- Joined
- Thursday April 9, 2015
I like wet shaving, and definitely suffer from RAD, but my interest has always been razors and not brushes. Furthermore, I've never really fancied the idea of mashing part of a badger into my face (even though I use tallow soaps), so my experience of brushes has been almost entirely with synthetic brushes. I'm a big guy, and in general I like a big brush (ooer fnarr fnarr).
My brush history looks like this:
Tesco's Wilkinson Sword brush (horrible, binned it when I realised it was boar)
Kent Infinity Silvertex synth (tiny, given away)
Plisson synthetic (still a bit small, lent out to a mate)
EJ or Muhle 25mm synthetic (still a bit small, sold)
Whipped Dog 30mm synthetic (daily driver and the only one I have left)
So in a way, it doesn't make much sense that I ordered a Simpsons Chubby 2 synthetic, which I regard as "pretty small". I ordered it from Shave Lounge, whose service was impeccable, and the price was the best I could find.
My logic is partly to do with the fact that I switched from face lathering to bowl lathering. That means a smaller brush doesn't necessarily have to hold all the lather, as the bowl can retain some.
If you research the CH2S brush online, you'll find endless discussions about loft. It sounds like Simpsons got themselves into a marketing pickle, promising generation 5 fibres, and making a prototype with a 54mm loft, but then going into production at a smaller loft. I don't really understand all that stuff, I've never been into brushes, so I don't really know what the implications are. My Chubby 2 arrived, the loft stated at 52mm, but measured by me crudely at something less than 50mm. Might even be 48mm, which is the size that seems to have upset so many people.
When it arrived, I mashed it against my face, dry, and thought "hmm perhaps that will be too much pressure for my face if I want to splay the fibres". I thought I'd made a terrible mistake, and should have listened to the various naysayers. I also looked at it, and thought "jeez that's tiny" and perhaps I should have got a Chubby 3 (which isn't available in synthetic as far as I can tell).
But then I used it. I tried it with some Saponificio Varesino Dolomiti, which I've not been able to get a good shave from before. Lather was superb, and really easy to make. Once wet, the fibres were very willing to splay when pressed against my face. Remember I bowl lather now, so I can't say if it was the wetness, or the brush being filled with lather. The feeling on my face was softer even than I remember the Plisson being. It's like wafting a cloud over your face. My one big complaint is that the handle is really stubby, so I had lather all over my hand. No big deal really, to be honest. I had the first decent shave I've ever had with that soap.
Since that shave, I've gone back and tested the brush with some other soaps. MWF was next. I don't normally have problems lathering MWF. With the CH2S, I got the slickest MWF lather I've experienced, with no effort at all. Next up was some Nannys Silly Soap, which I've struggled with. An explosion of lather, and whilst I didn't shave with it, it seems like the CH2S will breathe new life into the NSS pucks.
I can't kick the feeling that I wish it was a CH3S, but that doesn't exist, so this will have to do. At the moment, my opinion is that this is the best brush I've ever used.
My brush history looks like this:
Tesco's Wilkinson Sword brush (horrible, binned it when I realised it was boar)
Kent Infinity Silvertex synth (tiny, given away)
Plisson synthetic (still a bit small, lent out to a mate)
EJ or Muhle 25mm synthetic (still a bit small, sold)
Whipped Dog 30mm synthetic (daily driver and the only one I have left)
So in a way, it doesn't make much sense that I ordered a Simpsons Chubby 2 synthetic, which I regard as "pretty small". I ordered it from Shave Lounge, whose service was impeccable, and the price was the best I could find.
My logic is partly to do with the fact that I switched from face lathering to bowl lathering. That means a smaller brush doesn't necessarily have to hold all the lather, as the bowl can retain some.
If you research the CH2S brush online, you'll find endless discussions about loft. It sounds like Simpsons got themselves into a marketing pickle, promising generation 5 fibres, and making a prototype with a 54mm loft, but then going into production at a smaller loft. I don't really understand all that stuff, I've never been into brushes, so I don't really know what the implications are. My Chubby 2 arrived, the loft stated at 52mm, but measured by me crudely at something less than 50mm. Might even be 48mm, which is the size that seems to have upset so many people.
When it arrived, I mashed it against my face, dry, and thought "hmm perhaps that will be too much pressure for my face if I want to splay the fibres". I thought I'd made a terrible mistake, and should have listened to the various naysayers. I also looked at it, and thought "jeez that's tiny" and perhaps I should have got a Chubby 3 (which isn't available in synthetic as far as I can tell).
But then I used it. I tried it with some Saponificio Varesino Dolomiti, which I've not been able to get a good shave from before. Lather was superb, and really easy to make. Once wet, the fibres were very willing to splay when pressed against my face. Remember I bowl lather now, so I can't say if it was the wetness, or the brush being filled with lather. The feeling on my face was softer even than I remember the Plisson being. It's like wafting a cloud over your face. My one big complaint is that the handle is really stubby, so I had lather all over my hand. No big deal really, to be honest. I had the first decent shave I've ever had with that soap.
Since that shave, I've gone back and tested the brush with some other soaps. MWF was next. I don't normally have problems lathering MWF. With the CH2S, I got the slickest MWF lather I've experienced, with no effort at all. Next up was some Nannys Silly Soap, which I've struggled with. An explosion of lather, and whilst I didn't shave with it, it seems like the CH2S will breathe new life into the NSS pucks.
I can't kick the feeling that I wish it was a CH3S, but that doesn't exist, so this will have to do. At the moment, my opinion is that this is the best brush I've ever used.
