Choosing a Traditional Shaving Brush For Acne Prone Skin

Traditional shaving brushes, when used with a suitable shaving cream, give the best shaving experience for acne prone skin. Shaving brushes allow you to whip up an abundance of smooth shaving cream allowing the razor to glide effortlessly over your skin. They also provide a gentle exfoliating action, removing dead skin.

Usually, when men begin to use a shaving brush and cream, very few return to cans of compressed foam.

Shaving brushes are usually made from badgers hair (hence the old fashioned term “blade and badger”) although synthetic brushes are available, but not as good in our opinion. Boar hair is another option which is cheaper than badger.

The Benefits of Using A Shaving Brush

If you suffer from acne prone skin, using a shaving brush will have the added benefit of:

• Helps create a luxurious and creamy natural lather to lubricate your skin reducing irritation
• The gentle exfoliating action of the brush will help remove dead skin, unblocking pores preventing further acne from developing
• The brush has a softening and lifting action on your facial hairs allowing them to be removed easily with minimal effort
• The need to use less shaving cream or soap on your face reducing chances of a reaction
• Will open up a whole new range of natural shaving products to use when wet shaving
• Coupled with a double edged or cut-throat razor, they’ll make you a real man!

What Are The Different Types of Shaving Brush

You can literally spend as much or as little as you want on a shaving brush. It all depends on your budget and the type of hair used. Getting yourself a “Pure Badger” or “Best Badger” brush will be fine as a starting point and should cost you no more than £20 depending what brand you buy. Boar is also an option if you are on budget.

Although you can buy cheaper, try and spend as much as you can afford at this point. Unless you have some sort of allergy, avoid synthetic hair. The quality makes a big difference to the overall shaving experience; generating a lather and the smoothness on your face. Generally, the tighter the knot and the finer the hair, the better the water retaining qualities a brush has and the easier it will be to generate a lather.

Please bear in mind there are no set rules as to the grades of badger hair. Each manufacturer will have its own standards in hair grading. Here are the list of the general grades of badger hair available:

• Pure Badger – A more than decent entry level brush. Cheap and good starting point into the world of shaving brushes. Buy from a known brand when purchasing this type of brush as quality can vary greatly. Will serve you well while you learn your new skills.

• Best Badger – Depending on the brand, these can either be the same quality as “Pure” or can denote a finer grade of badger hair being used. If this is the case, the hairs tend to be softer with a more dense knot. Another good starting point. Expect to pay a little more for this grade.

• Super Badger – More expensive. This will use a much higher grade of hair that will not have had its ends cut . This makes the tips finer giving a much softer feel on the face. General assembly quality will be improved and often done by hand. The tips are often dyed white for effect. Costs vary greatly, but Simpsons range of Super Badger brushes start at £80. We suggest you work up to one of these brushes as nuances in size and style will be personal and preference only learned after some experience has been gained.

• Silvertip Badger – Generally considered the best grade of badger hair and will cost a lot of money. Uses a rare type of badger hair that is naturally whitened on the end. Very, very soft and has great water retaining qualities. A decent brush of this type will easily start at £100. Anything cheaper should raise concerns over its quality. Again, we suggest working up to this grade.

There are a few more variants to mention about brushes. The length of the hairs, thickness of the knot and the shape of the head. Most of these are down to personal preference but generally, the shorter haired are more suited to generating a lather directly on the face and the longer in a shaving bowl. Although all types should serve you well at doing either to begin with.

Recommended Brands of Shaving Brush and How Much to Spend

The reality is you can spend anywhere from £10 – £200. If you have never used a badger hair shaving brush before then we recommend you start with either a “Pure” or a “Best” badger hair brush that costs around £20 from a well-known brand listed below. If budget is restricted, then you can go cheaper and try a boar or synthetic, but read reviews carefully before purchasing.

Excellent brands of shaving brush to look out for are:

• Simpson
• Edwin Jagger
• Kent
• Tweezerman
• Mühle

A decent badger hair brush, if cared for can easily last you a lifetime. If you don’t have a suitable store near you then most of these brands are all sold either from sites like Amazon or the more specialized shaving stores that now exist.

We hope you have found this article interesting, hopefully introducing you to a new school of thought when it comes to shaving and male skin care. Next time we will be looking at how to make a luxurious lather with a brush and shaving soap that will be suitable for acne prone skin.