The way you brush your hair can make or break the overall health of your hair. Hair brushing is one of the most common misguided and misinformed techniques out there. Don’t worry, I’m here to finally break down how and when to brush your hair, and what brushes to use in order to achieve your desired hairstyle.

The number one thing to keep in mind when it comes to brushing your hair is that your hair is in its most vulnerable and sensitive state when wet. Brushing your hair when it’s wet can ultimately over stretch, over pull, or even tear your hair. Conversely, hair is in the strongest state when it’s dry, so any kind of pulling or brushing does not have the same effect on your hair compared to when it’s wet.

The second most important fact about hair brushing is to never start at the top of your head. Instead, grab your mid lengths in one hand and begin brushing from the bottom up. What that means is you want to brush out the very ends first, then come up a little higher, brush down again, and then continue this process going up all the way up until you’ve gone through the length of your locks. When you place the brush at the very top of your hair, you are only reinforcing tangles that end up building towards the ends, and well, most people tear through the ends to finish the task. Sorry to break it to you, but your hair can never grow long or remain healthy at the ends until this habit is broken. If your hair has been tangled throughout the day and you’re about to hop in the shower, I strongly recommend brushing your hair just before to prevent extra tangling once your hair gets wet.

Let me explain in more detail.

Let’s start with the shower. Most women will create tangling when applying shampoo or over-massaging their hair until it becomes one big knot. It’s important to be very gentle with your hair in the shower as you’re washing it, because the mix of shampoo and wet hair is more easily susceptible to tangling and knotting. Instead of rubbing your hair onto your scalp or scrubbing the strands together, try to clean your scalp by first massaging and lifting your fingers all throughout, then continuing down your strands while running your hands to the ends. For the best results, you should avoid rubbing, scrubbing or making a mess of your hair. After you rinse out your shampoo (in a very gentle way while allowing the water to hit the often overlooked nape area in the back), squeeze out the excess water in your hair and apply your conditioner. Again, this should be done in a non-scrubbing or rubbing method. Although I mostly advise against it, I know it can be tempting to brush your hair in the shower in order to get any knots out. However, if you shampoo and condition your hair properly, you shouldn’t have any tangling in the shower. The main reason I would ever use a brush in the shower once I have conditioner or a mask on, is to help distribute the product evenly. The perfect brush for this situation is the Tangle Teezer Detangling Hairbrush. It comes in three different sizes and in so many fun color combinations! The flexible teeth won’t damage or break your hair. It’s a really nice treat in the shower that I just started to incorporate into my own personal hair washing routine.

Next, we have to style our hair after it’s freshly washed. When it comes to hairstyling, there are two kinds of brushes you can use: either a wooden boar bristle brush or a ceramic nylon brush. The wooden boar bristle brush is typically more dense and better for straightening or smoothing out hair, whereas a ceramic brush retains heat and is better for creating a wavy or curly blowout. My favorite brushes for creating waves and bends in the hair are the ceramic brushes by Creative Professional. I’ve been using them for years! They’re super light-weight and won’t get caught in your hair. If you want to simply tame your hair and not have to fuss with it, I recommend Tangle Teezer’s Ultimate Vented Hairbrush. The innovative teeth provide enough grip and smoothing power to help tame your frizz and quickly smooth out your hair while blowdrying. To achieve this, you simply brush downwards and follow it in the same direction with the air from your blowdryer. This brush is very neat and is the ideal tool to use when you want to blow-dry your hair quickly, as opposed to just running your fingers through it, or using another brush that could create even more frizz.

Using the right hairbrush and correctly managing tangles is yet another thing that only you have complete control over when brushing your hair. Being mindful of all these tips can certainly change your hair for the better over time.

Start today by being kind and gentle to those locks!

To smooth, tangle free hair!

Shab