Is brushing curly hair damaging or just disrupting to the curl pattern?

[leafygreens18]

Hi guys! So, I have pretty curly hair. 3A/3B. I don't follow CGM for a lot of reasons, but there are a lot of parts of it that are consistent with my routine. So I basically never brush my hair, except very occasionally. Well I'm getting very into braiding and to get a truly neat tight stay all day braid I need to brush my hair. So I'm just wondering: could the repeated disruption of my curl pattern be damaging over time? I had brushed hair for years and my hair was fried, but I mostly attribute that to over washing and sulfates as well as skipping conditioning. I'm going to have to brush my hair sometimes plain and simple but if there are any curlies that do the same I'm dying to know what brush you use! I'm really wanting to invest in a wooden brush. I used to use Wet Brushes but honestly, they're just not enough for my hair, I have so much that I really can't brush effectively with bristles that bend. Any thoughts, experiences recommendations etc... are beyond welcome. Thank you!

[lapushka]

Breakage would be what I'm worried about, but if it's quite tangle-free, I'm sure it's fine.

I get tangles throughout the week, if I don't carefully finger detangle (separate strands and get sheds out that way). I need to get the sheds out or they will knot upon themselves. But I know that, so I never skip that bit every evening. I brush it once before the wash, and I do know that I have to be careful, but this is after about a week of finger detangling.

Wavy/curly hair tends to "love itself" quite a bit!

[plonter]

I'm bad and I brush my hair... :) it has gotten less curly, but I imagine it's just what I do to it. As far as brushes, the Wet Brush shower comb is pretty good, or any wide toothed comb. It helps me to oil hair before combing it, if using it dry.

I too don't follow CGM to a tee, and I imagine everyone does some modification or another. My biggest departure is not using gels: though I COULD get a tighter/neater curl pattern by scrunching out a gel cast, I get better and more even/natural results by brushing them out a little to waves, keeping the dryness at bay with oil or cream. So even though I'm a 2b, I follow more of a 1c/2a routine. I digress.

My inkling is that without breaking and reforming the disulfide bonds in hair (eg. through perming/chemically straightening hair with reducing agents) you haven't caused permanent damage to your curl pattern. It might just require a different routine to see them pop up.

[Spikey]

I ignore CGM outright and use a BBB daily. The bristles bend like crazy, and to get all my hair I have to brush from the bottom, sides, and top. I also brush against my hand to get the bristles through, but once you get the technique a BBB is worth it!! Leaves my hair so soft. I also finger comb beforehand, and that does all the heavy lifting. The talk about "curlies getting damage from brushing" has always been a little odd to me. Sure, if you use a brush with super stiff bristles that don't "give" it tears out your knots instead of seperating them. But brushing curls is only a temporary distruption, it'll always return to curly after a wash.

[Kat-Rinnè Naido]

I bbb my hair during autumn every year. I can't say that I've seen any damage. Done regularly daily like every day at around the same time does reduce the amount of shedded strands. I go slow and gentle, brush with one hand and glide the other hand behind the brush.

I tend to get breakage from my wooden comb.

[Wendyclaire]

I don’t think brushing your hair does any damage. I’ve tried that and only finger detangling and all I had was a mess of tangles and knots. Guess I’m old school, I brush my hair regularly and rarely have tangles. I don’t think it has anything to do with damage. Curls come back (without tangles) and a touch of argon oil takes away any dryness on the ends. Sometimes I think people think their hair should look like some kind of ad or commercial but that’s not real or attainable.

[Beckstar]

It depends on how rough you are or if the brush bristles are not smooth and snag your hair.

[cjk]

Let's take the extreme. ripping a 99 cent comb through my curly hair, listening to all the breakage and snapping as it goes, pulling as hard as I can until I rip the cold past the ends of my hair.

At that point yes, there will be damage.

We don't treat our hair like that in this forum. It's reasonably safe to assume that each of us at least attempts to take care of it.

the fact that you even asked this question tells me that you take care of your hair.

It is my belief that this is more of a theoretical issue than a practical one for the members here.

[leafygreens18]

Let's take the extreme. ripping a 99 cent comb through my curly hair, listening to all the breakage and snapping as it goes, pulling as hard as I can until I rip the cold past the ends of my hair.


Wow reading that was a visceral experience, I had a pre elementary school hair brushing by dad flash back, LOL. Thank you for your response!

[Simsy]

It depends; my hair didn’t appreciate the brush at all. Most of it was simply curl disruption; part of it was aggravating other issues that were causing damage in their own way. Also kinda depends on how your curls handle being disrupted? If there fine with it, you should be all good.

[aenigmatica8]

I have heard other women say that their curl pattern has "memory," so theoretically, keeping it a certain way could disrupt your hair pattern. However, I've never noticed this for myself. The way you wash, dry, and style your hair has a much bigger impact that how you styled your hair before washing it. I personally love and need to brush my hair usually multiple times a day with the "thick and curly" tangle teezer. It's my favorite brush. However, if you don't follow that up with maybe an oil (for more stretched out curls) or a spray (more true to your natural texture) to refresh, you'll get the typical frizzy wavy effect of brushing.

[leafygreens18]

Thank you for all of your responses! I never intend to wear brushed hair down, I just want tighter braids. Since I wear my buns so long (1-2 days without taking down) my hair often holds my buns shape, so I've determined my pattern is going to be disrupted regardless.