In an earlier article I wrote about buying a shaving brush from China. The Frank Shaving “Finest Pure Badger Hair Shaving Brush Faux Ivory Handle” for $9.99 (£6.57) turned out to be fantastic and a total bargain. The only brush I have used since it arrived.

But Frank Shaving have another brush, their “Luxury Silvertip Badger Shaving Brush” for $23.99 (£15.32). A fraction of the price that such a brush would cost with a Western brand name on it. Some investigation revealed that one of the range of handles that Frank Shaving can make these brushes with is a gorgeous butterscotch colour. So I got in touch with Ian there and he had a batch made with this handle, then he listed them on eBay. And, obviously, I bought one. Now all I have to do is wait for it to arrive.

Here it is:

The real shaving DE community seem to agree with this. They end up with a variety of razors, a variety of blades, a variety of soaps and creams and a variety brushes. Then they use them in rotation, or as and when they feel like it, just acting on a whim. Let’s face it, shaving has the potential to be a pretty boring ritual. Having this variety of choice of quality options massively enriches the experience. And if we can bring nerdiness and technology to it then it has to be a lot better.

For instance in this hot weather some like to use the Proraso cream from Italy with it’s high menthol and eucalyptus content. After shaving with this you can feel your face glow.

This is a whole world away from the almond smell and completely different lathering characteristics of Cella Crema Da Sapone soap. Amazing stuff, so lush.

Then you could switch to a traditional Palmolive shaving soap stick (the European version) for that traditional barber’s smell. It is a genuine high quality product that only costs less than 50p and it will give you more shaves than several aerosol cans of foam or gel. The tallow base it uses makes an exceptional shaving soap. This is not sold in America so keen real shavers there buy this over the internet or carry it back in their luggage.

For blades you could switch from the all round excellence of a Derby (from Turkey) to the super smoothness of an Iridium (from Russia) to the mega sharpness of a Feather (from Japan). Or for economy with quality there are Vidyut Super Max blades (from India) for a little over 2p each.

For razors you could switch from the very highly rated British Edwin Jagger DE89L to the aggression of a German Merkur slant bar to the history of using a 70 year old Gillette Tech from America, to the precision of one of the Feather razors from Japan.

With brushes, badger is the best for creams, but lots of people are now using boar brushes, especially with soaps because they lather up better. They are cheaper and take a while to break in and become soft. The Italian Omega brand, available from Amazon, have a fantastic reputation and some lovely coloured handles! They vie with the Portuguese Semogue brushes for who makes the best at each price point.

You can take a risk and buy cheap badger brushes from China, after all that is where most of the world’s badger hair comes from. When you get lucky the value can be startling.

The choice is truly infinite. Just count the four elements of the shave: razor, blade, soap/cream and brush that you have in your collection. Then do the maths, multiply them together to get all the possible permutations. I know that if I do this I could go for several years without having the same shave twice!

All this is possible because of the wonders of the internet. You can shop the world.

This is Edwin Jagger, as you can see they handmake the handles then glue in a knot that is ready prepared.

In an earlier article here it was pointed out that nearly all the badger hair used in shaving brushes comes from China, where the animal is vermin. Also that labour in China is a lot cheaper than in the West. So, unsurprisingly, most badger hair knots (the name given to the bundle of hairs that make up the brush) come from China. They are often just glued onto handles (which are also made in China) in the West so that they can be labelled “Made in England”.

So when, on eBay, I saw “Finest Pure Badger Hair Shaving Brush Faux Ivory Handle” for $9.99 (£6.57), it was no problem to click the BUY button. On the 11th of July. Many people would be put off because it was too cheap, or because they are sending money to someone they don’t know in China. But the seller, iantang19821024, has 100% feedback after 74 transactions.

Today it arrived, just 12 days after placing the order. It is very nicely made, the equal of my other brushes. The badger hair is two band, light above dark, the knot is quite dense and the diameter at the base is the same or maybe a bit bigger than my other badger brushes. Testing for softness it is midway between a Trumper pure badger and a Trumper best badger, but these two brushes are both run in and the Frank Shaving brush isn’t.

So to shaving and the stern test of Nanny’s Silly Soap Company, lavender improved recipe soft shaving soap. The brush easily had enough backbone to deal with this and build up a fine lather. And as it built up that lather the brush bloomed right out quite impressively. There was enough in there for a two pass shave and it would probably have done a third pass if needed. During the shave it shed maybe two hairs, which is nothing for a new badger brush.

Obviously one shave is not much of a test so we will see how this develops.

Looking at the other items iantang19821024 has on eBay you can see that this brush is available with a number of different handles including faux ebony and a choice of woods, all at the same price. More interestingly he has a “Luxury Silvertip Badger Shaving Brush” for just $21.99 (£14.41) with the same choice of handles. This is sorely tempting.

