Black and White Knot is Heat Shapable Acrylic

I've been loosely following the introduction of Tuxedo et al. black-and-white synthetic knots, biding my time until prices come down to Earth. A makeup brush came to the Dollar General, largest retailer in my village, that matched the general description of the softer variety; indeed, it appears to be the same brush featured in one of my favorite lathering videos from YouTube.

Recently, a Virginia Sheng black-and-white brush dropped into my price range, and looked like a potential mate for my Armetale Williams cup -- fake pewter meets fake ivory. I knew it wasn't going to be authentic "Tuxedo," or as soft as the little kabuki I'd taken to represent that quality. I was surprised, though, to find it as stiff as my Pur-tech from the same vendor.

I now own classic and modern sizes of three distinct kinds of brushes, whose characteristics apparently have the power to reliably attract me: a soft synthetic type that holds water like a mop; a stiff synthetic type that acts more like a whisk, and a broomy boar type that gently scrubs. These form the cohesive heart of my collection, with just a couple (boar) outliers.

Until I noticed that my big, new black-and-white brush had a bad perm, flipped over to one side. It looked as though some chemical in my Williams enrichment scheme had permanently damaged the brush. But when I googled for other cases of brush damage, the hits returned a bunch of makeup and paint brushes being repaired by immersion in boiling water... and those brushes were acrylic. AH... yes, I had been using boiled water lately. And, as a lifelong eyeglass wearer, I've bent earpieces that way, intentionally, to make them fit better.

So I set out to "fix" my brush, on the assumption that it, too, was made of acrylic fibers. Nuked a mug of water in the microwave, and immersed my brush nearly up to the handle. Without thinking much, I did as the YouTubers did, and sort of shaped my brush manually, by running it between my thumb and index finger. Repeated a couple times, until I felt it was symmetrical enough.

As you can see in the photo, the brush now compares to my grandfather's StanHome mixed boar/badger knot, with a "flame" profile. That's his worn-out stub on the far right; I found a less used-up one at an antiques store. Not pictured: the little brush stand, not really a drying tool, so much as a shape retainer for the knot as it dries. Here, qualities of badger and boar are combined in one, stiff but non-absorbent, soft-tipped fiber type. Most notably, the extra tip density lets me dip for a precise aliquot of water to bring to my little Williams mug; where before, the brush took enough water for four shaves.

I unfortunately have to inform you that the glue bump on Vig Shaving synthetic brushes seems consistently sub-standard and very palpable. I never noticed it too much in my smaller Pur-tech, but with everything scaled up, it's right under my fingertips. I picked at this one with an acne tool to get it under control, and lost a few bristles in the process. Clearly, too, bristles that deform in very hot water could be perceived as a serious liability by many shavers. The heavy acrylic handle, while lending a quality hand feel, might tip balance the wrong way, in some setups.

But for me, this might be it -- The One Brush!

Williams -- just Williams