boar bristle brush on damp hair: thoughts?

[dainaleeo2]

Ok, quick question/thoughts for everyone, since i know a lot of you on here are far more knowledgeable or experienced with hair care than I am.

I've become obsessed with wrapping my hair after a few awesome ladies on here helped me with quitting my obsessive straightening [even if its kinda the only thing that looks good on my above shoulder length hair]. I still have to straighten it slightly, but really only minimally, not the entire head anymore. just a few pieces here & there :)

anyway, i was watching all these videos on youtube for how to do it, & i saw a lot of those girls using their boar bristle brush to smooth over the hair, which helps it to lie flat. obviously my hair, being caucasian, is not able to really remain in the postion i comb it in, since most of those girls on youtube were african american & their hair stayed in the position better. mine is very fine, & since it's short some of it kind of tends to stick up rather than wrap around, simply beause of length. so, i ended up using the boar brush to smooth -gently- over it, since that really does make it stick flat to my head [almost too flat...because when i unwrap it's still plastered to my hair, making it look even thinner...but i'll take it over my frizz afro >>].
so, i know obviously brushing hair when wet= horrible. worst thing ever. i never do it, i always use a wideeeee tooth comb, or fingers, since my hair does not tangle & usually always has good slip [co-washing + reg. conditioner]. so i baby it immensely. when i wrap my hair isn't sopping wet, it's damp, & i take great care to just smooth it, not rip & pull through it like a beast. so do you guys think that this is alright? i don't want to cause damage in the future, but right now my hair has been coming out very smooth & without any pull [like when i grip a piece of hair lightly between my fingers & run down, sometimes at the end it seems to pull/squeak a bit more because the ends are dry...if you know what i mean]. so i just wanted some freeback or thoughts :)


just as a side note...does it bother anyone when you know someone who treats their hair like poo? random, i know, but my roommate has APL hair since she's just been growing it forever, for no reason, but i think she is lucky as all smack that her hair is thick [& i'm assuming obviously resilient], because she treats it like...well, poop! when it's wet she just tears through it with a paddle brush, & i can literally hear some of her hair ripping. plus she blow dries/flat irons every few days, sometimes every day, with no heat protection, yet her hair always looks flawless & never gets frizzy! it drives me crazy! arghh! i baby mine & still...frizzes like mad, have to be careful not to flat iron, pre-oil all the time, deep condition...blah. mini rant i guess. it just astounds me she has any hair left.

[bumblebums]

Ok, quick question/thoughts for everyone, since i know a lot of you on here are far more knowledgeable or experienced with hair care than I am.

I've become obsessed with wrapping my hair after a few awesome ladies on here helped me with quitting my obsessive straightening [even if its kinda the only thing that looks good on my above shoulder length hair]. I still have to straighten it slightly, but really only minimally, not the entire head anymore. just a few pieces here & there :)

anyway, i was watching all these videos on youtube for how to do it, & i saw a lot of those girls using their boar bristle brush to smooth over the hair, which helps it to lie flat. obviously my hair, being caucasian, is not able to really remain in the postion i comb it in, since most of those girls on youtube were african american & their hair stayed in the position better. mine is very fine, & since it's short some of it kind of tends to stick up rather than wrap around, simply beause of length. so, i ended up using the boar brush to smooth -gently- over it, since that really does make it stick flat to my head [almost too flat...because when i unwrap it's still plastered to my hair, making it look even thinner...but i'll take it over my frizz afro >>].
so, i know obviously brushing hair when wet= horrible. worst thing ever. i never do it, i always use a wideeeee tooth comb, or fingers, since my hair does not tangle & usually always has good slip [co-washing + reg. conditioner]. so i baby it immensely. when i wrap my hair isn't sopping wet, it's damp, & i take great care to just smooth it, not rip & pull through it like a beast. so do you guys think that this is alright? i don't want to cause damage in the future, but right now my hair has been coming out very smooth & without any pull [like when i grip a piece of hair lightly between my fingers & run down, sometimes at the end it seems to pull/squeak a bit more because the ends are dry...if you know what i mean]. so i just wanted some freeback or thoughts :)


