Badger it not?
- Thread starter Badger
- Start date
TobyC
Patriot
I am an omnivore, but I don't swing both ways.
Adox
Über Member
I’ve never owned a badger brush. Nothing to do with ethics, I just haven’t bought one. I have one boar and three synthetics and they are doing me fine.
I use the synthetics more than the boar. They work just as well for me and are easier to clean and dry afterwards so that is a factor.
I use the synthetics more than the boar. They work just as well for me and are easier to clean and dry afterwards so that is a factor.
Moriarty
Forum GOD!
I think people wrongly ignore the ethical issues with synthetic brushes. I suspect over time a synthetic brush will cause a great deal more animal suffering and deaths than a badger brush. The difference is only that in our casual thinking we know that the badger hair comes from an animal, whereas the synthetic fibre appears harmless as long as you do not acknowledge where the synthetic fibre comes from and where it goes to.
The synthetic fibres in a shaving brush are nylon, which is made from crude oil, turned into plastic via highly toxic chemical processes with by-products that have sometimes severely polluted rivers and other animal habitats. And then, after use, these plastic fibres will be in the rivers and oceans for thousands of years, repeatedly being ingested by wildlife like birds and fish, which causes starvation and other painful deaths. Then there are the mass deaths of wildlife that arise from time to time from the mining and shipping of crude oil - we have all seen how animals suffer in the event of an oil spill. Nylon is far from being a clean and ethical material.
At least with a badger brush you know that, at most, one single badger suffered, and that is the end of the effect your brush knot will have on wildlife. I really think that the least unethical choice is to buy animal hair brushes. We should probably hope for more ethical and humane farming of badger hair to make this a clearer choice.
The synthetic fibres in a shaving brush are nylon, which is made from crude oil, turned into plastic via highly toxic chemical processes with by-products that have sometimes severely polluted rivers and other animal habitats. And then, after use, these plastic fibres will be in the rivers and oceans for thousands of years, repeatedly being ingested by wildlife like birds and fish, which causes starvation and other painful deaths. Then there are the mass deaths of wildlife that arise from time to time from the mining and shipping of crude oil - we have all seen how animals suffer in the event of an oil spill. Nylon is far from being a clean and ethical material.
At least with a badger brush you know that, at most, one single badger suffered, and that is the end of the effect your brush knot will have on wildlife. I really think that the least unethical choice is to buy animal hair brushes. We should probably hope for more ethical and humane farming of badger hair to make this a clearer choice.
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Moriarty
Forum GOD!
I’ve got a Declaration Grooming brush with a unicorn ivory handle. I assume it’s real unicorn ivory. It’s pretty.
Gairdner
Forum GOD!
Super.
BlacknTan
Forum GOD!
This is a compelling arguement.. It certainly makes one think!
It seems that nothing is as it appears at first blush..
Smiffy
Forum GOD!
It's a personal choice and not down to anyone to try and persuade anyone else that their point of view is not correct/acceptable.
However, now that I know of the horrors suffered by badgers in China I cannot, in all conscience, buy a brush made from a badger but each to their own.
The bottom line is that you have perfectly acceptable alternatives.
However, now that I know of the horrors suffered by badgers in China I cannot, in all conscience, buy a brush made from a badger but each to their own.
The bottom line is that you have perfectly acceptable alternatives.
Moriarty
Forum GOD!
Yeah. I don’t have strong feelings about this stuff but I do raise an eyebrow when I see protesters harrassing people who buy animal products when the alternative is some kind of plastic. Sometimes I think the green stuff we do actually makes things much worse, but it just allows us to feel like we did something good when we didn’t. What’s the use of that?
A bigger example is plastic recycling - generally what happens is that developed countries separate the plastic we dispose of, and then ship it across the world to developing countries who we pay to recycle it. So we wash our hands of it and feel good. Those developing countries do not of course have any solutions to recycle plastic (how could they if we can’t do it?) and they dump it into the sea. So our feelgood recycling efforts are actually the cause of this explosion of plastic pollution in the oceans and on certain coastlines that are unlucky with the tides. Why don’t we just tip it into the rivers ourselves and avoid the problem of shipping waste across the world? That would be less bad, but of course our consciences wouldn’t allow it, so we just do something even worse and don’t think too much about it.
It’s madness, really. Like these kids who blame adults for global warming, yet are constantly using multiple electronic mobile devices, streaming movies, playing online games. The older generation didn’t use much electricity when they were young. They played football in the street, which is as carbon neutral as you can be.
It’s fine. I will only need this planet for another fifty years, max, so I can’t get worked up about it. I’d prefer if everything wasn’t so dirty, though.
Moriarty
Forum GOD!
The thing is, I don’t know what those perfectly acceptable alternatives are if nylon is potentially even more damaging to wildlife. But I’m not trying to preach - I just think all of the alternatives are problematic, so I don’t feel like singling out badger hair as a problem. I don’t let it worry me - I use whatever brushes I enjoy.
Twelvefret
Forum GOD!
I guess using an Arko stick and our fingers would work. Or, shave in the shower as I did for decades using bath soap.
Or, grow a beard.
Or, grow a beard.