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No, I'm not talking about the ShaveMyFace forum brush, that obvious scam which is now unraveling before its owners' very eyes. I'll address that sorry episode in due time -- if you're one of the unfortunates who bought one of these brushes and the "lacquer" is beginning to flake off after just a week's worth of use, I feel for you, kid, I really do. We'll clear this whole thing up soon, and then you can dust yourself off, chalk the whole thing up to momentary loss of cabin pressure, and get yourself a real shaving brush (more on this later).

Actually, the little shaving brush that could is my dad's brush. Back when I first got caught up in all this old-school wetshaving crap, I admit I went a little "born again" on all my male friends and relations, trying to get them into it as well. My dad, bless him, humored me by buying some of the gewgaws I was panting about. I gave him some Taylor's and Musgo Real shaving cream, and a Merkur long-handled DE razor with a pack of Merkur Platinum blades. He said he already had a brush -- "something I picked up locally (Dallas) at some shaving shop at the mall".

I figured he'd found an Art Of Shaving store and bought himself a decent "pure" or even "fine" badger brush, nothing fancy, just a $40 or so brush to schmear some cream on his puss. When he told me how much he liked the fancy shaving creams I gave him, and how they really improved his shaves and made him enjoy the ritual for the first time in his life, I figured wow, we really, um, connected.

Then I visited my folks this weekend and saw his brush for the first time...

I'd run out to the drugstore to pick up some diapers for my little guy (Huggies Supremes #5) and of course I perused the local Dallas CVS's shaving aisle, why I don't know since I had several months' worth of Injector blades and assorted poultices in my dop kit. I can't help it.

I spied a cake of Williams shaving soap on the bottom shelf and threw it in my cart. I love this stuff! It's kick-ass shaving soap, works as well as any hard soap I've tried, smells great ("yummy lemon verbena scent" as the good doctor describes it), and couldn't be cheaper -- $2 in Dallas and a buck-fitty most other places. I figured the old man would put it to good use, him having a nice brush and all.

When I got back to my parents' house and gave it to him, I said I'd show him how to build a lather with a hard shaving soap. "Lemme see your brush and I'll show you how it's done," I told my dad, who proceeded to reach into a drawer and pull out what looked like a miniature model of a real shaving brush. Seriously, it looked like a 1/5th scale model of this brush. I don't know who made it or where he got it -- the details of his story were sketchy -- but it was reeeeally small. The knot couldn't have been more than 10mm. Seriously. If you think the little Vulfix travel brush is weensy, it's got as 20mm knot. My dad's brush would be positively dwarfed by the Vulfix. Who makes a shaving brush this puny?!

I told him as soon as I got home, I'd send him a real brush. I've got an extra Vulfix #377 at home and it'll be Dad's brush ASAP. How can you let your father shave with a brush that should by all rights be applying eye shadow?