Thread: Is it me or the brush?

I recently purchased a Parker silvertip brush. I expected it to be amazing, but I've been a little disappointed. It's very dense and holds a lot of lather, but it seems to make lather rather slowly. The lather also never seems to reach that stiff-peak, creamy wonderfulness that I so desire. Does anyone else have experience with Parker brushes?

It very well could be the brush, but that doesn't mean that it is bad by any means. I have never tried this brush, but from what I have seen it is a overstuffed knot and in my experience this style of knot tends to hold more water than most others. I think it would benefit the readers of this thread to inform us of what brush you were using previously. If it were a van der Hagen boar, I could tell you exactly what to look for first. If it were a cheaper badger where the knot was thin, that could be a different set of instructions. It may also benefit to know if anything else has changed: soap, water, bowl/mug, sprained wrist, sociopathic neighbor; anything.

I've owned two Parker brushes, and both were big lather hogs. I found that I didn't really know what good lather looked like until I got my first "high end" brushes (a Simpson Special and a honkin' big Shavemac).

Well, a brush is really a simple tool. It's got these hairs in it and once wet and presented with the soap it creates the lather we all crave.

The main issue is deciding the amount of water you need and how to load up the brush and how to create the actual lather. That is usually a user issue. In the end you can get great lather from pretty much any boar or badger or horse brush. You need to play with the thing and find out what it likes. How much water you need, do you need to press the brush into the soap or lightly stoke it, do you need to twirl the brush rapidly either with or without pressure. Depending on the brush and the soap you need to experiment with all those things because those parameters can all change.

Never had a parker but I've had my problems with lathering. What has helped me is soaking the brush in the lather bowl, throwing a splash of water on top of the puck. Take a few minutes and let that work. Dump the water out of the lather bowl and pour the splash that was on the puck into the lather bowl. From here it is a matter of technique and maybe your water quality. Watch youtube vids by a guy named 'mantic.' His lathering videos helped me a lot. He will work up lather for a full minute or more. If you face lather you're on your own. I used to but found I get way better results using the bowl.

+1 to watching mantic59's videos, they are really good - well made, entertaining and informative! I've certainly learnt much from watching them

MisterSensitive,
I found the Mantic videos helpful as well, he even posted one on lathering Mitchell's ( one of my favorites ). I find myself to be more of a "face latherer" these days, and using a mixing bowl less.