To Soak Or Not To Soak

The repeated soaking and drying cycles are essential to break in a boar brush.The ends of the hair split. This makes the boar hair incredibly soft at the tips. A good quality boar such as a Semogue 830 can rival a badger brush for softness, but will have backbone and cost a fraction of the price of a badger
 

Thank you! Seems to explain it all.

So new boars need to be soaked, but that gets less important as they get broken in (explaining why I don't notice the difference with my 4 month old brush).
 
I don't like badger, so don't have any. Boars, I pre-soak. Hot, cold, doesn't seem to matter to me. Synthetics, I actually keep dry, pour a little water onto the soap and go on with a dry synthetic. It seems to produce a thicker lather, or did when I could be bothered bowl lathering. Face latherer, now ...
 

I saw on the Internet where an Italian Master Barber said to soak a new boar brush in cold water for 2 - 3 days before using it to break it in. I may try that in the future on a new one.
 
In my experience, soaking making little difference in my shave experience, whether I'm using a boar, badger, horse hair or synthetic brush. I cold water shave, as well. I hold my brush under running water for a few seconds and then start lathering with it.
 
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