Shaving brush care and shedding

I asked Progress Vulfix for information about shedding which I might include in my shaving blogs.

This is an extract from advice they gave to a customer who sells their branded brushes. It contains some interesting information and advice.

"A new brush can typically expect to shed hairs for the first 3 months of its life as it sheds any loose hairs not removed in the manufacturing process. You could also mention that if the hairs the brush is shedding are short hairs then this can be a result of hairs breaking rather than shedding due to the brush being used incorrectly i.e. not letting the bristles soak in warm NOT hot water to soften them before use. Soaking the whole brush in water that is too hot can cause the epoxy resin in the handle to expand causing the handle to crack or the hairs to shed, it is always best to try to soak the bristles and not the handle. If you do have a brush that is shedding it is common practice to comb thru the bristles with a fine toothed comb, this can help to remove any loose hairs. Excessive shedding would be considered at 10 hairs per shave but it is quite normal for a brush to lose 3 or 4 hairs every shave for all of its life. If a brush suddenly starts shedding after several months then it is more likely to be caused by improper care of the brush rather than the brush just starting to shed, as soap residue can attack the hairs and make them brittle"

So key issues are the need to soak only the bristles in warm, not hot, water and to ensure that soap residue is fully removed after use.


This is a great piece of research from Shaving 101:


Shedding