West Coast Shaving has some nice offerings at very good prices.

Just curious to know if anyone uses synthetics. The new ones are supposedly very good (as compared to one I bought back in the late 80's which was totally useless).

https://www.westcoastshaving.com/collections/shaving-brushes/products/wcs-synthetic-shaving-brushes-honeycomb

No, and no they're not.

The only saving grace for a 'synthetic' is that they're cheap. I heard about the new synthetics getting so much better over 20 years ago. I'm still waiting.

I own a PAA Solar Flare and an Alpha Shaving Albert.  I made the switch to synthetics after a couple work trips that made me regret purchasing a Parker badger travel brush.  I travel a lot and natural hair brushes are more work than I want to deal with at this point.  The Parker probably works fine for face lathering, but I do a hybrid bowl/face lather since I shave my head and neck, and the Parker doesn’t cut it.  Too floppy.

I’ve been shaving with the solar flare for about two months.  I haven’t made up my mind if I like it or not yet.  It looks and feels very nice, but lather always seems to end up moving to the outside of the brush when I apply it, or getting pushed away from where I’m trying to build it.  Fanning and painting it on works well.  Once I get an initial layer down it works well enough.  Could just be user error, as I am fairly new to wet shaving.  In truth, I think I would be very happy with it if I hadn’t tried the Alpha brush, which requires zero technique to get good performance from it.

The Alpha has a good bit more backbone and seems to work well no matter how I lather.  Doesn’t really take much time to build a lather and get it applied, and still does a great job lifting up hairs on my neck, which grow sideways and love an excuse to become ingrown.  I like that it will lather with Mitchell’s Wool Fat, which the Parker travel brush did not, and the PAA brush does not do well, either.  Overall the Alpha Albert is my favorite of the brushes I own, and I’ll likely end up buying another Alpha so I can keep one at home and have one on the road with me when I travel.

I haven’t tried a West Coast synthetic yet.  The reviews seem good.  Stirling seems to get a lot of hype from Internet forums for their supposedly underrated brushes, too.

I bought the $6 Sally’s beauty supply one on arfcom advice.

There’s a local soap shop that sells shave soap for cheap so I buy from them.

I’ve been satisfied enough not to explore a higher end brush. Works great for me.

I bought one a few years ago, from I forget where, and it’s great for travel. I mounted the knot in a piece of acrylic tube, so it’s lighter than a typical handle.

ETA: look at Whipped Dog- I think he’s had them for a few years.

Forgot to add that Simpsons Trafalgar series seems to get a lot of good press.

Travel brush?

This one is so good I would be OK using it as my only brush. Important when your "travel" can be for months at a time. Been using it several years now.

https://www.truefittandhill.com/collections/travel/products/tube-traveller-shaving-brush?variant=1259556575

I'd have to be really, really convinced a cheaper alternative was better before spending even 10 bucks trying an alternative.

I got 3 synthetics on a rotation. Maggard Granite, Yaqi Sagrada Familia and Stirling 2-Band Syn. All have good backbone and scrub abilities.

I got a West Coast Shaving synthetic brush a few years back on a sale and its a decent brush.  Its  not as good as a couple of boar brushes I have but its a decent brush.

I travel about half the year for work, so I’ll look into it.  Thanks for the recommendation.

I may just buy a couple more inexpensive Omega boar brushes and also invest in a "best bang for the buck" badger brush.

I have an Omega 10051 that has seen 2X/week use for the past 11 years. I'm very satisfied with it and it cost less than ten dollars.

Those j hook treated boar brushes that gel sound very nice.

My Phoenix synthetic must have heard me talking trash about it, as it functioned perfectly today.  Had a very relaxing shave after a long workout.  Brush lathered up perfectly, deposited it where I wanted it, and didn’t push it away.  I like to think that I didn’t do anything different today, but who knows.

I have a cheap Stirling Soap Co synthetic that works great. Better than the badger brush I have. I don't think I'll ever use anything other than synthetic.

It really depends on your needs and what exactly you're trying to accomplish by going synthetic.

I've been using this cheap Omega synthetic for travel for the past several years. It's not great, but it's 100% functional, dries quickly, lathers fine, and fits inside an old pill bottle.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007U8A8FW/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_awdb_imm_t1_WzuSFbVX4WVFJ

It wouldn't be my first choice for daily use, but it's a practical brush if you travel for a week or two at a time, and it can handle being put away wet without getting funky.

Smart man.

Synthetics don't have "backbone". No backbone!

For better or worse, backbone or no backbone, I ordered two Yaqui synthetic brushes from WCS. The worse that could happen is that they suck and I lost about $17 + sales tax (shipping was free).

We'll give them a try.

This is also my experience with the Yaqi brushes I recently purchased. They build outstanding lather in a lathering bowl but building lather when face lathering is not so much. They don't seem to "hold" lather it just goes to the outside layers of bristles and yeah, pushes the lather away from where you're attempting to build it on one's face.

I have yet to try any of these brushes with tubed creams which tend to be lather bombs. I have three tubes of Godrej in various flavors as well as two tubes of Old Spice (these are all from India). I will experiment with them soon.

Taking a tip from the newest YT upload from West Coast Shaving....

I took two chickpea-sized snicks of Sudsy Soapery Frosted Lemon shave soap and streaked both sides of my face with it after a good 30-second application of cold water. Then I dipped my Segrada Familia synth brush in cold water, shook it off, and went to work face lathering. BOOM!

Sudsy's soaps are soft and more of a "croap" so this method of application to the face is easy.

Too bad the brand new Astra Platinum blade I used was a dog. Shit happens. I tossed it after one use. I should have tossed it as soon as I started using it.

Update on my impressions regarding synthetic brushes:  Since I’ve been using softer soap lately, I gave up bowl lathering and have started lathering directly on my head and neck (I shave my head and have a beard, so no face lather).  My synthetic alpha shaving brushes and the PAA brush that I had all but tossed out worked really well this way.  I haven’t really been wet shaving for long, so it’s a good lesson regarding trying new things.  Feels nice on the skin and saves me time and annoyance.

In the end, I’ll be sticking with alpha shaving brushes, and probably rehoming the PAA one, unless I can figure out how to get the knot out and put one that is denser in.  The Alpha brushes have enough backbone to bowl lather harder soap like MWF, but the PAA just does not.  Which is a shame, because I really like the handle.

I guess my teenage years taught me that the cheapest way of handling almost any personal problem was with my right hand. Never really went in for the whole gotta use silver badger hair bristles on a special brush just to slather blade lube on my face.

Now that I've had these synth brushes for about 3 months I have gotten a handle on how to best use them and they seem to work a lot better when face lathering. They definitely work better for me when the brush is well-squeezed as they seem to hold a lot of water. Better to start somewhat 'dry' and dip the bristle tips in a tiny bit of water as needed.

I like mine well enough

I have two.  I hate them both.

I have this one.  And like it.

Now at the 7-month mark with my three Yaqi synthetic brushes and I am really pleased with their performance.