The Best Hair Brush Types & How To Use Them

How easy is it for you to brush your hair? This may be something that comes second nature to you and you may not pay much attention to it, but it is so important!

Are you rough on your hair while brushing it? Or do you hear those horrendous ripping sounds every time you pull the hair brush down?? If you do, it’s very likely that you’re using a low quality hair brush or are brushing your hair wrong and have been your entire life.

This post covers what hair brushes to use, what hair brushes to avoid, and how to properly use a hair brush for different situations.

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 flexile 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 ripping the hair? do you see pieces of hair on your shirt after brushing? Low quality brushes will literally weaken and break your hair right off.

Hair Brush Types

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.

Boar Bristle Hair Brush

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

Best hair brush for fragile hair

It adds shine and smooths your hair without ripping it 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 actually make your hair healthier!

Boar 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, and it always gently pulls right out. It really is amazing.

Boar brushes can extend days between shampooing

I also use these brushes on days 3+ of not washing. I blow-dry the natural oils right into my hair using the round brush and blow dryer just as I would if I was drying it.

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

Nylon Hair Brush

When 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.

Stronger bristles are for thick hair types

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 full nylon round brush that has a ceramic plate for curling 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 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.

Best brush for medium hair types

I generally use these on medium hair types that aren’t too fragile but also aren’t incredible thick either. Boar bristles can be just a little too gentle on their own to do the trick for thicker and fuller heads of hair while nylon alone isn’t always necessary for every job.

Benefits of both bristle types

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?

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Paddle Hair Brush

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

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 iconic 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 Brush

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

Best Detangling Brushes:

• Spornette Swizzle – My favorite detangling brush! I use this brush on all hair types when wet.
• Spornette DeVille Oval Boar Bristle Brush – I use this brush on fragile dry 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

Best Round Brushes:

• Spornette Italian 3 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 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 Brush

• 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

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.

Teasing Brush

• 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

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

These hair brushes also 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!

How To Brush Your Hair

Now for how to brush your hair. I know this may sound silly to even mention this, but you aren’t going to believe you probably have been brushing your hair wrong your entire life.

When you hear those rip and crunch sounds, that is your hair breaking. It makes me cringe see someone rip at their hair while ignoring those horrid noises.

I guarantee that when you brush your hair, you hold the brush horizontally and pull down to get the tangles out. Well that is actually wrong!! You are supposed to hold the brush vertically in line with the bristles and you will be amazed at how much smoother the tangles come out!

You also want to start at the very bottom and gradually work your way up. Never start at the top and pull all the way down until the rest of your hair strands are tangle free.

Be gentle with your hair, and never tug hard! If you have a tough snarl work on just that piece slowly and gently until you release it. You can even use your fingers or a rat tail comb to spread it apart which usually helps.

If you frantically tug on it you will literally break the entire piece off! Check out this video below on how to brush vertically to release tangles using a paddle brush.

How to brush your scalp

Whether you realize it or not, it is really important to brush your scalp. The hair follicles need to be stimulated while loosening up dead skin cells.

Section by section, brush your scalp a few times over with a BOAR BRISTLE BRUSH. And I don’t mean do this for just a few seconds either. I mean take 10-15 minutes to really brush your hair and scalp. It feels amazing and is wonderful for your hair. I typically do this at night before bed, but you can do it whenever.

Blow drying with a brush

If you’re using a brush to blow dry, keep in mind that flat and paddle hair brushes will straighten and don’t really add any volume.

Round brushes add body, and the larger the round brush the more volume you will get. A large round brush (3+ inches) will give you maximum volume.

If you rotate the round brush in your hand while pulling it out, you will create more wave and body than if you just pull it straight through your hair. This takes a bit of practice, but I have faith in you!

Another trick to increase volume while drying is to over-direct the hair. What this means is to pull the hair up and over from where it grows. Instead of just clipping the sections out of the way, brush the hair upwards so that it is lying flat on top of your head, the opposite direction that it regularly lays.

You can then add a clip to hold it in place. Once this hair is over-directed and out of the way, make your section at the bottom the same width as the brush you’re using, and once again pull the hair up above from where it grows as you blow dry. This makes a world of a difference when the goal is to achieve volume!

Conclusion

Selecting the right hair brush may not be as easy as it sounds. You need to make sure you are using a high quality hair brush that works for your hair type, as well as using it correctly. 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 as well as adding shine. And nylon is better for thick and coarse hair that is stronger as well as wet detangling. Brushes with combination bristles will give you the best of both worlds.

You should avoid any cheap or low quality 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.

Types of brushes

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. These brushes are typically not to be used to blow dry the hair.

Round brushes are used for blow drying the hair. They add volume and curl to a blowout. These bruses are not typically used for detangling.

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. These hair brushes are not typically used for blow drying the hair.

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.

How to brush

When brushing your hair always start from the ends and work your way up the hair strand. The bristles should be held vertically instead of horizontally, in a straight line against the hair. This will be gentler on the hair and get the tangles out much easier.

It’s best to brush dry hair with a boar bristle brush, and wet hair with a nylon brush.

You should also brush your scalp regularly to stimulate your hair and clean your scalp of dead skin cells. This also helps to pull oil from your scalp throughout your hair that needs the oil. Boar bristle brushes are best for brushing your scalp.

How to blow dry

Flat and paddle brushes will straighten the hair, while round brushes will add volume and curl. The larger the hair brush, the more volume you’ll achieve.

You should grab a section of hair that is the same width as the brush itself.

Pulling the hair brush up above as you blow dry will allow you to achieve the maximum volume.

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 08/28/2023