And one final note, the brush came with a plastic stand very similar to the one that Trumper sells for £5.50. Take that into account and my new badger brush cost about £1!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the area where the choice seems to confuse people the most. Now the easiest way to clear the confusion is just to tell you to go and buy a Vulfix 404 badger and boar brush from Diamond Edge for £8.40, it will do a perfect job and you will be very happy, however if you want to know more, read on.

There are two parts to a brush, the knot, which is the term for the bundle of hairs. And the handle. The handle can be moulded or turned on a lathe from a solid block of material, usually a plastic or wood.

Brushes knots are made of animal hair. Forget synthetics unless you are a vegan. Boar hair is the most common, it is stiff so works well with hard soaps, it becomes much softer on the face over time with repeated use. Badger is the gold standard because it is soft and will hold huge amounts of lather. Horse is less common but I have seen it described as 85% badger 85% boar, which from the experience of the one I own is just about right.

Nearly all the badger hair used for shaving brushes comes from China, where badgers are vermin that need to be culled. Some exotic and expensive brushes use badger hair from animals that live at high altitudes in the mountains and thus provide a superior hair.

If you look at a badger you will see that the hair is different on different parts of its body. These different sorts of hair make different sorts of brushes at different price points. There are standard terms for these  but these are very vague and vary a lot from brand to brand.

Pure badger is from the underbelly, it is 60% of the hair on the animal. This has a thicker shaft which makes it less soft, it is mostly dark in colour. Brushes made of this are sometimes trimmed for length, which can make them rougher.

Best badger uses longer, lighter coloured hair which is finer. It is 20% of the animal’s hair. It will hold more lather and is softer on the skin, especially as the hairs will not usually be trimmed.

Super badger is a result of sorting to use only the very best hairs, from the animal’s back. These will have usually have natural light coloured tips.

Silver tip badger is usually the top grade, which as the name says, uses only hairs that have natural silver tips, from the neck of the badger, which are the finest. This will hold immense amounts of lather.

Don’t think that moving up a grade gives you a better shave or a better lather. Often all it does is to give you a softer feeling brush that holds a bit more lather. The reason for this is the amount of backbone or the amount of floppiness that a brush has. A silvertip might be too floppy to work a hard soap well, whilst a best badger might be far better for the job.

Now we come to some interesting insights. Handles on quality brushes are hand turned on a lathe. The knot is put together by hand. Human labour is a lot cheaper in China than it is in the West and China is where the badgers are. So lots of handles and knots are made in China. Under EU law the place of manufacture is where the last process took place. So you can take a Chinese knot and a Chinese handle and glue them together in England and it is perfectly OK to put a big “Made in England” label on it! So you could be paying a lot of money just for the brand name on the brush.

Of course, such is the power of the interweb, you can buy a brush where the handle and knot have been glued together in China. Expect to pay about $10 + $5 postage for a “finest pure badger” brush. $22 for a “luxury silvertip badger” brush. But it is difficult to know what the quality is like from a few thousand miles away, without buying one.

A second insight is that shaving brush hairs are routinely bleached and/or died as part of the manufacturing process. This can make boar hair look like badger hair, and it can make badger hair look like a different grade to what it really is.

As you can see buying a brush is a veritable minefield where you never know what you are really buying. And often the main difference between two brushes is the price sticker, with the more expensive not necessarily being the best.

There is an excellent shaving brush blog by “Fido” who owns an extensive collection and has done a lot of research. He also recommends the Vulfix 404. His blog is very interesting reading as he analyses all the brands and reviews all the brushes in his collection. For even further information there are the Badger & Blade brush reviews, which are pretty comprehensive, and also their brush wiki.

There is an immense, an almost bewildering, range of “British” shaving brushes. They come in a wide range of sizes and shapes, they have different sorts and different grades of hair in them and they come with many different brand names on them. You can buy brushes from the famous St James’s men’s grooming shops proudly carrying their crests. Or you can buy equally famous, long established brands such as Simpson’s. But the amazing thing is that most of these brushes are made by just over 15 people at one company, in one factory, in Braddan, on the Isle of Man. And that company is Progress Vulfix.

For those that don’t know, the Isle of Man is not a part of the United Kingdom. It is a self governing British crown dependency, it has its own money, its own parliament and it is not a member of the European Union. The Isle of Man is famous for two things, motorcycle racing and very low taxes.