just as a side note...does it bother anyone when you know someone who treats their hair like poo? random, i know, but my roommate has APL hair since she's just been growing it forever, for no reason, but i think she is lucky as all smack that her hair is thick [& i'm assuming obviously resilient], because she treats it like...well, poop! when it's wet she just tears through it with a paddle brush, & i can literally hear some of her hair ripping. plus she blow dries/flat irons every few days, sometimes every day, with no heat protection, yet her hair always looks flawless & never gets frizzy! it drives me crazy! arghh! i baby mine & still...frizzes like mad, have to be careful not to flat iron, pre-oil all the time, deep condition...blah. mini rant i guess. it just astounds me she has any hair left.

I think it is not a good idea to compare your hair to someone else's. Obviously, this girl's hair has a different texture than yours. What she does with her hair is her business, and obviously, it's working well for her since it looks good. I like to content myself with the thought that my hair is in the best state that is possible for it, which is the best I can hope for.

As far as BBB on wet hair goes--I wouldn't do it, but then BBBs are murder for my hair. If you detangle first, maybe it will work better. But any brush tends to rip my hair and tangle it up rather than smooth it down or "distribute the oils." I can't comment on the straightening, though, since I have given that up and am now enjoying my natural wurls.

[dainaleeo2]

True. I guess i just am frustrated that she can treat her hair like utter garbage & it withstands it. Guess i would just kill for her hair length so i get a bit jealous. Hopefully mine will be just as nice when it gets that long.

& whenever i brush with my BBB on dry hair, it never tangles, always smooths, so i guess thats why it works for me. I have small, messy waves naturally, 1b-c ish? So it either straighten, or help them out to look more defined with some mousse/gel. I usually do the latter but wrapping has been so much fun xD
here are my natural 'waves:' [this is horrible, hair dried hair. this is the frizzy mess i am left with when i dont do anything to it]:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/tHeo2BiZ/DSC03707.jpg

had to hide my face since i didnt look especially good that day :p
but yea, i mean my hair has nice shine, but you can see that the left side is flatter/straighter, & then the right is a MESS of textures. my hair has no idea what it wants :mad:

[pepperminttea]

I wouldn't use a BBB on wet hair, but it does tangle at the ends for me on dry hair, so.

As it happens, I think your hair looks rather gorgeous in that photo though - it doesn't look frizzy to me? :)

[aenflex]

Ditto Pepperminttea - I would not ever bush my hair wet with any type of bristle brush, boar's or otherwise. My hair would not react well :(

[bumblebums]

It might be too soon to tell, since texture sometimes looks quite different on shorter hair than on longer hair, but I don't think 1b is what you have. I would guess 2a. On 1b hair, there will be, like, one wave at the nape or even lower.

[ddiana1979]

It looks like you have layers. I bet after your layers grow a little bit longer, you won't have quite as much trouble.

I comb my wet hair with a wide tooth comb so I don't get tangles, but once it's dried, I go over it gently with a BBB to smooth out the flyaways.

[dainaleeo2]

@ Bumble: Thanks for helping my type my hair. I tend to have issues with that, since the style is...all over the place. I couldnt decide if it was 1b, 1c, or what xD
It is fine though, so how it gets to be that poofy is beyond me.

@DDiana: yep i do have layers :) i thought the same though: once they grow, it'll be easier, especially since the new growth is much smoother & it only tends to wave near the bottom. I didn't know if it was because of past damage, or just hair type. in the back, which i know you can't see, it also flicks out, so i have this weird little girl type of hair cut if i don't flatten them :p

Well i think i'll just keep all of this in mind. my hair hasn't reacted poorly, but i don't brush hard, simply glide/smooth the very top, which tends to curl, & the bottoms, just to flatten it out a bit. I just wanted to make sure i wasn't going to cause damage that was so hopelessly beyond repair. but so far...so good. no signs of it. phew.

[spidermom]

No brushing wet or damp hair; that's naughty.

[little_cherry]

Hi :)

I wrap my APL hair, but use a wide tooth comb and bobby pins to secure it into place before wrapping it all in a silk or polyester scarf. I get no kinks or pin marks and straight hair.

