The Best Hair Brushes For Your Hair Type

Choosing the right hair brush can be difficult if you aren’t sure what you should be looking for. The hair brushes that work well for your thin haired friend may not work as well for you if you have thick hair. So in this post I’m going to cover the different types of hair brushes, and which ones will work best for you based on your hair type!

The information on how to properly brush your hair has been moved to another blog post, that you can find here!

Something else that many don’t know is that you should be using a completely different brush on wet hair than on dry hair! If you use a wet brush on dry hair, you’re much more likely to rip your hair and create breakage. We’ll talk more about this in a bit.

Does a good quality hair brush make a difference?

If you haven’t discovered it on your own yet, using a higher quality hair brush is actually a big deal! If you blindfolded me and put two paddle brushes down in front of me, one low quality and one high quality, I would be able to tell you the difference instantaneously.

A low quality hair brush can cause breakage, unnecessary hair loss, and won’t add any volume or shine to the hair. I can tell the difference by the way the bristles feel. If the bristles are strong and not flexible at all, it is LOW quality. The bristles should be flexible to avoid breaking the hair.

You can also tell the difference by the way the brush feels in your hair. Is it gentle, or is it pulling the hair? Do you see pieces of hair on your shirt after brushing? Low quality brushes can weaken your hair and cause instantaneous breakage.

The best hair brushes

My go-to favorite hair brushes are always made from boar bristle and nylon. Don’t ever use anything with bristles made from metal or plastic, I’ll explain why later on.

I recommend different hair brushes depending on what situation you’re using it for and what hair type you have.

It wouldn’t make sense that someone with thin hair should be using the exact same brush as someone with extremely thick hair. You first need to determine your hair type, and if you don’t already know it then be sure to check out my post here.

The best hair brush for dry hair – Boar Bristle Brush

First up is the boar bristle hair brush. It takes the cake for the #1 spot on my list. These hair brushes are hands down the most gentle on your hair. This is the best brush for fragile, weak, or damaged hair.

It adds shine and smooths your hair without ripping and causing breakage. The natural bristles take the oil from your scalp and distribute it throughout the rest of your hair, adding shine and making it softer and frizz-free. So these hair brushes can actually make your hair healthier!

Boar bristle brushes will not get tangled or stuck

The awesome thing about boar bristles is that they are impossible to get tangled in the hair. You can take a round brush and literally twist it around and try to get it stuck, but it always gently pulls right out. It really is amazing.

Boar bristle brushes can extend days between washing

I use these brushes on the days I don’t wash my hair. I blow-dry the natural oils right into my hair using the round boar brush and blow dryer just as I would if I was drying it. This pulls the oil down from your scalp to the ends of your hair that need it.

It also increases volume & body, keeps your scalp healthy, and your ends shiny. They work great in conjunction with dry shampoo to prolong washing.

The best hair brush for wet hair – Nylon Hair Brush

When the hair is wet, I typically use a nylon detangling brush to get the tangles out. A boar brush is too gentle to fully detangle wet hair.

Nylon bristle brushes are best for thick hair

Nylon brushes can be used on all hair types, but are perfect for detangling thicker and fuller heads of hair. You can even use a nylon round brush that has a ceramic plate for curling the hair with a blow dryer.

A lot of stylists prefer nylon bristle round brushes over boar bristle when the goal is to achieve maximum curl while blow drying. The ceramic plates hold onto heat to better add curl to the hair. While they don’t reap all of the same benefits of boar bristle, they work very well for stronger and thicker heads of hair.

Boar and Nylon Combination Bristle Brush

A boar and nylon combination hair brush is a bit stronger than a 100% boar bristle hair brush, but is still gentle and also reaps the benefits of boar bristles. You can get it as a round brush, paddle brush, or even a teasing brush.

Boar and nylon bristles are best for medium hair types

I generally use these combination hair brushes on medium hair types that aren’t too fragile but also aren’t incredible thick either. Boar bristles can be too gentle for thick hair, while nylon alone isn’t always necessary for every job.

The boar bristles add volume and shine, while the nylon bristles penetrate through all of the hair a little better. You get the benefits of both bristle types when you use this type of brush.

What do different hair brushes do?

***Since I’m sharing the products and tools that I love to use with you guys, my posts may include affiliate links to these products. If you take action and purchase a product through clicking one of my links, I’ll make some commission money from it at no extra cost to you. This enables me to be able to continue giving you awesome hair tips, so thanks! ***

Paddle Hair Brushes

• Nylon or boar bristles
• Best hair brush for detangling thick hair
• Can also be used to blow dry hair straight

The Best Paddle Hair Brushes:

• Spornette Ion Fusion Paddle Brush – Has tourmaline iconic nylon AND boar bristles. Best brush for blow-drying any hair straight. Decreases dry time and smooths the hair. (Combination bristles)
• Olivia Garden NanoThermic Ceramic + Ion Styler Hair Brush – Has ionic bristles, is gentle on hair for detangling and styling. (Nylon only bristles)
• Spornette DeVille Paddle Boar Bristle Brush – Most gentle paddle brush that is ideal for damaged, fine, or fragile hair. Adds shine and is wonderful for stimulating & exfoliating the scalp. Great for straight blow-outs. (Boar only bristles)

