can detect on badger and synthetic. (It's always worthwhile to experiment.) Note that synthetic brushes hold more water than you might expect, so give the brush 2-3 good shakes before loading, else the excess water will flood the puck and make loading difficult and the lather thin.
 
I soak all my brushes. It's not needed for a synth, as mentioned earlier in the thread, but I do it to warm up the brush. It simply absorbs the heat from the water and makes for a more "natural" experience.

Your Metering Might Vary.
 
Soak the synthetic brush and use it as is. You will learn the messy way that it is trying to hold a lot of water but failing and dispensing it all over the bathroom. Test until you find the sweetspot probably a fairly dry brush to start with then add water as you go.
 
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I'm surprised that some find that wetting a synthetic knot well under the hot water tap (and then giving the brush 2-3 good shakes before loading) does not warm up the brush. I don't soak either badger or synthetics, as I noted, and when I compared the soaked vs. unsoaked use of those, I could not detect any difference in brush warmth. Brushes, in my experience, very quickly (a few seconds) reach the temperature of the hot water being used to wet the brush. Maybe I'm missing something.
 
Recently I bought a Razorock Plissoft and have been soaking it before lathering just as I would with badger and boar brushes. This morning I thought of the exact same question as bagman and was going to post a thread asking the question. Great to find a thread giving good advice.
 
@thegallus1 - With questions of this sort, which depend to some degree on personal preference, the best course is, I think, to experiment: try a week of soaking the brush before the shave (and I soak brushes by wetting the knot well, then letting the wet brush stand while I shower), then a week of not soaking the brush, and another week of soaking the brush.

In my experience, boar and horsehair brushes benefit by soaking (and indeed I could not go a week with an unsoaked boar brush) and soaking makes no detectable difference with badger and synthetic brushes. YMMV, but try the experiment and see. (I do, of course, wet badger and synthetic brushes before use—hold them under the hot-water tap and then give them a couple of shakes before loading)—but I didn't find soaking did anything for those.
 
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