I mentioned a while back that after a bit of research and hinting, I found a local supplier for Kent Brushes, velvut.

If you are in the market for shaving brushes, or I guess any other form of brushes, I guess these fellers are a really good place to go. The Shaving Brushes are really good in regular use and people who know me probably notice that I am more frequently well shaven. I suppose Kent’s other brushes are also made very well.

I am sure if one could find boutique stores around selling high quality hair / shaving brushes but I am just giving a shout out for velvut since I have been extremely happy with their service. Incidentally, they were nice to me and sent me a couple of stands for free. I thought that was a nice gesture to know that they care about their customers.

A point to note, their blog mentions that they will be supplying the Kent brushes at Watson stores around town or if you would like anything special, you can mail them and they get back to you quickly. Also, I hear that pre-orders will be entertained with a good discount. Go ahead and get some one a gift*

*I gave my silver tip BK4 to my dad, so if someone is interested in getting me a gift, a BK4 would work well. Ahem.

** Note, this is not written with commercial intent. Kent shaving brushes are genuinely good products. I am pretty pleased with them and given I spent a while trying to figure local suppliers for good shaving products, I hope this will help some one else save time.

One word – Awesome.

Kent brushes are known to make very fine quality shaving brushes. After I discovered that velvut, a local company, is a distributor / dealer, I decided to get a couple of brushes to spruce up my shaving kit. I don’t over indulge, the second brush is for my father, a great gift and works very well in its nice packaging. A bit gaudy I think, in its postbox red box with Gold pin stripe, but nice none the less.

My previous experience using a brush was with my fathers Nylon brush, almost a decade or more ago. So in all practical sense, lathering with a fine bristled brush was a first time experience. Let me mention, that it is a very enjoyable experience and needs a bit getting used to if you dont want to get soap all over your face.

So I got myself a BK4 and my father has a Blk2. Not that I wanted to go cheap on the gift but I wanted to try both type of bristles. There are comments that the Silver tip can be a bit too soft and the Best Badger may be to some peoples liking. Well I guess at the price, I expect both brushes to be of the highest quality and they indeed are. Anyhow, I got a good deal from Velvut and I hope to be enjoying my shaving routine on a more regular basis for a long time.

I will probably comment more on the long term impressions in a few months time.

Singapore is a small country, very small country. Actually, very very small. But is was traditionally a very thriving trading post. And though in its modern incarnation, there is more focus on services as an industry, the country’s trading heritage still remains.

What it the point? Well, the consequence of being a trading post is the fact that exotic products pass through its shored often and it takes only a bit of effort to discover hidden shops and products that you never expected to find.

Recently, I have taken fancy towards shaving. People who know me, know that I can grow a mean beard in a matter of days and given that I do not fancy standing in front of a mirror, I avoid shaving. And once every few weeks, I switch from zombie to clean shaven. However, with recent interest in traditional shaving, I have taken upon myself to clean up the old face on a regular basis. I guess it is just another effort in learning a new skill / spending time researching

So, if you researching shaving, you will come across the old school shaving techniques (which incidentally barbers still employ). Shaving is a male ritual that can rival womans cosmetics, if you indulge. It can involve one or several of the following:

1. Shaving creams and soaps
2. Shaving tubs
3. Shaving Brushes
4. Razors with or without blades
5. After shave creams  and balms
6. Moisturisers
7. Other knick knacks that might fancy the individual

Or one can use a disposable razor and get it over with. I personally prefer the complex route.

Now comes the rub, A large portion of the male population in Singapore do not have the need to shave on a regular basis. As a consequence, there is very little demand for shaving products and as a consequence, it is close to impossible to find decent products in the market. You still get the Gillette series of products but thats not what I am looking for. One can find a good assortment of products at Mustafa, but since demand has shrunk, Gillette Fusion has taken over an entire aisle and blades and cheap razors have gone to virtual hiding. When I did find them, I was not impressed by the cheap plastic razors and synthetic brushes.

So where are the hidden gems? They are there but just difficult to find. Here is a set of places I found that sell really good shaving equipment:

Razors: Straight Edge razors, shavettes, Double Edge Safety razors, you name it. I have found a good selection, although sometimes you might have to place an order and wait, of DOVO / Merkur products in these shops:

CHENG SIANG HWA, Ph: 62990368. The elderly shop keeper is a really nice chap. He incidentally will also hone your razors. Nice. He also carries nice (well balanced) Fuji Razors (shavette) that takes the hard backed Single Edge blades.

Tham Lai Wah, Ph:62986686. They are Dovo dealers! in Singapore. Who would have known. They carry lots of other professional equipments but also have Fuji razors, Dovo shavettes, strops etc… Great. I prefer the Fuji over the dovo shavette though. But as far as the straight razors go, the dovo looks particularly appealing.

Brushes: Fine badger hair shaving brushed and other accessories made by Kent can be obtained from velvut. They are in the process of setting up an online shop and that may make accessing good products easier. Though some may need back ordering.

Shaving Creams, aftershaves, balms etc…: Mustafa, L’occitaine, The Body shop, Kiehl’s, Crabtree and Evelyn are all good places to look for quality products. Soaps are still elusive, unless I can dig deeper and find a source.