A way to clean a brand new brush

[N_Architect]

Cleaning a brand new brush

Most of you will probably either have their own way of doing this or will have read other threads here or in other forums.

Nonetheless, as I had to clean two new brushes which I received today, I took the opportunity of taking pictures. So here is what I do, with pictures and words. I hope this may help someone who any day will look for an opinion on how to do that.

My base on this is threads and info I have read in a number of forums (including TSR of course) over the last 2 years. Please feel free to correct or add information as you may feel it is necessary doing so.

The setup: (for this example)

1. Two (2) Frank Shaving [FS] brushes; one is with Best hair (the Persian Jar handle-styled one) and the other with Finest hair (the one with the longer and thinner handle).

2. Dishwasher (hand) liquid.

3. A cup or mug to let the brush soak in the water/dishwasher solution.

4. A shaving soap or cream.

5. A towel.

The process:

Open the tub till warm water runs off it:
(the water should preferably never be too hot when soaking a brush)

Pour some dishwasher liquid into one cup or mug:

(and/or for the second new brush of this example only)

Take the cup under the tub and fill it 10-20% with warm water:

Stir a bit, then place the brush inside the cup as shown, follow by adding water and stirring again:

The dishwasher liquid after stirring will give some foam and will start to 'wash' the brush that sits into the cup. This is greatly assisted by more stirring or even by agitating the brush inside the cup:

(or for the second brush in my example)

You can even do a gradual 'pumping up/down' motion with the brush:

Now let the brush(es) stay and soak there, for a period of 10' to 20':

(or)

 

[N_Architect]

We continue:

Your brush(es) have now been soaking in hand dishwasher liquid solution for about 10'-20'. So far so good.

One thing you'll notice is that the water/dishwasher liquid mix is now quite 'dirty', it has changed colour; that is because the brush(es) has/have been rinsed a bit, therefore all the dust, dirt, etc. has been taken off the bristles.

Please note that in some cases (boar hair, mainly Semogues) I have personally seen much more dirt coming off a brush - what you see here is nothing compared to the colour of how the water/dishwasher liquid mix has turned after 20' soak of a Semogue boar brush.

So we're ready to take our brushes off the washing solution - notice how important the cleaning/soaking in 'wash liquid' at this stage was:

Take the brushes off and rinse them under the tub:
(squeeze very gently gently downwards all the water off the brush - squeeze at one point in the loft, by any means do not squeeze and pull down at the same time)

Put the freshly rinsed brush(es) aside and get ready for the next step:

Rinse hand: (I'll do palm lather here, you can do bowl lather of you like)

Rinse brush again: (water still warm)

Load brush tips or palm with shave soap or cream:

Start to lather in palm (or bowl):

Once fairly nice lather is achieved leave on side - some leave their brush like that for 20', others recommend to leave overnight (in case of boar brushes when the desire is to break in the brush faster and get rid of the smell as much as possible at the same time):

I personally leave the brush sit upright, with the lather on, for anything between 20' to 2 hours.

After this time period has passes, rinse your new brush, dry it very carefully and in a mild manner, then let upright for at least 24 hours to dry:

You're good to go now! Brush(es) fully bloomed.

 

[Dipesh]

Great post K, I do something quite similar but use baby shampoo instead of dish wash soap. Also I don't leave soap lather on my soap too long either. I find that stage for badgers is useful to get rid of the funk they may have.

 

[CMOT]

Is this essential to getting full performance from a brush or does it just get clean it up and get rid of any smell?
Up to now I have just made a few runs of test lather to clean a brush assuming this would give enough cleaning effect.

 

[N_Architect]

No, this is not a way of ensuring full performance.

It is more of a 'first cleaning' of your new brush, and a break-in test lather essentially.

From what I understand all brushes (more or less) take at least a few lather runs, through actual use, to be able and give you their fullest in performance terms. Some people do repeated test lathers in order to break the brush in, others do may be one and then shave as normal.

Very dense badger or some boar brushes (e.g. a 26mm Shavemac or a Semogue 830) can reportedly take a pretty long time to break-in, i.e. in excess of 20 shaves.

 

[bigsimes]

Great post, thanks for sharing this information.
I've got a new(ish) brush on the way so will be using these tips.

Cheers