Detangling Hair Brushes

• Gentle and thin nylon bristles
• Perfect for detangling any hair type especially when wet
• Typically NOT to be used with a blow dryer

The Best Detangling Brushes:

• Olivia Garden Detangler (Fine-Med) – This is my favorite brush for detangling fine to medium hair types when wet. The bristles are gentle and won’t rip the hair or cause breakage.
• Olivia Garden Detangler (Med-Thick) – This is the best brush for detangling medium to thick hair types when wet. The bristles are stronger to penetrate through thick hair.
• Olivia Garden Boar Detangler – I use this brush on fragile, dry (not wet) hair to detangle it. The boar bristles are very gentle and minimize hair breakage while adding shine.

Round Hair Brushes

• Nylon or boar bristles
• Perfect for achieving volume and body with fine or thin hair
• Typically only used for blow-drying
• The smaller the size, the tighter the wave will be
• The larger the size, the more volume you’ll achieve

The Best Round Brushes:

• Spornette Italian 2.5 Inch Boar Bristle – This is my all time favorite brush. It works well for all hair types to add volume and shine while blow drying. Unless the hair is significantly short, I use this on 90% of my clients.
• Spornette 1.5 Inch Boar Bristle – This is a smaller version of the brush mentioned above. This will work best for shorter haircuts.
• Spornette Prego with Tourmaline Ceramic Vented Barrel and Nano-Silver Ion Bristles – This is my second favorite brush for blow drying. The ceramic barrel holds onto heat from the blow dryer to further help smooth the hair. You can select different sizes; the larger the size, the more volume you’ll get.

Smoothing Hair Brushes

• Typically a combination of nylon and boar bristles
• Works great for smoothing hair back into a pony tail
• The best brush for hair styling for any hair type

The Best Smoothing Hair Brushes:

• Spornette Classic German Cushion Porcupine Boar & Nylon Bristle – This is my favorite smoothing brush. The boar bristles are gently on the hair and add shine, while the nylon bristles help to smooth and direct the hair without causing any breakage.
• Olivia Garden Smooth & Shine – This is another combination smoothing brush that adds shine while maintaining control in the hair.

Teasing Brushes

• The ultimate tool for teasing hair without causing breakage
• Bristles can be nylon, boar, or a combination of the two
• Has a rat tail that can also be used for styling purposes

The Best Teasing Brushes:

• Spornette Little Wonder Boar & Tourmaline Nylon Bristle – Boar bristles add shine while the nylon bristles give the brush control for easy teasing without causing breakage.
• Spornette Teasing Brush & Comb Set – Little Wonder Boar & Tourmaline Nylon Bristle Teasing Brush & Triple Teasing Comb – If you tease your hair a lot then this is the option for you. Use the brush for lighter teasing and adding volume and the comb when tighter teasing is desired.

Hair Brushes To Avoid

The two main types of hair brushes that you should avoid are anything made out of metal or plastic. Metallic brushes will heat up significantly when used with a blow dryer and can literally burn your hair.

And if you haven’t already experienced the danger in using a plastic round brush, they are VERY easy to get stuck in the hair. I’m sure you’ve seen girls that have had to cut them out of their hair or you may have experienced that yourself.

These hair brushes do not have very flexible bristles and are much more likely to cause breakage when brushing. Trust me when I say that it is completely worth it to spend the extra cash on a good quality hair brush!

Conclusion

Selecting the right hair brushes may not be as easy as it sounds. It’s important to make sure you are using a high quality hair brush that works for your hair type. Otherwise, you can cause breakage to your hair.

The best hair brushes are made with boar or nylon bristles. Boar is better for fine and fragile hair, adding shine, and detangling dry hair. Nylon is better for thick and coarse hair and is used for detangling wet hair. Brushes with combination bristles will give you the best of both worlds.

You should avoid any cheap or low quality hair brushes made from plastic or metal. Plastic brushes have the tendency to get stuck and tangled in the hair. And metal brushes can burn the hair with a blow dryer as well as break the hair on the ends.

Hair brush types:

• Paddle brushes are used for detangling the hair either wet or dry. You can also use them to blow dry the hair straight and they can be made from either type of bristles.

• Detangling brushes are used for detangling the hair wet or dry.

• Round brushes are used for blow drying the hair. They add volume and curl to a blowout.

• Smoothing brushes can be made with combination bristles and are used for hair styling. They smooth the hair back for putting in a pony tail or formal style.

• Teasing brushes allow you to tease the hair to create volume and fullness to the style. They are typically made from nylon bristles and are smaller than other types of brushes.

If you have any further questions for me on this topic, be sure to leave them in the comments! And as always, Have A Good Hair Day!

Last updated 10/21/2024