Parker 100% Black Badger Shaving Brush with Blue Wood Handle & Stand – Premium Wet‑Shaving Lather Brush for Men

Packaging A+Initial Quality A+Will add rating after first use.

According to what I read on the internet, this is an entry level badger. Pure/super badgers and silver tip badgers are better quality brushes. Again from what I read, pure badger hair brushes are better with holding water and are softer. Silver tips are the best in their category about retaining water and softness, but they are not a very big upgrade over the pure badger brushes. I got mine knowing -or assuming that I know- what I was getting myself into :)The first impression: To me, the brush looks bigger in the pictures here. The bristles are nice and soft and firmly attached to the base. The color is exactly like those in the pictures. The color of the handle is a dark blue/green. The parker stamp is cheaply made and wears off very easily. The glossy finish of the handle seems to be fine, except that the edges of the base were not properly painted before finishing and so some of the wood shows off. This is the only quality issue I had with mine.The brush arrived in a nice black carton box. The box doesn't look bad at all. If you are giving this as a gift the original box will do the job. You don't need to look for another box.The results. Well, first lesson. Wash the brush thoroughly before the first use. Although it seemed clean, when I started working up the lather I was frustrated with what I saw... all the dirty brown leche and tiny short badger hairs fell off to the sink. As if the badger just had a shave :) You wouldn't want to put that on your face.After soaking the brush into warm water for a few minutes the brush is capable of producing a very nice soft lather. I am using Col. Conk shaving soap and very happy with it. Work it on your palm for about a minute and it holds enough lather for 2-3 passes easily. I just wish that the brush was a little bigger.The stand is cheap plastic, but does the job. There is hole on the back of the stand so that you can mount it on the wall. You might want to buy a good stand for it in the long run.Overall, this is my daily use brush and I am very happy with it. The brush does what it is supposed to do very nicely. so I don't care about the few cosmetic issues I described above. I recently converted back to classic shaving with a double edge razor after fiddling around with electric shavers and 16V 4WD blah blah razors. I discovered that I forgot what a nice and easy shave was like. If you are looking for a nice badger brush I am sure this one won't make you regret.

I started out with the Van Der Hagen bowl, stand, and brush set from Target not too long ago. I wasn't a big fan of the Van Der Hagen brush, which felt very stiff and scratchy even to a beginner like me. I ordered this one based purely on reviews and the overall appearance in the picture(big risk) and luckily can say that this brush is much better than the one I mentioned. Right out of the box I could tell that it was much softer, soft enough to feel pleasant on the face even when dry yet just abrasive enough to work up a good lather(with Proraso I can make a ridiculous amount of lather with little effort). It also helps that the brush holds a lot of water. With my Van Der Hagen brush, I wouldn't even shake it out after a shave-I would just set it in the stand and the next day it was dry as a bone. I was shocked after using this brush for the first time because I did the same thing, and the next day I went to grab it and it was as if it had not lost any water at all after being hung upside down for 24 hours. Now I know to shake my brush after shaving so that it can successfully dry overnight. Very happy with this brush and if I ever wear this one out I will probably just buy another one. Also it helps that it looks great too-the marbled blue is a nice touch in a black and chrome world.

A few months ago I ordered the Tweezerman Men's Shaving Brush as my first shaving brush ever. It worked fine for 2 months or so and I had few complaints. Every shave about 5 bristles would fall out, but honestly that didn't bother me very much and I assumed it would stop eventually. However, after two months the entire bundle of bristles fell out!So I decided to spend a few more dollars (this was only $10 more) on what I hoped would be a higher quality item. I just received this brush today, but so far I'm very happy with it! I thought my old brush worked just fine until I used my new Black Badger for the first time, what a difference! The bristle are far softer and produce a much richer lather. During my first shave I didn't have a single bristle fall out either. The stand is great for being free, I've been told that storing the brush bristle side up (as shown in the product picture) shortens the life of the brush, so the stand is a welcome freebie. As others have commented, this brush has a nice weight to it that makes it feel like a quality item.We'll see how the brush holds up over the next few months, but if it remains in this condition I'll be extremely happy with my purchase! The only minor complaint I have is that the brush smells a little funky, I would assume because of the badger hair. My guess is that a few shaves will remedy this issue. Great brush if you ask me!