Care of the Badger Shaving Brush - from experts at Vikings Blade

No doubt the badger hair is the most preferred hair for use in the manufacture of shaving brushes. The badger hair is just like any living animal hair and should be treated as such.

Wash Before First Use

As earlier stated the badger hair is a living hair and have all the properties and characteristics of hairs. For this reason, it tends to come with a smell. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the brush. Just wash it under warm water to get rid of the smell before using it for the first time. Then hang it to dry.

No Need for All that Pressure

Some people are already used to applying much pressure when forming lather or applying the lather on the face. The badger brush comes with properties that makes and holds lather very well. By pushing and applying much pressure to the badger brush, you may end up bending or even breaking its bristles.

Keep Dry When Not in Use

Just like you would treat your own hair, keep the badger shaving brush dry always. Some shaving brushes come with a brush stand. After rinsing off the cream from the brush, hang the badger brush upside down to get rid of all the moisture.

Coping with Ingrown Hair Problem

When hairs are cut too low to the skin, they tend to bend backwards and pierce back through the skin. With time it begins to cause inflammation. This painful skin irritation is known as ingrown hairs. If you are having them more frequently than normal, then you may want to...

Know Your Hair Growth Pattern

The major cause of ingrown hair is shaving against the grain. The pushes the cut hair backwards and then eventually pierces the skin. Familiarize yourself with the growth pattern of your hair and shave with the grain.

Give the Skin a Break

If you have ingrown hair, do not shave for about a day or two. This will give your skin time to heal itself. By running your razor through a skin with ingrown hairs, not only would it be painful, you could further complicate the situation.

Remove the Ingrown Hairs

This is be slightly painful but it can help quicken the healing process. Before you do this, apply warm water to the area to open up the skin pores. Use a clean pincer to locate and pull the ingrown hair out. To avoid any infection, treat and clean with antiseptic when you're done.

Change Blades

With ingrown hairs, you would need new, clean, sharp blades. Avoid using dull blades to shave to prevent further ingrown hairs. Change blades often too and avoid sharing blades.

How to Maintain Your Vikings Blade Shaving Brush

With the recent release of the Vikings Blade Badger shaving brush, shaving experience just got a whole lot more exciting. If you have already purchased the brush, you would want to read these tips to keep the brush maintained to give better service life.

What Is It Made From?

Before you go about maintaining something, you have to know what the construction materials used in designing it is. The brush is made from badger hair. Just like your hair, you should keep it clean always. Badger brushes can have a repugnant smell if not properly treated. Over time, the brush may begin to develop soap residue. To clean this, soak the brush in vinegar solution for some minutes and rinse off.

Use Gently

The badger is the most preferred hair type for shaving brush because of its water retentive properties. Since it can hold sufficient amount of moisture, it will form good lather easily. The bristles have a design that also makes them good for exfoliating the skin while shaving. So with this, you don't necessarily need to apply too much pressure when making and applying the lather. Too much application of pressure can bend or even break the bristles.

Keep It Dry

When you're done with the brush, ensure you keep it dry. After you rinse the lather off, shake the brush to remove water molecules caught between its bristles. Then hang the brush upside down in its stand and leave to dry.

The Fundamentals of Shaving

Before becoming a professional shaver, there are 3 basic things to understand.

Knowledge

Shaving is not rocket science but it is an art. There's a whole lot more to it than just plainly removing hair. People who see it like this are the ones often plagued with cuts, bruises, and other skin irritations. Deciding the level of reduction you want to achieve is usually the first step. Then proceed to wet shaving techniques and get it right. You should know the direction of your hair and shave along with it. If you are not familiar with the direction, leave your hair to grow for a while and carefully observe it.

Shaving Products

There are lots of shaving products available in the market today. The most important wants needed for a good shave include, a good DE razor, shaving creams/soaps/gel, shaving brush, after shaves, etc. While there are expensive shaving products out there, there are some inexpensive ones also. Don't get deceived that the more expensive, the better. There are less expensive products like those offered by Vikings Blade that still provide the same quality as others.

