Detangling hair without damaging it requires time and a gentle touch. Removing
snarls from wet hair requires even more patience and gentleness. A detangling
brush aka “wet brush” with flexible, ball-tipped bristles is the best hair
care tool for getting tangles out of not only wet but also dry tresses,
especially for long, thick, curly, long or damaged hair that gets knotted
easily.
In today’s review, I'll explain why and when it's important to use "wet
brushes" and sharing my favorite detangling brushes to help protect the health
and beauty of your mane.
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Using a detangling brush aka "wet brush" to remove snarls and
tangles gently helps minimize damage to your hair's protective
cuticle
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A “Wet Brush” Helps Remove Snarls Gently Without Damaging Your Hair
If you are lucky enough to have the type of hair that rarely gets knots and
can be combed through easily, without tugging, after a shampoo or swim, I envy
you! For everyone else, whose locks are prone to tangling and breaking
(especially when wet), there are two very important things you will need to
minimize damage to your mane when you are trying to persuade your snarled
strands to separate.
The first is plenty of patience, since you will need to coax the strands apart
only a few inches at a time, starting with the last two or three inches and
slowly working your way up toward the scalp, moving to the next section only
after the one you are working on is completely tangle-free.
The second thing you will need is a good quality "wet brush", i.e., a
detangling brush designed to help you remove snarls from either dry or wet
hair.
Keeping the Hair Shaft's Cuticle Healthy Is the Key to Smooth, Shiny,
Strong Hair
Cuticle Damage = Fragile, Dull, Frizzy Hair and Split Ends
When we talk about hair, we usually are referring to the
shaft (the visible portion outside the scalp). The
cortex, which forms the majority of the shaft, is responsible for
the hair's strength/elasticity, color and texture. (Very thick hairs may also
have a thin core called the medulla.) The hair shaft's outermost
layer, the cuticle, is composed of smooth, flat keratin cells arranged
compactly in overlapping, downward-facing rows, similar to roof tiles or fish
scales. The cuticle protects the cortex (and medulla, if there is one) against
damage and controls how much moisture can enter it.
The health of your hair depends largely on the integrity of the cuticle. If the cuticle is abraded, worn away, stretched, cracked, or otherwise
damaged, it can no longer protect the cortex. Without an intact protective
cuticle, the helix-shaped keratin protein strands (which are like coiled
springs) are no longer held securely in place and can stick out, creating a
frizzy appearance and weakening the hair fibers.
Healthy hair looks shiny because the cuticle is smooth and intact, so light
reflects off a smooth surface at the same angle. Damaged hair looks dull
because the cuticle's overlapping cells no longer lay down flat, so light
refracts off the uneven surface at different angles.
Since hair grows from the roots, the ends are the oldest part and, therefore,
have had the most cumulative exposure to physical, chemical and environmental
damage. The cuticle on the ends of the shaft has had the most wear and tear,
and the exposed cortex is what we call split ends. (For more information about
the chemical, mechanical and environmental factors that cause hair damage,
please see my Olaplex No.0 Intensive Bond Building Hair Treatment + No.3 Hair Perfector
Product Review.)
The Benefits of Using a Wet Brush for Detangling Dry or Wet Hair
Thinner, More Flexible Bristles Are Gentler on Snarled Tresses
Paddle brushes and other hairbrushes designed to be used only on dry hair
often have thick, stiff bristles. For example, 100% boar bristle brushes are
good for adding shine to healthy tresses because they help distribute the oils
from the scalp along the shaft.
However, because these shorter, stiff bristles have very little “give,” when
they encounter a snag they tend to get stuck in the knot. Since the hair is
more elastic and more fragile, especially when it is wet, those tangled
strands will break rather than slide apart when they are under tension from
the stiff bristles.
By contrast, a "wet brush" designed specifically for detangling both wet and
dry hair has smooth, flexible bristles that can glide along the strands
without abrading the cuticle or causing tears or cracks. Some stretching and
breaking is inevitable when you are trying to brush out snarls, especially if
your hair is long, thick, wavy, fragile or damaged and tangles easily even
when it is dry. But a detangling brush, especially one with long, ball-tipped
bristles, will help minimize the damage to the cuticle when used on dry or wet
hair.
