Shaving brush: badger or pig?

Antica Barbieria Colla beard and hair care line was not created for commercial purposes, but to perform the services we have been offering for over a century.

Every time I introduce the line to retailers, customers, agents, distributors, professionals, friends, relatives etc., I keep explaining this concept, surely turning out repetitive.

It’s very important that this is understood because it’s the underlying idea of all our products.

We have to start from here to understand what I am now going to say about our natural bristle shaving Brush.

I’ve got any kind of criticism, remark, question and judgment about this product.

So since it’s finally possible, I’ll explain in detail its value and the reasons behind our choices.

As you can read in its tagline in the dedicated section of our website, this is a professional, handmade brush; its ultimate purpose is to ensure the highest performance during the shaving service.

It’s a countertrend choice compared to what it’s usually found in the market, where most brands have badger bristle for its brushes, which are nice, shining, soft and as I am quite often told “very charming”.

Although I do agree that aesthetic is important and badger is very fascinating, for us the pig bristle brush was the one and only to be launched in the market.

Why?

Because the pig bristle is firm, compact and resistant and it is the one we have been using daily at Antica Barbieria Colla for over a century.

Moreover:

1) The skin needs to be massaged (a lot) before shaving.

We start from a hand massage with the Almond Oil and Aloe Pre-Shave Cream, but then we have to keep massaging with the Almond Oil Shaving Cream and the brush, and you’ll agree with me that hands pressure is different from the bristles one, especially if they are soft and tend to open like the badger brisles; this is why we use pig bristles, which are firm, compact and resistant as pointed out above.

2) When we spread the soap, the brush knot has to be as much ergonomic as possible in order to adapt to the face shape; besides, the firmest bristles are the shortest one.

For this reason, the tip of the knot gets manually cut by our artisans in a round shape which will allow our barbers to reach every part of the face and for us it’s between 3.5 and 6.5 cm tall, not more.

3) Pig bristles last over time if treated right.

They don’t weaken nor lose their resistance, so the brush lasts at least two years; by this time, if any problem is encountered due to production, Antica Barbieria Colla replaces the brush for free.

Nevertheless, to ensure your brush a long life you have to take care of it according to the instructions.

Before using it for the first time, leave it to soak in water so the bristles absorb it and get soft and elastic.

A clarification: online you can find some videos where my father, Franco Bompieri, says to leave the brush in the water for 3 days; to be honest, I have to publicly admit Franco tended to magnify things in his stories, 6 to 12 hours are enough for the brush to be ready.

Being it a handmade product, it has a slight adjustment period and it might lose some bristles the first times, but this is going to happen less and less frequently as using it.

Lastly, for the sake of clarity: it’s an expensive product, but its price is due to its features and value.

We presumed to sell a different brush from the accessories usually found in the market; one can often fall into the trap of comparing it to alike items which are maybe cheaper just because they are synthetic and industrial.

At Barbieria Colla tradition also means burning the hair weakest tips by fire

When a new customer calls our shop, one of the most frequently asked question is: “Can I get the fire haircut?”.

Unfortunately this is the wrongest thing to say, because we don’t cut hair with fire, and it would be quite a long shot to believe it’s even possible.

Therefore, today I would like to clarify the treatment we perform to strengthen the hair after cutting it with scissors.

Taking inspiration from the book “Antica Barbieria Colla ovvero la salute dei capelli” published by Feltrinelli in 1980 and written by Mr. Franco Bompieri, I will try to explain the purpose of our job.

Boldness and all the other hair and scalp issues are not a matter of therapy, but of prevention. We can’t make irreparably lost hair grow again, we can just take care of good hair and restore the damaged one. And this is what we have been doing at Antica Barbieria Colla for more than a century, since it is not enough to consider only the way the hair looks, but we need to understand what exactly we are dealing with and how to treat it.

There are several hair types: dry, frizzy, thin, curly, red, white, brown etc.

Our peculiar technique is particularly suitable to thin hair. Thin hair is very delicate and needs to always be clean; it can easily get oily and break, especially if too long.

This type of hair has to be cut with nothing more than a comb and a pair of scissors, if possible every 3 weeks.

After the haircut, it’s time for the curious fire:

using a wick with the right amount of wax so it doesn’t leak over the customer’s head, a small flame burns the hair tips just cut to seal it up in order to prevent split ends, which are quite common for thin hair.

As the flame moves past it’s immediately turned off by some skillful comb movements.

To better understand the reason behind this treatment, we need to talk about the hair structure.

The hair consists of:

a thin external cuticle of cells, one above the other like roof tiles,

the cortex, made of extended cells filled with a substance, keratin, whose fibers brought together into twisted bundles cause hair resistance.

With the flame, we are sealing the final part of keratin so it doesn’t easily flake off.

The cuticle and the cortex are lifeless, because when it comes to hair life is founded in the follicles, some sort of small canals dug in the skin which have a little mass of cells at the bottom that keeps reproducing, being filled by keratin and dying.

Once the burning is over, we move to the scalp massage and cleansing and then to shampooing and lotion massage, but we’ll talk about it another time.

Antica Barbieria Colla makes you a gift this Christmas!

Here we are, we don’t really know how, but Christmas is coming around again, even this year, 2020.

Joking apart, unfortunately this won’t be the typical Christmas we are all used to, due to the overall situation and the related restrictions.

Since we need good vibes and we are all probably looking for presents online, at Antica Barbieria Colla we thought about this:

from December 8 to 23, buying any 3 products on our website, you will get our refined hat box for free*, which is ideal as a gift box to make your presents even more special.

You need to know that our hat box is not only beautiful, if everything will be fine I believe in the future it will become the icon of our beard and hair care line, because it’s the firs box I created in 2012: I didn’t know exactly where I was going, but I had no doubt Antica Barbieria Colla products had to be wonderful gifts both for their quality and aesthetically.

Discover our product line

So I wish this gift may cheer you up a little, since it always makes me smile thinking of myself 8 years ago, when I took courage and called what I think is the best packaging company in Italy, and with an uncertain voice I asked for an estimate for a number of boxes that over time I understood was really out of the market.

Now let me suggest you how to combine our products for some nice gift ideas.

For those with delicate hair:

Mallow Shampoo + Herbal Conditioner + Capsicum and Menthol Lotion

For those with strong hair:

Nut Shampoo + Herbal Conditioner + Capsicum and Menthol Lotion

For those with fragile hair:

Egg and Rum Shampoo + Herbal Conditioner + Capsicum and Menthol Lotion

For haircare and shaving:

Almond Shampoo + Shaving Cream + Apricot Hull Aftershave

For those who love classic shaving:

Pre-shave Cream + Shaving Cream + Apricot Hull Aftershave

For those with long beards:

Beard Shampoo + Beard Conditioner + Beard Dry Oil

Should you have any doubt visit our website where you will find detailed information for each product, or get in touch with us via our social channels, we will be glad to help you find what suits you best.

*Until stocks last