Later On

A spicy morning, as you see. The Vie-Long horsehair—I think this one is 65% tail, 35% mane—did a great job with Prairie Creations Spiced Rum, which (as you see) is a tallow+lanolin-based soap. Thick, dense lather with no problem.

I asked Juan at GiftsAndCare.com about the differences between mane and tail hairs. Bristles from tail hair are stiffer and more resilient, those from the mane are softer. Thus a particular brush can be blended as you want. Those brushes with a long loft tend to have more tail bristles to provide the strength required by the loft; shorter brushes can be 65/35 (tail/mane) for a scrubbier brush, or 50/50 for a softer brush. Interesting that it’s easy to tune them.

I think it would be interesting to have a set of 5 horsehair brushes with a moderate loft—say, like the brush shown—whose tail/mane ratios 100/0, 75/25, 50/50, 25/75, 0/100 just to see what the differences would be. It would be a test set, as it were.

The great lather led, inexorably, to a great shave. Enter the Toggle, carrying a Schick Platinum Plus blade. Very smooth and easy 3-pass shave, followed by the alum bar and then, after a final rinse and dry, a good splash of Royall Spyce.

My Brompton back wheel is still rubbing on a support, so The Wife will take it back to Channell Wasson for another adjustment this Tuesday. No biking in the meantime.