[Anje]

Yeah, I'd keep the BBB away from damp hair too. Just too much friction. It'll pull the strands a bit when they're still overly stretchy from being wet, and I think you'd be looking at damage in the long term.

As others have said, I don't think you've got straight hair. It looks like it's at least 2a, and probably more wavy than that, which will be easier to see when it grows out a bit further.

[Tiina]

I agree that it doesn't look like 1b/1c. My hair is 1b/1c and before I reached shoulderlenght it was completely straight with only a kind of flipped-under effect at the hemline. At chin-lenght it always looked like it had been straightened no matter the cut. It's only now at APL- that I have started to notice slight, loose wavyness after clarifying. Unclarified it is still just "flipped-under" with my one and only phantom curl in my bangs popping up from time to time.

ETA : That puny wave in my siggypic is a braidwave.

But back to the topic. I wouldn't BBB wet or damp hair. Sometimes damage can go unnoticed until suddenly you realise the hair has become hard to manage. I would recommend spritzing the surface and just smoothing down the hair with your hand. Or putting a minuscule amount of coconut oil on your hands and smoothing the hair with your hand (if your hair works well with oils that is).

[Madora]

Your hair is at its weakest when wet so you should take utmost care to treat it gently.

Finger comb it out first, then comb out with a wide tooth comb.

When the hair has dried completely, comb out the strands with the wide tooth comb again (starting at the BOTTOM of the strands and working upward to avoid breakage. Work on small sections of hair until you've completed combing out all strands).

Once you're sure any snarls/mats have been removed, then take your boar bristle brush and brush slowly. Follow each swipe of the brush with your free hand. This helps reduce the static electricity.

By taking pains to treat your hair gently and by using the correct tools, you'll reap the rewards in beautiful hair. Good luck!

[ericthegreat]

You definitely shouldn't use a BBB on wet or even damp hair. As you already know, hair is in its weakest state when its wet, so you have to be very gentle with it or just not touch it too much when its wet. As everyone here has already mentioned, you should never compare what you do with your hair to what another person does with their hair. Some people are indeed born with thicker, stronger hair and they can treat their hair in ways that someone else with finer hair simply can't get away with.

From the photo you posted, it shows that your hair is much wavier than you have hairtyped it to be. See the strong wave that happens around where you temples and your eyes are? You have wavy hair, not straight hair. At this length its hard to determine what your hairtype is, but its not 1b at all. Its either 2a or even 2b.

I know that you prefer to have your hair be nice and straight, but since you naturally have wavy hair the more and more you try to style your hair straight, the more you will damage it. See, wavy and curlier hair should NOT be combed. You simply have to let it be. Even if you stop heat styling it all together, just by you combing/brushing it you are pulling out the natural wave that you have. Here's something you can try. After washing & conditioning your hair, don't comb it out at all. Simply leave it alone, don't even touch it. Let it naturally air-dry by itself.

[bumblebums]

At your current length and with your texture, I would pick up some leave-in conditioner and scrunch the hair up as it's drying. You'll get a messy waves look. It'll be a change, and better for your hair than straightening.

[bunzfan]

Just wanted to add that my hair looked just like yours when shorter and your see from my profile picture that my hair is pretty curly, i think it will be easier for you once you can wear your hair up. From someone that battled with their natural waves all there life i only became happy with mine once my hair got longer as it got wavier and sat better if that makes sense keep with it:)

[jane53]

I brush my hair with a BBB wet. If I use a wide-tooth comb, it tears my hair out and breaks it.

NO THANKS!

The BBB is the gentle alternative for me.

[torrilin]

I couldnt decide if it was 1b, 1c, or what xD

As a rough guideline, if you're fond of a hair straightener, you're probably not a 1 anything :D. And if you think hair wrapping is a good idea, that probably clinches it, since from looking around, many of the 1bs and 1cs have the easiest time in the world combing out their leeeetle bit of wave so their hair looks straight as a pin.

That's pretty clearly not you at all, so you're a 2 something. Probably not a 3 something, but your hair is awfully short right now, and it might surprise us.

[Lozzie]

Yowzah!! your flatmate sounds like a hair criminal. If i ripped anything through my hair, bbb or comb, i'd end up a wee little baldy woman!!