Use a "Wet Brush" to Detangle Dry Hair Before a Shampoo or Swim, Then Towel
Dry and Detangle Again
When your hair is wet, the shaft absorbs water and swells, causing the edges
of the protective cuticle's overlapping "tiles" (cells) to lift a bit,
exposing more of the softer and more porous cortex layer. That's why
your tresses are weaker and more vulnerable to stretching, breaking, and other
damage than when they are dry, and why it's important to use a brush with
thin, flexible, rounded or ball-tipped bristles and slide it through the
strands slowly and gently.
Before you shampoo or go for a swim, it's a good idea to use a "wet brush" to
detangle your hair while it's still dry, so there will be fewer knots and
snarls to unravel after you get out of the water, when your wet hair will be
more vulnerable to damage from a brush.
Make sure to dry your wet hair with a soft, very absorbent microfiber hair
towel or turban to gently wick away as much moisture as possible before you
begin to detangle, brush or style it. (See my VOLO Hero Premium Microfiber Hair Towel Product Review to learn more about the hair towel/turban that has earned my highest
recommendation.) Then use a “wet brush” with thin, flexible and, ideally,
ball-tipped bristles to gently ease any tangled strands apart and minimize
potential damage to the all-important protective cuticle layer.
Always Use a Detangling Brush to Remove Snarls, Whether Your Hair Is Wet or
Dry
If you find a lot of strands in your shower drain or your hairbrush, or if
your mane is frizzy, breaks or gets tangled easily even when it's dry, those
are signs that the cuticle has been damaged.
If that's the case (as it is for most of us who are past our twenties), you
definitely will benefit from using a detangling brush on your dry hair, either
exclusively or to remove any snarls before you use your regular hairbrush.
My Picks for the Best Wet Brushes (AKA Detangling Brushes)
Many years ago, the stylist at my hair salon explained that the reason my
formerly smooth, silky long locks were becoming frizzy, dull, brittle and
increasingly prone to snarls was the cumulative damage to the cuticle from
decades of coloring, highlighting and heat styling. One of the things he
recommended was to stop using my beloved (and expensive) Kent boar bristle
hairbrush and switch to a good quality "wet brush" instead, since the more
detangling I had to do, the more damage a brush with dense clusters of short,
stiff, boar bristles would create. Since then, I have tried several different
brands and styles of detangling brushes and the Wet Brush brand has worked the
best for me.
Wet Brush makes many different styles and models of detangling brushes, all
featuring the brand's smooth, ball-tipped, flexible IntelliFlex bristles that
glide through snarls more easily than others I have tried. In fact, Wet Brush states that independent clinical trials showed that the brand's exclusive IntelliFlex
bristles are less damaging than a traditional styling brush and use less
force than another leading detangling brush. The brand says its IntelliFlex bristles cause 19% less damage and use 56%
less force.
Another advantage of the ball-tipped bristles is that they are good for
massaging the scalp gently, without causing any damage.
For the past several years, I have been using the
Wet Brush Pro Flex Dry Paddle, a vented paddle detangling brush with a flexible head that conforms to the
scalp better than a traditional, rigid brush head.
This Wet Brush model is one of several styles that are vented to
promote air flow while blow drying. (I assume "dry paddle" means "drying paddle.")
When I was blow drying my hair, the wide vents worked really well for that
purpose
I have been using this brush on my long, easily tangled mane for several years
and it has held up fine. However, there have been some customer reviews
complaining that this and other vented Wet Brush models break too easily. If
they were using enough force to break the sturdy plastic, I suspect that they
were tugging too hard and trying to force the bristles through stubborn knots
and snarls, rather than using the bristles to gently work them apart to avoid
damaging the cuticle and causing the enmeshed strands to break. If my guess is
correct, then the allegedly premature breakage of the brush head may well have
been caused by user error, rather than a materials or design flaw.
Last year, I decided to stop blow drying my hair, so I no longer need a vented
paddle detangling brush. These days, after I towel-dry and detangle my
tresses, either I let it finish air drying naturally or use my oval hot air
brush, which is virtually identical to the
REVLON One-Step Hair Dryer And Volumizer Hot Air Brush and produces very similar results to what I could achieve with a blow
dryer and a vented round brush, but much more easily.
As a result, I have been looking at some of the company's non-vented models.
Here are the front-runners under consideration.
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The
Original Wet Brush
detangler. This was the brand's first product, which appears to still be its most
popular model.
