Cleaning and maintaining a brush in good condition

Joined
Wednesday August 26, 2009
Location
New Forest, England.
There's plenty of advice about this on the net, but what do people do here? For a start, I have read that shaking water out of a brush too vigorously will lead to long term damage. Does it?
 
I simply give it a good shake until I am not aware of any water coming out - no more than 5 times.{in the shower - got complaints about how our mirror was looking! )
 
Shake it dry and let it stand.

Don't worry about standing it on its base - it won't ruin it - that is just something manufacturers tell you to get you to buy a stand.

Badger hair and human hair is quite similar so when your brush doesn't seem to be holding as much water as it used to you can give it a quick once-over with your good lady's shampoo and conditioner.
 
As said no real special daily or even monthly cleaning needed, use it then rinse well before hanging or standing to dry. I try to not use the same brush two days in a row as some of them take more than a day to dry.

When they seem to not hold as much water or I see soap gathering at the base of the bristles (when dry) I use a Borax solution to clean it but only because I already had some, shampoo or fairy liquid will do the job just as well. After cleaning I use white vinegar solution as a rinse and you can add glycerin if you feel you want the hair softer, which is the same as using the hair conditioner.
 
Post shave rinse the brush with bristles standing directly under the flow of water rather than rinsing around exterior of the knot, that way you will be sure to remove all the unused lather.

A gentle squeeze and shake and couple of rubs on a towel to help it along.
 
antdad said:
fozz77 said:
Do these words of advice cover badger and boar?

I have no idea but i'll let you know if there's anything left of the boreal.

I do the above mentioned to a boar, plus fire up the hair dryer & pass it over the bristles for 20 secs.
Badgers do not absorb water where boars do. I stole that line from a much more learned gent than me sen.


The Boreal is a different story. A great looking brush of a great size.........it is not broken in yet, but, i reckon it will be too stiff to be any good. The knot is way above the handle, hence the stiffness. I hope it comes good.
 
[quote="fozz77]Badgers do not absorb water where boars do. [/quote]

I don't follow, are you saying boar hair absorbs more water than badger hair?
 
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