Vulfix moved to the Isle of Man from Manchester in 1954. All their brushes are the very highest quality, hand made, on hand turned handles. They are made in the three standard grades of pure badger, super badger and silver tip badger, depending on where on the badger’s body the hair comes from. And Vulfix make the famous 404 badger/boar mix, which must be the best and most popular introductory shaving brush there is. This works well with everything from hard soaps to creams and costs just £7.60! At the top their number 40 and 41 silver tip badger models are over £150 and still remarkable value. Above these you can get brushes with fancy handles made from expensive materials.

The lesson here is that if you want a traditional “British” badger shaving brush you may be better off buying a Vulfix original, rather than paying extra for an expensive branded brush that is actually made by Vulfix.

The three Ts are not the end of the London heritage in quality shaving. There are several more very well established companies.

D R Harris are over 200 years old and supply Prince Charles.
They are at 29 St James’s Street.

Czech and Speake are in Jermyn Street.
Their sample are just £2.50 +P&P which is very generous.

A Maitland & Co are in Piccadilly. They come from a chemist background. And they don’t have their own website!

Floris are a ladies’ perfumery. But they also sell very highly rated men’s toiletries.

Penhaligon’s are also a perfumery who make a range of gentleman’s grooming products. They have several shops.

So they are all very close to each other, within walking distance. You can buy some amazingly luxurious products. And still be paying less per shave than using supermarket aerosols.

The thing about multibladed system razors is that you have very little choice, they trap you in a walled garden where they have a monopoly on what they let you have. Real shaving is the exact opposite, you have infinite choices. You could shave with a different combination of the four main ingredients in a shave every day for the rest of your life! This is part of the fun, experimenting and personalising the experience. Any recommendation can only be a starting point on a personal journey of exploration and discovery.

Here are some ideas, feel free to ignore them.

Razor. The black plastic Wilkinson in Boots is OK. The ED DE89L is a whole lot better and is about £20. You really would enjoy owning one. A classic Wilkinson is a beautiful piece of heritage that still works very well. And the Merkur HD is probably the most owned razor in the real shaving fraternity. Eventually you will own more than one, you won’t be able to help yourself. It adds to the fun of the daily ceremony deciding which to use. And each model is like a different model of car, they just work differently. So whatever you buy it won’t be wasted money, it will just enrich your experience.

Blades. To start with the Persona blades sold as own brand by Tescos, Boots, Asda etc are excellent and can’t be faulted. Then perhaps try a sample pack. There are lots of good blades out there, they are different to one another. And different blades suit different people and different razors. Then, when you find something you like, buy in bulk from ebay. £20 per 100 or even less. Personally I am using just Iridiums in all my razors at the moment to give me a benchmark.

Brush. These last at least 10 years so even a £100 brush works out at less than £1 a month. The variety out there is infinite. You can start with a boar, they work well with soaps because of their stiffness. A very good one is the Omega brush on Amazon, but a cheap £1 from a pound shop or discount chemist will do the job. Eventually you will want a badger, they lather best and work brilliantly with creams. Take a look at the Kent Brush website to get an idea of the range and prices. In Britain we have a number of small companies that make the best quality shaving brushes in the world. Companies like Rooney and Simpson. So take your time over your badger purchase, there is a lot of choice and it is going to be with you for a long time.

Shaving creams and soaps. You really cannot go wrong with a 60p Palmolive shaving soap stick. This is tallow based so creates a perfect shaving lather. It sets a difficult benchmark for anything else to beat. Just wet your face and rub the stick directly into your stubble, then use your brush to build a lather on your face. After that the world is your oyster, you can use amazingly luxurious products and still be paying less per shave than using aerosols. Mitchell’s Wool Fat soap has a fantastic reputation which is very well justified. Proraso and Omega creams from Italy are lush and invigorating. But for the ultimate choice just visit the men’s grooming shops in St James’s in London. You can’t go wrong whatever you buy in, say, Taylors of Bond street. Just beware of all the tourist real shaving aficionados stocking up like crazy.

After shaving the available creams and lotions are infinite. The choice is personal and is part of the luxury and pleasure of real shaving. There is plenty on the shelves in Boots. Or once again buy at one of the St James’s shops. Trumpers coral skin food has a fantastic reputation, for instance.

* The time you spend building up the lather on your face softens your hairs, so they cut more easily, giving you an easier shave.
* Cost per shave doing it the real shaving way is cheaper than using aerosols, which are mainly water.
* Quality shaving soaps and creams, made of natural ingredients, are far nicer to your skin than the harsh petrochemicals in foams and gels.
* The action of a shaving brush gently exfoliates your skin, removing dead cells.
* The brush and lather lift your hairs up from horizontal so they cut far more easily.
* Quality shaving soaps are just unadulterated luxury, something to look forward to every day.
* There is massive variety in the different creams and soaps, you can have great fun experimenting and you can find products that really suit you.