Practice

As we earlier stated, while it is not rocket science, there are many still getting it wrong. Spend time to practice quality shaving. You'll be amazed the degree of chance - positively - you can get when you know how to do it right. There's no shame in admitting you don't know how and learning how to do it effectively. Make shaving is an awesome experience rather than an unbearable chore.

Do Men and Women Shaving Creams Differ?

This is yet another follow up question from the ‘do men and women razors differ?’ While men grooming is often talked about a lot, we tend to forget that women too have hairs on the body that need shaving. So if the same techniques advised to men to shave are to be used by women, then it implies that they too will have similar products or something of the sort, right?

While men and women razors are similar but share a little difference, shaving creams is totally on another level. Basically, men and women have similar shaving creams with only having difference in smell and price. These means other ingredients are basically the same but the fragrance and packaging is somewhat different.

If the only difference is in fragrance besides price, why then are women shaving creams more expensive? This question is still up for debate as different shaving cream manufacturing companies have their reasons for making this difference in price. Whatever the case, these grooming products have the same function in helping to soften hair in preparation for shaving.

Mistakes You’re Making When Shaving

If you are making these mistakes, chances are you are probably frustrated with all those bumps, and skin irritation. Well they have become your best friends because you have been making some shaving mistakes and making them proudly. So we will list out some of these mistakes and hopefully you take a cue as to what you have been doing wrong for some time now.

Shaving Immediately You Get Into the Shower

Understandably you are always in a hurry and would love to kill two birds with a stone - who wouldn’t? It’s a pity you came so close to getting it right but still managed to get it wrong. Getting the hair wet helps make it soft. Soft hair allows the blade to run through the stubble easily and allow for smoother cuts.

Refusing to Lather Up

Dry shaving will not help you in the long run. Unless of course, you have little, shy stubble still hoping to grow out. A good lather helps moisturize, soften, and feed the right protein to the hair. It helps reduce the occurrence of bumps and skin irritations. If you don’t have time to lather, just postpone the shave – it will be worth it eventually.

Refusing to Change Blades on Time

 Even a good razor blade like those on the Vikings Blade has an average service life of 5 shaves. As much as we would all wish longevity on these blades, they are yet to get such powers. You would never understand the punishment you have placed on yourself by using a dull blade until you change to a new, clean blade.

Sharing Blades

You probably love this person you are sharing blades with. You both probably have come to the understanding that there is no better way to show love to one another. Please be adjured by whatever you hold sacred to stop shaving blades with anyone. So many things can actually go wrong with this act. Vikings Blade have cheap blades just about anybody can afford.

Is Using of Pre-Shaves Good?

This argument on the use of pre-shaves has been on since they first came into existence. One side of the argument says it is not necessary because their granddads shave without them and didn’t have many problems. The other side of the argument says they have cuts andirritations without them. One thing both sides of the argument are forgetting or mot taking into consideration is the fact that we all have different types of skins – in terms of sensitivity.

Pre-shaves are usually made in oils, gels, lotions, and cream forms and has unarguably helped men with sensitive skin. While the razor plays an important part in whether a shave will have cuts and irritation, there are some skins that are just too sensitive even for the mildest of blades. Pre-shaves are usually applied to the chin, neck, and upper lip area. The basic idea behind pre-shaves is providing a layer of protection over the skin to check the effect of repeated contact of the razor on the skin.

These pre-shaves contain emollients whose main purpose is to soften the hair. By getting the hairs soften, it is much easier to get a cut and also reduces the number of strokes needed. These emollients also make the hair slippery. This makes it much easier for the razor to move through the skin without much contact. The slippery movement of the razor does not prevent its cutting action. A good razor like the Vikings Blade will be able to deliver a clean, smooth cut even with no matter how slippery the pre-shaves may be.