The Stray Whisker 452 Synthetic Brush - 28mm

Very happy with my purchase of the 452 brush. It’s my first wet shave brush and I’m currently using it with Arko shave soap. Brush lathers well and is easy to clean.

I bought the Stray Whisker synthetic shaving brush for my husband as a Father's Day present and he loves it. He says that it lathers exceptionally well.

This brush is a lather monster, soft but with some backbone, very useful for head shaving.

I bought this brush a little while back and left it sit for a while. This morning I decided to give it a go. I grabbed my bowl of Tabac, a "Chrome Series Rockwell 6S setup with an R3 plate loaded with a Gillette "Silver Blue" and set to work. I soaked the the 452/28 in some warm water for 10 seconds, shook it vertically three times and started to load the unbloomed puck. This brush easily picks up lather and stores it nicely in the bulb of the brush without losing much to the knot base at all. The face lather told the whole story though. This 28mm knot is brilliant. it has decent backbone without being as obnoxiously stiff as a 24mm "Plissoft" and has the splayability without the floppiness of my Stirling "Kong" - for me this is shave brush nirvana right off the bat. This combination is supremely comfortable. The brush feels crazy soft and generates absolutely ridiculous amounts of perfectly hydrated lather without having to think about it. It willsplay a little or a lot with linearly applied pressure as required. No resistance point whatsoever. Con, whoever produced this setup for you got it totally right! (on my face anyway). I own all sorts of synthetics - Plison style, Ubersoft knots (I & II) , Edwin Jagger, Omega, an a few others and I have to say all of them must now prostrate themselves before the "452/28" . even my Savile Row 3326 feels like a little less comfortable after using this brush. (and that thing is my pillowy soft badger brush of choice Well done Con mate! This brush is a winner. I'll be ordering another for travel, no worries there! A great investment for fans of synthetics.

The 28mm is big. It is really BIG. So not many people will find it comfortable. In this case stick to 24mm instead. However I like the size. It is very soft and holds lots of soap - enough for six or even more passes. Excellent value for money.

This is quite a big brush, and it does a fantastic job. Very good face feel, good backbone, holds an absolute ton of lather. Fantastic value for the price.