From your diet to your hair care practices, beautiful, healthy tresses are the product of countless daily habits and choices.
“One of the most important daily habits has to be hair brushing,” shares Ricardo Vila Nova. “A must for longer hair lengths, strands prone to dry ends, as well as thick hair and curly tresses due to their propensity to tangle,” he adds. The benefits of brushing are plentiful, think not just detangling which avoids breakage down the line, but added lustre – as brushing helps distribute the scalps naturals oils from the root to tip, and better blood flow too – which encourages healthy growth.
However, what you brush your hair with is as important as actually brushing your hair, and any old brush simply won’t do. Too many tightly packed bristles can cause pulling and breakage for curly folks, while natural bristle brushes rarely have the strength to work through thick or tangled hair. So, in order to get your brush choices right, read on to find your perfect match…
Comb
Best for: detangling
Combs are the original detanglers, effectively working through knots while being gentle on strands. “When you use a comb correctly – from the end upwards – you’ll find there’s a lot less friction and pulling on the hair than when using a brush, which reduces the risk of breakage when detangling,” shares Vila Nova. And picking the right type of comb is simple. “Fine, straight hair types should use a fine-tooth comb, medium, straight and wavy hair types should opt for a medium-tooth comb, and thick, and or curly tresses will benefit from a wide-tooth comb,” adds Vila Nova. The one caveat being that when detangling wet hair, a wide tooth comb is best for medium to long barnets of all textures.
Wet brush
Best for: wet hair
Studies have shown that when wet the hydrogen bonds in our hair break making strands more elastic and weaker in nature, and that brushing straight or wavy hair types while wet (especially if done with vigour and using the wrong brush) can over stretch the hair and ultimately lead to breakage. “On the flip side, brushing curly and textured hair when dry totally disrupts the curl pattern and leads to breakage too,” shares Vila Nova. Cue wet brushes, cleverly designed brushes with flexible bristles that can be used on all hair types when wet. “They detangle with ease, reduce frizz, and ensure less damage is done to your tresses,” explains Vila Nova.
Paddle brush
Best for: smoothing
Paddle brushes make for the ideal hair brush for those with long straight hair, “firstly because their size allows them to cover a lot of ground fast, and secondly they’re effective detanglers for straighter hair types,” says Vila Nova. But where they truly shine for all hair textures and medium to long lengths is when used during blow-drying and styling. “Paddle brushes make for one of the best brushes to use if you want to create a smooth, straight blow-out that causes less tension to your strands and scalp while doing so,” adds Vila Nova.
Boar bristle brush
Best for: shine
While this natural bristle brush isn’t the best detangler (especially if you have thick hair), it truly shines when it comes to adding lustre. “Wavy and curly hair types have a hard time keeping dryness at bay as the natural oils produced by the scalp aren’t able to work their way down the full length of the hair shaft as easily as they do on those with straight hair,” explains Vila Nova. Thankfully, that’s where boar bristle brushes come in, as they help distribute the oils from our scalps all the way down to the tips of our hair strands. In so doing they smooth and defrizz, resulting in hair that looks beautifully polished.
Nylon bristle brush
Best for: voluminous blow-out
If you’re a fan of a big bouncy blow-out then a nylon bristle brush is the ideal team-mate for your blow-dryer. “Nylon retains more heat than a natural bristle which makes it ideal for using when blow-drying thick, coarse and or curly tresses. This also means that curls and waves won’t fall out as quickly,” shares Vila Nova. Plus, nothing beats this brush type if you want to creating volume at the roots and this bristle type creates less static than natural bristle varieties.
