After much reflection & thought, I've decided to retire my old Omega 10049 Professional Boar brush. The first reason is that it does tend to eat a lot of soap even with just loading the tips. That's why I've only finished off 5 soaps this year as opposed to 2016 where I ended up finishing off 25. I stopped posting about it after I got to #20 last year. The second reason has been due to the last couple of shaves. Even though they were great shaves, my last pass was with almost no lather. The brush had absorbed the lather during the shaves which I don't like at all. The last reason is that I don't need an excessively tall brush which was my only complaint when I first got it 3 years ago:
Now I have been looking at several synthetic brushes including Omega's "S" brushes. I do have 2 silver tipped badger brushes but they shed very badly. My beard also itches pretty bad and I prefer that minor scratchy feeling when I'm face lathering. My RazoRock Plissoft 24 mm is some where in between a boar and badger brush which is what will be replacing my Omega 10049 Boar brush with. It satisfies that itchy beard feeling and yet is as soft as a badger brush is. Plus in terms of lathering, it's the perfect size for me and since it's a synthetic, no soaking is required before use. But I do it any way out of habit while I bloom my soaps. Now the hard part is choosing which brush to buy first. Decisions, decisions. This was and is a great brush but time to move on from it.
