Edwin Jagger 1EJ946SDS Classic Best Badger Hair Exfoliating Shaving Brush with Stand for Shaving Cream or Shaving Soap for Men and Women (Imitation Ebony)

This is my first shaving brush. I have been using it for 5 months now, as my beginning into DE shaving. The brush is high quality, hand knotted in Sheffield England. It feels soft and smooth on your face and beard and shaving is now a luxury for me, not just a daily chore, the brush softens the hair and works great, you can feel the exfoliation effects...now I know why my wife loves facials. The included stand is very nice and matches perfectly, I am very happy with the stand included. If you want pretty chrome and want to spend buy one, after all this is a bathroom counter accessory. A stand is a must to let your brush air dry properly, with the brush tips down, and you never want to rest the brush on it's bristles, so even during shaving flip it over to rest it on the counter, once dry completely you can invert your brush on its' top for storage.How to choose a shave brush? I knew to go with badger hair from all my research on DE & wet shaving, but picking the quality of badger hair from the 4 types of badger hair qualities was difficult. Better hair is better right? Yes but also very expensive. Well being new to wet shaving I did not want to ruin a very expensive brush, so I eliminated the top two qualities and targeted the best quality brush I could find under $60. This brush was about $45 included a stand and was Best Badger. That was the easy winner.I also choose a rounded brush over a staight brush, because it would cover more of my face faster, and provide more surface area. The medium size is ideal for my average size face. I lather up in 4 quadrants to keep the face lather wet, a good wet lather is important to a good and comfortable shave. Once you finish a quadrant rinse and move to the next area. Come back at the end and go over any areas you missed, short hairs left, or better yet redo the whole face.My brush looses an occasional hair which can be either a sign of poor quality or misuse. As I became more experienced, the hair loss from the brush is much less. Maybe one hair a week, it is still a lot but I am not an expert on wet shaving yet either, so for the price and inexperience I think that's me being to hard on the brush.If you take care of this brush it should last many years. Being new to wet shaving I have to remind myself not to press too hard so I don't ruin the brush tips...that ruins your brush. I bought a quality shave cream - Taylor of Old Bond also from Amazon. I started lathering with an old mug, but I was banging the top of the brush annoying my wife and not getting a good lather. I now use a small Pyrex bowl to lather up and that works great, lots of room and I get a great lather....spending a minute to gently work up a good lather is well worth the time.I love this brush it will sit next to the Jagger 98l DE razor I bought as my first DE razor for many years.

Edit: Been using this brush for about 2.5 years now and mine still looks brand new. When I first used it there was a strong scent that went away after just a couple uses. Also maybe 10 to 15 hairs came out in the first couple months that I noticed. Once those loose ones came out, I never again lost another hair from it that I noticed. I don't baby it (I really swirl it around to get a fast lather) and it has held up great. Although I am not careful about how I lather it in the dish and on my face, one thing I do do is rinse it and very carefully wring it out after use every time. That said, I have a friend with the same brush and his started shedding hairs very badly (to the point of being in my opinion unusable) after a year and a half or so... he bought his a year or so before I did though so maybe it was a bad run... but like I said mine has been working great. Honestly I wouldn't buy it again, but only because I want one that is slightly bigger because I like a very wet/thin lather. It does it's job well but a larger one would hold slightly more water for the lather that I prefer. I know many people who like a thicker lather than I do though. The feel is very soft, the bristles do not poke. I would also probably like to get a slightly less luxurious one next time so I can build lather a little faster (my face is not sensitive so it could take a firmer bristle). I recently compared it to the brush my grandfather has used since well before I was born. His, by comparison, felt like sandpaper was nowhere near as good at this one.This is not related to the review but (just trying to help out) if you're just getting into old timey shaving and not sure what you want to do, might I suggest Edwin jagger De89lbl razer and derby 200 pack (usually around 15 bucks). There are cheaper razers if you're on a budget but it is nice and pretty and should last a lifetime if cared for... there are very few blades cheaper than the derby though. I tried just about every blade and I liked the derby's as much as the more expensive feathers and such and the 200 pack will last you a couple years. Also I started out with proraso sensitive shave soap which is very minimal and non irritating but eventually switched to dr harris lavendar which lathers just awesome and leaves a nice finish on my face, which is great. If you are thinking about straight razers I would suggest giving the DE a try first. Both because daily you will want to DE anyway and just straight when you have time and because the straight has a huge learning curve and costs more to get into.

I am a boar brush guy, apparently. I picked up this brush as I was trying boar, badger, synthetic to see what I prefer. I like it. It's soft if that's your thing. It makes a lot of lather..that it doesn't like to give up. It's definitely got a bit of badger funk, but not bad.The real problem I have is, as another reviewer mentioned, there was a small rubber band holding the brush in the stand. Mine and the other reviewers was around the knot itself. After I pried the brush out of the stand, there were frayed hairs sticking out all over. The opening in the stand isn't big enough. It kinda pops in and out. So, as the title says, once removed, I wouldn't suggest using the stand. It definitely damages the hairs. I dropped about a dozen on the first shave, and only a couple on the second shave, but the knot was definitely affected by the rubber band, and ill fitted stand.It's a good brush, though. I doubt it will shed much after all the damaged hairs shed or break. I'm going to try to dry in a TP roll to see if I can fix the bloom.