Synthetic, are people warming up to it?

captain_hx said:
A quality badger after a good soak will retain all the water needed for loading soft artisan soap with the Marco method and usually I don't need to add extra water to my lather. The Marco method cannot be used with synthetics as they are not able to retain water in the knot.
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I used my Yaqi synth today with Cella, and used a modified Marco Method, the modification is after squeezing out most of the water and whilst loading I place a few drops of water a few times, then I face lather with more water on my face than usual. It possibly took a bit more attention in adding water during loading and face lathering but not too much additional bother.
 
If you fellas would but only "bloom" the soap while you are showering then you will find that it takes less than 10 secs. max to load a good synthetic brush and often 5 secs. The so called "Marco method" wastes too much product IMO and oft times makes lather too frothy and worthless. Just my 2 cents.
 
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test lathering: rather soft water over here so swirling 30 times with wet Muhle 20 mm Black Fibre synth brush on dry soap combined with plenty of elbow grease will create enough lather in bowl for a shave (not sure about soap might be Vitos Green)
 
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I've been holding off buying a synthetic as I wanted to wait and get a wolf whiskers black wolf fan knot, been on the waiting list a while now and it's getting close so looking forward to trying my first one soon. Will certainly be posting to say how I get on
 
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test 2 lathering: 30 swirls with 24 mm Semogue OC two band finest badger, result was a bit more lather compared to synth brush and less need for elbow grease (bigger brush with stiffer knot and also puck was maybe not as dry today so all in all badger was able to pick up more soap)
 
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Nice comparative testing, @Nisse. I think anyone looking at the respective lathers would agree that regardless of brush used the lather is good to use, which is the ultimate goal. I'd deduce from this that synthetic brushes do not perform notably worse vs badger and boar. I think we're at the stage where the user can choose any of the above and be happy with what they've got.
 
My overall take on shaving - razors - blades - brushes - soaps - is rather down to earth instead of anlytic, meaning I am not going all in hunting for the very best via real or imaginary sublime differences, but to each his own :)
 
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