I had purchased an Original Wet Brush detangler in basic black quite a few
years ago, which was my first introduction to this brand. I used that one for
several years, until my checked luggage went astray when we flew home from a
trip abroad and never turned up. Fortunately, it was one of the less expensive
items I had to replace! (That was when I decided to try one of the company's
then-new vented paddle brushes.)
Since I no longer need a vented paddle brush for blow drying, I'm seriously
considering going back to The Original Wet Brush, especially now that it comes
in a gorgeous new aqua color that is exclusive to Amazon.
I love any shade of aqua, turquoise, teal, etc., so the Amazon-exclusive
edition of this tried-and-true detangling brush is very appealing.
If aqua isn't your color, you'll be happy to know that it also comes in black
as well as a rainbow of other colors, as well as in vibrant prints, such as
daisy garden, dark floral, Aztec, sea life and even fun
leopard, tiger and zebra animal prints. No matter your color preferences or taste, you're sure to find something
you like among the many choices. (There's even
a Wet Brush with a pink unicorn print, twinkling LED lights and the saying,
"follow your dreams"
that many teenage girls would probably adore!)
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The
Wet Brush Shine Enhancer. This style has a mix of long IntelliFlex bristles and spaced-out
tufts of shorter boar bristles. It's great for detangling and brushing
second-day hair in one go.
The smooth, ball-tipped, flexible IntelliFlex bristles glide through the hair,
allowing you to work out snarls gently without damaging the cuticle. At the
same time, the shorter boar bristle tufts help redistribute the oils from your
scalp along the length of the shaft, smoothing down the cuticle and adding
shine.
Since the boar bristles are fairly short, the much longer IntelliFlex bristles
only allow them to glide along the surface layers of the hair, where the shine
is needed, without penetrating deeper and getting caught in any knots or
snarls.
It's also fantastic for brushing out dry shampoo, which for some reason always
makes my long hair tangle like crazy, even though I always use a detangling
brush before applying the dry shampoo to my roots!
Although it is theoretically okay to use on wet or dry strands, I would be
reluctant to use a brush with even short boar bristles on my long, damaged
hair when it is still damp. So, I probably will end up getting the Original
Wet Brush for detangling just before going into the water and after my hair
has been towel dried, and also the Wet Brush Shine Enhancer on my dry hair as
my "regular" brush, since my hair is in need of frequent detangling even when
it is dry.
Wet Brush now makes a line of
round blow-drying brushes
with different types of bristles designed to stand up to the heat of a blow
dryer. If I ever go back to blow-drying my hair, I will definitely look into
getting one of these, rather than a vented paddle brush.
The brand recently introduced the
Wet Brush Go Green Collection, a line of "earth-friendly" detangling brushes, treatment brushes and
treatment combs that feature handles made from "an all-natural biodegradable
plant starch" that it claims "will naturally break down in a landfill within 5
years."
Although this collection is too new for me to feel confident about the
durability of the plant-based plastic that provides their structure, I
will be interested to see the reviews in another year or two. I would be
thrilled to have a more environmentally friendly option for my favorite
detangling hairbrush!
Wet Brushes for Men, Kids and Pets
Men's hair needs TLC, too, which is why there is
Wet Brush Men's Detangler.
It is longer and narrower than the women's models and is designed to be used
on "straight, curly, textured, thick and wavy hair including beards." It has
the same signature IntelliFlex bristles and works well on both wet and dry
hair, The guys, however, have to settle for a couple of basic color choices.
Anyone who either had long hair when they were a kid or has had a long-haired
young daughter or son knows that brushing out those tangled locks can be a
daily or nightly battle between the parent and child. Fortunately, there is
also a
Wet Brush Kids Detangler to take the tears out of this dreaded routine task. The kids' version
is a smaller-scale version of the Original detangling brush and comes in
cheerful prints, including one with ice cream bars.
The company also makes
detangling and grooming brushes and combs for pets, which I think would make great gifts for pet owners.
The Best Wet Brushes for Detangling Your Hair Without Damage product review by
Margaret Schindel
Read My Other Hair Care Reviews:
Olaplex No.0 Intensive Bond Building Hair Treatment + No.3 Hair
Perfector Product Review
VOLO Hero Premium Microfiber Hair Towel Product Review
Read More
Beauty Reviews
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