Still continuing on with the shave stuff, I am reviewing a shaving brush next. Having heard great stuff about Col. Conk I decided to go with his Black Shave Brush and bowl. I loved the bowl, let’s see how I like the brush.
It comes in a little plain white box with just a black dot on the top. Color indicator I presume. When you open the box the brush is wrapped in white tissue paper protecting the handle. This is the first time I’ve seen this wrapped around a brush handle. The brush is a fairly long bristled brush with a black resin handle. The handle looks kind of like the top of the King piece in chess. Then on top of that is a bulbous round part which holds the knot. Then the bristles round out and up from there. The bristles are mixed badger.
Here’s an up close look at the bristles and knot area. They are various colors from dark to light, and I believe the knot is 23mm. It seems to be lightest at the bottom, the a dark ring in the middle, and a kind of medium brown around the tips. Their signature banner logo is stamped on the round part just under the knot in silver.
The view from above shows a slightly darker colored knot of hairs than my Simpson brush. The length of the hairs is also longer and more rounded than my Simpson brush is. The handles are about the same size, this one may be a tiny bit taller but not much. I really like how this one feels in my fingers, I can get a nice grip on it. This brush feels very light in your hands. I think this will make for a nice brush to lather really quickly with.
I then ran the brush under the water. It seemed to soak up the water a bit quicker than all my other brushes do. The hairs kind of bend with the water too. I kind of expected it because of the length of the hairs.
After I let it soak for a while I started to load my brush. I was surprised to see that the hairs didn’t bend too much when I loaded them. My other longer brushes do that, but this one held up nicely. It loads fairly quickly too. I went with one of my trusty soaps since I’m trying out a new brush. I like how this brush does when loading it, now time to see how it lathers.
After just a few seconds the brush really started to bend. It didn’t hold up like it did when I was loading it. No too surprised by this, although I was kind of hoping it would hold up like before. It did make a nice lather though, better than my other long brushes do. And it lathered a bit quicker than my other ones too.
The brush has a slightly soft feel to it while keeping a kind of pokiness as well. I happen to like this because it exfoliates my face without being too abrasive or scratchy. It spreads the lather around really well at first, then it all wants to hide in the brush. I had to kind of squeeze it out a bit after a few seconds. Kind of odd, I’ve never had a brush do that before. Once I got that sorted out it became easier to apply the lather.
I like how this brush allows you to get a nice layer of lather over your entire face. It doesn’t leave blank or thin streaks at all. One of my other longer brushes does that and I don’t like it at all. Definitely happy this one spreads the lather evenly everywhere. A good thing about this brush storing the lather up in it like it does is it allows for multiple passes without having to go back to your bowl. Just give the hairs a squeeze and you have more lather, it’s that easy.
The only downfall to that is it takes a little while longer to clean your brush out. About twice as long as it takes me to clean most of my other brushes. I don’t particularly care cause I’m already in the bathroom and taking my time anyway. But for the “on the go” shavers, this might be a nuisance. Once I got it free of all the soap I shook it out. To my surprise the water leaves this brush like crazy. Just a few shakes and it was completely dry.
Col. Conk Black Shave Brush is definitely a brush I will be working into my rotation. I love the grip on it, the hairs feel nice when lathering my face, and it packs a lot of lather in it. I think this would be a good brush for both experienced shavers and newer guys alike. To get one heading straight over to http://www.pomade.com and put one in your cart. While you’re there check out all of the other shaving stuff Edgar has up on his site. He keeps adding stuff every week so you will have a nice selection to choose from. Thank you again Edgar, and sorry the review is a bit overdue.
Cheers,