Reddit reviews Red handled Omega Professional Boar Hair Shaving Brush

ok well here is the thing. preping your face right is more important than the razor you use. you are using a fine razor but that goop you are using for shaving cream can actually be working against you getting a great shave. the propellents and chemicals in that can that make it so convienient and awesome can actually dry out and cool your face. Generally when you are shaving you are trying to add water and warmth to your beard area. this softens the hair to let them be cut as easily and closely as possible.

so basically you need to switch out that can for a shaving brush and real shaving cream. and dont worry it doesnt last 5 shaves. a tub of taylor of old bond street will last 3-6 months and thats if you are using probably more than you should.

since you linked amazon primed items i will suggest this brush and this cream. if you dont mind spending a little more moneyon the brush this synthetic brush will be a little bit more efficient with your creams and it will be ready to go right out of the box. Meaning it will be as soft as it ever will be and you wont have to get rid of any wild animal smell like with the boar brush.

edit: i forgot to add you will always probably have to do atleast 3 passes and touch ups for a bbs shave not sure what your routine is but you said you never get close with just wtg. de razors work by beard reductution each pass. so you start wtg. then do across the grain. then finish against the grain. relathering between each pass.

THESE VIDEOS explain it better than i ever could

When I first wrote this comment (and it got lost, thanks browser!) I'd said get both.

After mulling it over, I suggest getting a cheap boar now, and upgrade later. The linked boar is a slightly better size for me than the one the wickedgentleman recommended, however, you can't really go wrong with Omega.

In comparison, a (medium quality) Crabtree-Evelyn badger costs 35$, a Simpson's Wee Scot (top quality, tiny brush) is 35$ and pretty much any high end badger is $100-ish.

I've owned (in order of acquisition) a Col Conk (25$), a Tweezerman (15$, not worth it, it's not the badger experience at all!), a Simpson's Commodore, and just last week bought the aforementioned boar, which I've used nonstop for six shaves now -- it's fantastic!


Oops, I got sidetracked, the earlier sentence was supposed to have a moral: don't cheap out on the badger, it's not worth it.

Finest badger is good, but I think the silvertips are regarded as the ultimate in brushes, though nomenclature varies, so be careful (one man's silvertip is another's finest). Since FS silvertip is only 32$ (compare to a Simpson's at $100) it might be worth stepping straight from a 13$ boar to a 32$ silvertip. You can always go boar now, and surprise your SO with an FS brush for an occasion or anniversary.

I will say this, making lather is a critical step, and it is too easy to mess it up with badger. IMHO (and ymmv, or rather, your SO's MMV) a decent-sized Omega boar will make easy, short work of it. As someone else explained, with a badger, the lather stays in the brush, with boar, it stays on your face.

Lathering up with this boar is easy, and a great experience, and by all accounts gets better as the boar breaks in (its tips become more like high-end badger over time, in other words, they split and become finer, which is what silvertip badger is all about, if I understand correctly).

One more hurdle eliminated on the path to great shaves!

PS what is the Count's current shave setup? (also there are kit links on the right of this page, your brush comes bang in Leisureguy's list.

I got this in black. Coincidentally, Amazon gave me a recommendation to buy it with a tub of Proraso Green for 22.95

Red handled Omega Professional Boar Hair Shaving Brush https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003DS9BTC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_kzd9yb6NBD1D4

Natural boar.

Bought the same VDH kit myself at WalMart when starting out. Please don't make the same mistake I did -- don't assume that because this one VDH boar brush does a poor job for you (and sheds hairs like a mofo), therefore all boar brushes will do a poor job for you.

That's what I assumed, so I bought a number of badger brushes including LeisureGuy's expensive favorite "Rooney", only to discover a year later that the brushes which work best for me are the Omega $10 boar and the Semogue $20 boar. For me, heaven on earth is a shaving stick, a boar brush, and face lathering. That, or MWF soap bowl-lathered with a boar brush.

Here are some photos, if you shop around you can find better prices than these PIC.1 , PIC.2

Good luck, have fun!

He went way expensive and turned it into a hobby (nothing wrong with that).


I started with a $10 razor handle and started with a $15 mug/soap/brush from Amazon and that worked just fine for about a year. Then, the cheap razor broke and I bought one for $30 and the brush started losing hair, so I bought a replacement for $7 [it was on sale]. Shave soap is like $3 a puck and lasts a year or more.


I've been using the new razor and brush for about 2 years now. The mug I got in the cheap set I still use as well.


I pay ~$10 for 100 blades and change it every week on average (which is actually probably wasteful of me). From November until ~March or April, I let the beard grow. Those 100 blades last me around a year and a half (give or take a few weeks).


So, if you went for better equipment from the start, it'd be something like:

$30 razor ... not the one I use, but nice ... you can go a lot cheaper than this for a quality one as well.

$15 brush [like I said, mine was way cheaper, currently $15 on amazon

$15 blades [this is middle of the ground, some people spend as little as little as $8 for 100 blades, the brand I like is ~$10]

$10 mug/soap/cheap brush combo

= $70 for the first year and you've got an extra brush.


Realistically, that's around what some would spend for a year of shaving with a normal razor from Gillette. For some, it would be a bit more and for some it would be less. For me, I think it was around $40 worth of cartridges a year when I used the Gillette 5-blade.

But, the second year of shaving, would only cost around ... well, nothing since you'll likely have right around a years worth of blades left and won't actually need to buy anything at all other than maybe some shave soap.

Just get the Maggard Razors Basic Starter Kit. It's $30, and is a better value than anything you'll find on Amazon.

If you have to use Amazon (eg, if you have a gift card you need to burn), then:

Razor: Edwin Jagger Kelvin or Merkur 34c

Brush: Omega 10048

Soap: Pre de Provence

This blade sampler

You'll spend nearly twice as much as getting the Maggard kit, and it won't be any better. In fact, IMO the brush is a (small) step down. But if it's gotta be Amazon, that's the route I'd go.

I've got a good number of brushes of different types and price points. My omega boar brush from Amazon was purchased for $12 and I prefer it to my $60+ badger brush. It's got a great high loft and it's absolutely a dream for face lathering:

Red handled Omega Professional Boar Hair Shaving Brush https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003DS9BTC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_N8FizbAR0C10S

I'd skip the Tweezerman and get an Omega Boar.
I think a good boar brush is better then a low quality badgers.
http://www.amazon.com/handled-Omega-Professional-Shaving-Brush/dp/B003DS9BTC/ref=sr_1_8?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1318187965&sr=1-8