How to Break In a Boar Shaving Brush

A new boar brush is stiff, prickly and often smells of the animal it came from. That is normal, and it is temporary. Here is what is actually happening and how to get through the first few weeks.

What break-in actually is

Boar bristle is a solid fibre with a tapered tip. New from the factory the tips are blunt and the bristles are uniform, which is why the brush feels scratchy and holds very little water. Use and soaking split those tips into finer strands, a process brush makers call flagging. A well broken-in boar has soft split tips and a fuller face feel while keeping the stiff backbone that makes it good at working hard soap.

Nothing you do speeds this up dramatically. It comes from lathering.

The smell

New boar often smells strongly. Badger & Blade’s community guide on breaking in a shaving brush is blunt about it and recommends washing the knot with a mild dish soap, then soaking, then lathering repeatedly. That is the approach most people settle on. Shavers generally report the smell fading over the first weeks of normal use and washing, though how long it takes varies from brush to brush.

A method that works

1. Wash the knot gently with a small amount of mild soap and warm, not hot, water. Rinse thoroughly.
2. Soak the knot in warm water for a few minutes before each of the first several shaves.
3. Lather. Build a full lather with an inexpensive soap and rinse it out. Doing this a few extra times a week costs you nothing but soap.
4. Rinse well after every use, shake out the water, and stand the brush so air reaches the knot.

Warm water only. Boiling water can loosen the glue that holds a knot in a handle, and on a wooden handle it can crack the finish.

How long it takes

There is no fixed number. Community accounts on Badger & Blade and elsewhere commonly describe a noticeable change after a few weeks of regular use and a settled brush somewhere beyond that, but it depends on how often you shave and what you lather. Judge it by feel, not by a count.

Losing a few bristles in the first weeks is normal for boar. Bristles still coming out after a month of use is not, and we would want to hear about it.

Why bother with boar at all

Backbone. A boar knot is stiff enough to work lather out of a hard soap puck, which a soft badger tip struggles with, and it costs a fraction of the price. Once broken in it gives a scrubby face feel that many shavers prefer. Omega has been making boar brushes in Italy for decades and they remain the default recommendation.

Where to start: the Omega 10077 is the cheapest sensible entry, the Omega 80265 comes with a stand, and the Omega 11137 puts the same bristle on an ash wood handle. The full Shaving Brushes range has synthetic and badger alongside.

What to lather with while you break it in

A hard soap gives the bristles something to work against, which is exactly what you want during break-in. Our soaps and creams cover both hard pucks and soft Italian croaps.

A common mistake worth avoiding

Do not judge a boar brush on its first three shaves and put it in a drawer. That is the single most common reason people decide they dislike boar. The brush you own on shave one is not the brush you will own a month later, and the change is larger with boar than with any other knot type.

The second mistake is not loading long enough. A stiff new boar takes soap slowly. Give it more swirls on the puck than you think it needs and the lather problem usually solves itself.

Care after break-in

Rinse, shake, stand it up. Do not leave it sitting in water, do not dry it on a radiator, and it will outlast several razors.