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Brush Up: A Quick Guide to Hair Brushes
I Just Need a Hair Brush, Man
What the frick is a thermal brush? What’s the difference between a wet brush and a round brush? Is a boar brush made of real boars?? If you’re like us, you had questions about hair brushes when your hair finally grew long enough to need one. To make things easier for you than it was for us, we’ve compiled this thorough, rapid-fire guide to hair brushes for men. So brush up, man!
Types of Hair Brushes
There are more types of hair brushes then you can shake a stick at, here are a bunch of them.
Boar Bristle Brush
Boar bristle brushes feature actual boar bristles. These brushes are intended to spread your natural oils and polish your hair. An additional benefit of the boar brush is it will remove dead hair without causing breakage. We have a good one when you’re ready to go hog wild.
Nylon Spoke Brush
Nylon spoke hair brushes feature synthetic pegs that are designed to penetrate through your hair and stimulate the scalp while breaking up residual oil and dirt that accumulates. Nylon spokes often have ball tips to really massage the scalp. Excellent for detangling and for thick hair.
Mixed Boar Bristle & Nylon Spoke Brush
Offering the best of both bristles, a mixed boar bristle & nylon brush delivers deep penetration and detangling with smoothing and polishing. Over here we dive considerably deeper into the differences between a boar bristle and nylon spoke brush.
Paddle Brushes
Referring to the brush’s shape and handle type, a paddle brush typically features a wide body with bristles set in a padded air cushion. The air cushion compresses during use to allow the bristles to conform to the shape of your head. We’re pretty fond of ours.
Round Brushes
Round hair brushes are designed for use while blow drying. They feature a cylindrical body with bristles all the way around. Smaller cylinders are for enhancing curls, while wider ones are for straightening.
Vented Brushes
As you may have guessed, vented brushes come with slots cut out for optimal air flow from a blow dryer. These vents let air through while allowing excess moisture to escape.
Curved Brushes
Call it the utility knife of hair brushes, the curved form comes with a concave face to help contour to your noggin. This brush aims to spread natural oils, massage the scalp, and aid during blow drying.
Teasing Brushes
This stiletto looking little guy is perfecting for stimulating your hair to add volume. Typically used for styling purposes.
Hair Straightener Brush
A hair straightening brush is a combination of hair iron and brush that heats up and detangles while also leaving a frizz-less shine.
Wet Brushes
While generally speaking you shouldn’t brush wet, there is a brush specifically designed for brushing your hair wet, aptly named the wet brush. Full blown analysis on the wet brush over in How To Use A Wet Brush - For Men.
Thermal Brushes
Similar in appearance to the round brush, these brushes are built with heat conductive materials that substantially reduce blow drying time.
The Right Brush For Your Hair Type
As we mentioned before, with all these brush types it can be tricky to figure out which brush is the one. Certainly the average bro doesn't need a full arsenal of hair brushes for men. We need the tools that are going to get us looking good and out the door.
The best advice we can give is to start with the basics. If you’re new to brushing you may not need a more specialized device like an electric hair straightener or a teaser. Think of the fundamentals; you need to detangle your hair and you want it to look shiny and healthy.
For those critical tasks we offer two of the most effective brush types. Our nylon spoke paddle brush, The Continental, massages the scalp while detangling your precious locks. For that shiny, illustriously healthy look we offer The Mane Hog. With this bad hombre you’ll polish your mane while spreading your natural oils.
Brushing Your Hair
If you have super curly hair, braids or locs you don’t want to brush your hair. For most other hair types, here's what you need to know:
Brushing detangles and helps keep your mane neat and orderly. Even if you don't care about those things it's good for your hair and scalp to brush. It helps distribute the natural oils your scalp produces through the lengths and ends of your hair.
Brushing properly also massages the scalp, promoting blood flow and stimulating hair follicles. And who doesn’t want stimulated hair follicles??
Brush regularly but not more than necessary. Every time you brush you leave some of your hair in the brush. Some hair is already dead and it's good to clear out, but some are broken off or ripped out. Once a day is ideal.
With each hair brush type having its own function, naturally they vary slightly in proper technique. Thankfully we have you covered on the fundamentals.
Basic Brushing Technique
- Always brush your hair when it's dry. It's more fragile when it's wet and more likely to break. Wet hair should be combed with a wide-toothed comb.
- More tangled = more damage. Use conditioner, leave-in conditioner or hair serum to reduce tangling. For extreme tangles due to aggressive hair-whipping you can comb in the shower while the conditioner is still in.
- Start at the tips. Brush them out gently and work your way closer to the scalp as you remove tangles.
- Massage your scalp while brushing.
- Curly hair can be combed in the shower using a wide-toothed comb while the conditioner is still in. Technique is the same: start at the ends and work your way towards the scalp.
- Finally, don't overbrush. As tempting as it might be to brush those gorgeous locks for hours on end, each brushstroke is more friction and stress, so once you've got it all brushed out, save the rest for next time.
If these basics aren’t enough, elevate yourself to hair brushing master with our complete guide.
Clean Your Hair Brush
Whichever brush you choose, you should keep it clean. The last thing you need is to rake your precious lettuce with a yuck stick. Learn how with this little number on how to clean your hair brush. Your hair will be better for it.
The Rapid-Fire Guide to Hair Brushes for Men
You know a lot more about hair brushes for men than you used to, big dog. And while you don’t need to be a hair expert, there are a few things every guy with long hair needs to know.
Get the fundamentals from the boys here at The Longhairs with Quick Tips: a collection of basic hair knowledge for regular guys, like brushing, washing, growing, caring and more. Subscribe for Quick Tips below, then go forth and maintain that mane!
QUICK TIPS
You don’t need to be a hair expert, but there are a few things every guy with long hair needs to know. Get the fundamentals from the guys with flow.
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Any hair brushes for men or brushing tips we missed? That’d be hard to believe, but leave them in the comments!
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Comments
Thanks for this info, really helpfully.
SWEET!
Straight up didn’t know there were even this many types of brushes. Continental is my daily and the Mane Hog is for special occasions;).
Curved brush looks like it’d feel great on my scalp haha. Gotta pick one up!
Great read! I personally use round brushes and always avoid brushing wet. Might try a wet brush soon tho.
you have forgotten the tangle deezer type ones to detling without tearing a hairspade at each knot…
don’t forget that BBB brushes split on the knots without detling; their main effect is removing the excess of oil or giving volume to your mane
Never underestimate the power of the hair brush.
This was a fun one. I personally use The Continental every day.
Oh man I could brush this mane for hours! But I’ll limit to once a day, I suppose.
I’m pretty partial to The Continental, but I do use a wet brush on occasion.
I just can’t bring myself to brush wet!
thanks for this info i really needed it
Thanks for reading!
Boar hybrid is money, thanks for the great read!
Glad you stopped by, Clay!
I definitely need to try some of these other brushes. Thanks El Sicario for the breakdown!
SICK
TIGHT