To show you how cosmetic brushes are actually made, we met Inge, an experienced brush maker. We went to a small meeting room to see how Inge makes the head of a cosmetic brush. She brought a stone slab, tools, and a few materials. Inge’s work essentially consists of four steps.
The first step consists of weighing and portioning the hair. The scale is more show today. Experienced brush makers like Inge usually don’t need one – it’s all a matter of experience. The hair is then being prepared, loose hair gets removed. Finally, it is brought into shape and put in a brass cannon (goblet).
The goblet with the hair is repeatedly tapped on the stone slab so the hair settles at the bottom and comes into position. The tapping sounds quite nice and is very rhythmic. Once this is done, the bundle is taken out of the goblet. Inge then quickly fixes the hair’s shape with a cotton thread.
The last step in making a brush head is to put the hair inside a metal ferrule. Right after, Inge cuts the upper thread and checks the visible hair length and brush shape one last time. Then the ferrule is pressed so it can finally be filled with glue before the wooden brush handle will be attached.