How to create more 'bloom' in a cheap brush...

fly3k said:
Do you have to use the hair dryer each time?
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I do,as it dries them quicker...And it seems (YMMV) to improve the overall feel/look/smell of the brush.
I have VERY long hair (on me head)! ,it goes down to my waist,greying,but no balding ,(even at 45yrs old :)),and I need to dry it with a hair dryer every time I wash it.If I let it dry naturally,it feels awful,wirery,dry,just horrible!.But with the hair dryer,it is a 'mane' to die for...LOL!...Vosene For Men could use me in an advert,even if I do say so myself ;).
So IMO,the same principles HAVE worked with cheap shaving brushes....
Don't take my word for it,try it yourself...
 
Bechet said:
Mod: A popular way to get banned for a couple of weeks is to mount personal attacks in place of reasoned argument, even if such attacks are against some part of your own psyche. We play nicely here.
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There is no reason to put Mod: in front of your reply,I already knew that.But if you want to make snarky comments WITHOUT trying what I said in post 1,have no experience in 50+yr old brushes that have been stored in a travelling set,and adding insults like 'go faster stripes',and 'because I use 'em rather than tickle myself with them',what do you think my reply would be?.I do appreciate you have not deleted my above reply to you though!.
Shall we agree to a gentlemanly agreement, that until PERSONALLY tested,all snarky comments,by both you,and myself,come to an end?.
All the best.
DT
 
antdad said:
A cheap naturally bristled brush is very likely to be less dense than most so bloom isn't something you should be encouraging and to the untrained eye it may look like a more expensive brush but it certainly won't perform like one or even begin to, you're just kidding yourself.
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You are missing the point.It is NOT just about making a cheap brush look like an expensive one!,using a hair dryer improves the all round feel/use of the brush!,my Semogue 520,and Vulfix 404,Kent 'wet is best' brushes all improved with the hair dryer treatment mentioned in post 1.
The main point of what I am going on about in post 1,is an old brush,left in a travelling tube for 50+ years can be bought back to a usable state,by hitting it with a HAIR DRYER!,but all cheap brushes can be improved by the same treatment!.

And no,I am not kidding myself!.

You may not like the message,but try it before you shoot the messenger.
 
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Not the best photo,but....

9PBqUm9.jpg
 
Dr Terror said:
You are missing the point.It is NOT just about making a cheap brush look like an expensive one!,using a hair dryer improves the all round feel/use of the brush!,my Semogue 520,and Vulfix 404,Kent 'wet is best' brushes all improved with the hair dryer treatment mentioned in post 1.
The main point of what I am going on about in post 1,is an old brush,left in a travelling tube for 50+ years can be bought back to a usable state,by hitting it with a HAIR DRYER!,but all cheap brushes can be improved by the same treatment!.
And no,I am not kidding myself!.
You may not like the message,but try it before you shoot the messenger.
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This is what you declared in a previous post...

Dr Terror said:
And why bother with the extra 'bloom',?,well,the cheapo brushes look like expensive brushes for a start...Then the old cheapo brushes start acting like the more expensive brushes....
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Try not to generalise about all brushes as it's irritating, you may have accelerated the natural splitting/aging process that occurs with boar hair by using heat and that'll improve it's feel. That isn't a particularly new phenomenon nor is it something you should do with badger hair because it isn't as course.
 
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antdad said:
This is what you declared in a previous post...



You're simply increasing knot bloom by heating the hair and that'll may make the knot feel larger to the uninitiated, that's it. As I said you're kidding yourself in that regard.

You might be splitting the tips of boar brush with the addition of heat, in which case you've accelerated the aging process, nothing new there.
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OK,I agree with you to some point,I may be heating the knot,to make it feal larger to 'the uninitiated',but can YOU see any split tips in the pic of the Semogue 520 above?,I cant...And if heating the knot up with a hair dryer improves a the usage/feel of a cheap brush,what is the problem?.As I said in what you quoted me on above,a cheap brush can look like a more expensive brush (it can,but that is NOT the point),but I WILL stick to a cheap brush can feel more like an expensive brush by applying a hair dryer to it....

No,I am well aware you cannot turn water into wine,but you CAN make water taste like wine!.

well actually,as a home brewer you can turn water into wine....LOL!.
 
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You may have improved a brush but you haven't understood why.

Look a bit harder, most of the individual tips of that boar are probably split and I can certainly see some. Boar hair doesn't taper to a fine point like badger, it's course and has a tendency to split which is one of many reasons why it doesn't command a higher price.
 
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antdad said:
You may have improved a brush but you haven't understood why.

Look a bit harder, most of the individual tips of that boar are probably split and I can certainly see some. Boar hair doesn't taper to a fine point like badger, it's course and has a tendency to split which is one of many reasons why it doesn't command a higher price.
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And that is exactly my point,I HAVE improved it!.....Cheap brush made better!....Thank you!.
 
If you really, really, want me to I'll download the picture to my laptop and draw little circles around the split ends that I can see, but it would be easier if you just accepted that they're there.

This is not a bad thing in a boar though, you want the ends to split as that gives the brush soft tips while retaining the backbone lower down the hair shaft where it hasn't split. This happens naturally with usage, but drying speeds it up.
 
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