The Maggard 22mm Synthetic Brush

New Synthetic Brush Stock Picture

Purchasing the Maggard 22mm synthetic brush was a great investment. I bought this brush back in April of 2016 and since then I have used it exclusively. I have put  round 850 shaves on this gem and it has performed flawlessly the whole time. Before I purchased this brush I owned a couple of boar hair brushes and a cheap badger. All of those constantly lost their bristles, became floppy when wet or just to stiff for my needs. Buying this brush put a whole new dimension on lathering.



I wished I had taken a picture of the brush when I first purchased it. But the stock photo from Maggard Razors does a good job of showing it's condition when it is new. At $9.95 it is an exceptional buy. The 22mm knot is a perfect fit for my face and for lathering soap from a small container.

After 2-1/2 Years of Use







Brush after over 2-1/2 years use



As you can see from the pictures, the brush has held up remarkably well. There is no floppiness in the bristles and they continue to stand up nice and straight. The only wear on the bristles in the very tips where they have split and softened up. Some loss of color has occurred from that. I have yet to see a single bristle fall out, bend over or damaged in any way. The center continues to be well formed and firm when you stand it on the bristles. The grove at the base of the handle is great when I wash out the brush and sling the water out in the sink. Easy to hold and hangs nicely on a razor stand. Just be sure you get a stand that holds small brushes.



Brush Center

Standing on Bristles

Easy Grip Handle

Lathering and Cleaning

Lathering with this brush is a very therapeutic experience. This brush does not need to soak. Just Wet the brush with hot water, knock it out a few times and load it with soap. The bristles do not absorb water, but instead, the water is trapped between the bristles. It will take a few shaves to get used to this if you currently use a natural hair brush.

I don't build my lather in a bowl but am an avid face latherer. And boy does this brush make it a great experience! I could literally face lather for hours with this thing. It allows the soap to sink into the skin and gently massages your face. My skin feels more refreshed after using this brush over a stiffer brush. I think this is why the high dollar badgers are so prized.

Cleaning up is really easy. After washing out the soap, I hold the brush by the grove and gently sling the water out of the brush in a left to right motion towards the sides of the sink. I then take my towel and cup it in the palm of my hand and place the bristles in the towel. I gently close my palm around the bristles and then twist the brush out of the towel in the direction of my thumb, flicking the bristles as they come out of the towel. This removes the water, and preserves the formation of the bristles. After a few times I then hang the brush to dry.

One thing I will add about the pictures, is that this brush spent it's first year hanging from a brush stand. After I was flooded out of my home, I lost my stand, and I resorted to  standing the brush up on the end of the handle for the second year of it's life. Both ways of drying has had no effect on the shape of the brush or the integrity of the knot. Standing it on it's handle will cause the printed Maggard logo the eventually come off. Otherwise, this brush is just great!

If you haven't tried a synthetic, you should really try one. When I did, all my other brushes went into the closet. There is just no comparison to the experience for the low price of this brush.

Until my next post, keep the lather thick and slick!





Where Have I Been?

Busy, Busy

It's hard to believe that five months have passed since my last post. It's not that I have nothing to blog about DE Shaving, it's just that I have been very, very busy! If you picked up on a post last year, you may have guessed that I was one of those unfortunate Hurricane Harvey flood victims. We got over 65 inches of rain in just a couple of days, and then the Army Corpse of Engineers dumped three dams on top of us. I had never seen flooding like this in the 60 years that I have lived here. Never had water standing in the street! We ended up with about six feet of water in the house. It has been a long nine months and we are still not back in our house. Hopefully it will be no more than two or three months until the rebuild is finished.

There has been so much to do. Working during the week and then shopping for everything from door knobs to furniture on the weekends! My poor wife is about to pull her hair out. All the colors, choices in flooring, tile, windows, doors, countertops, remodeling of the house; it all really gets to be mind boggling. Then considering the hundreds of homes in our town that has to be rebuilt, the craftsmen are literally running from one job to the next and then to wait for them to make the rounds back to our house.

If you do not have flood insurance, BUY IT! We have purchased it for the last 40 years and this is the first time we had to make a claim, and I am so glad we had it. So many people in our town did not, and it has been a real struggle for them. The premiums are small but water is extremely damaging to any home, Even just a few inches can do more damage then you think. And the recovery from that is quite expensive. Don't think that just because you have never flooded, that rising water may never get you!

During this time, shaving has been both therapeutic and interesting! I have learned to live in a bathroom with a sink that literally has no counter space, and a shave den that is a Wal-Mart tote carry. Learning to adjust to that took some time and I'm still adjusting!

Things To Look For

Over the next few months I hope to post some interesting things that I have experienced since the first of the year. Some of these are:

• Using the Shaving guy products
• Various razor blade experiences, (Big Ben, Crown, Zorrik, etc.)
• My new Merkur Progress razor (Really, really nice!)
• Shaving technique changes
• Razor bump problems
• Various soaps under $10.00
• Reviewing my 2 plus year old synthetic brush that has over 750 shaves
• And who knows what else.

In the mean time, I am will be finishing up the rebuild of the house, moving back in and  getting ready for retirement and who knows, maybe even grow a beard!

Until my next post, keep the lather thick and slick!

Winter Shaves

I generally like cold weather. But only when I'm curled up in front of the fireplace with a hot cup of coffee, Tea, or Hot Chocolate. Different story if I'm outside changing a flat tire on the side of the road! This week, it has been really, really cold down here in South East Texas dropping into the low 20s. In fact it has been colder than Reykjavik, Iceland! Don't believe me? Just look:

One thing I do not like about Winter is the dry skin that I am plagued with during this time. The dryness tends to make my skin very sensitive and the dryness makes shaving painful and many times leaving lots of weepers to deal with. This year has been exceptionally tough and painful!

If it didn't work last year......

You would have thought that I learned last year. I didn't. I just started doing the same thing over again this year to try and adjust for the change in my weathered skin condition. More aggressive razor, more milder razor. Sharper blade, milder blade. Scrambling to find the right soap. It was after I had done a lot of damage to my skin, did I realize, if it didn't work last year, take a whole different approach this year.

What has worked this year!

I think that the number one change that I made that has helped my skin was changing to new and the

The Shave Guy Pre-Shave Oil



continued use of a shaving oil. Not just any oil, but a specific brand. I started using a pre-shave oil made by The Shave Guy that I bought on Amazon. This particular oil is thin and loaded down with 25 unique ingredients/oils. It is the best of the few oils that I have used. It had increased the quality of my shaves when I was using is a few months ago (I lost that bottle to Hurricane Harvey.) I reordered another bottle a couple of weeks ago and it has proven to be the answer to my dry skin.  After wetting my beard stubble, I wet both hands and apply one squirt to the palm, rub my hands together and apply to the shave area and then the rest of my face and forehead. After just one application, the dryness went away. And the usual rough areas have smoothed out. Great stuff, this is! I will never shave again without it!

Rainbow Super Stianless Blades

The second thing I changed was the blade. With my light beard that's tougher on the chin area, a sharp blade does more damage than good to my skin. The blade I was looking for had to be relatively sharp and needed to be extremely smooth. After trying two or three blades, I loaded a Rainbow Blade made by Lord into my Lord L6 razor head that is mounted on a Maggard MR-1 handle. This blade was exactly what I was looking for. The smoothness was incredible!

The last change that I made was in the soap that I was using. I purchased and started using the soap made by  The Shaving Guy on Amazon. This is a really great soap! It loads easily and face lathers to really nice lather. It is slick when water is applied and used with a Rainbow blade, there is little to no tugging when shaving against the grain. This is another product I will not be without.

The Shaving Guy Soap

It just continues to deliver the perfect shave and shaving conditions, wonderful smoothness, very little razor burn, lubrication, and the most important of all to me, the after shave feel. My skin is soft, little to no dryness and after 15hrs, the beard growth is soft and not harsh feeling. This means that tonight's shave is guaranteed to be comfortable. I have found very few soaps that actually seem to soften the beard, but this stuff seems to do it. The container is a little small, but a 22mm synthetic brush is easily loaded for a face lather. The small container size also makes it great for traveling.

Finishing up the shave with Witch Hazel,  Clubman Pinaud original aftershave with Nivea Balm and I walk away feeling clean, refreshed, and above all happy with the smooth, non dry skin that I have been plagued with for so long.

My winter combination has been found!