Hair Brush/ Comb advice for fine hair

[beccarud]

Hello!

I am new to this forum, and it looks like this would be the perfect place to get some advice on which brush would be best for my hair. I have long, fine very straight hair. I have never really thought about what brush I use, I have always just used cheap drugstore brushes on my hair. Now thatI am getting older (30), I would like to keep my hair long and take proper care of it. My hair gets pretty tangled when I get out of the shower (I wash & condition once a day). I am wondering if the Mason Pearson "detangler" would be good for me, or if it is not so good for fine hair. I am thinking of getting a wide toothed horn comb for right out of the shower, and then the MP detangler to use afterwards to get all of the tangles out. Eventually, I would also like to get the boar bristle Mason Pearson for my dry hair, but that is not in my budget yet!!
Any advice would be greatly appreciated...thank you!!!

[rena]

Hi fellow newbie :) I'm not perticulary fine or straight haired, but I heard that vented brushes help to keep static down, in case this is problem you have.

[aenflex]

Sounds like you have a good plan. MP is a good brand of brush, no doubt. The wide tooth comb is a staple of many longhairs. The BBB, well, you got me there. Seems people either love em or hate em. I would suggest getting a less expensive version the 1st time you buy a BBB. This way of you hate it, you havent just wasted a ton of money. I bought a pricey BBB that is now being used for my pets because my hair hated it, it was awful :(
I saved and bought a TEK wooden bristled brush, it was about 15$, and I love it :)

[Alvrodul]

I have found that brushes don't work too well for me - I have more or less given up on that. Instead I have an entire battery of combs now, in several materials, from extremely wide-toothed, to fine-toothed. All of them seamless, of course - I have thrown away all my old combs.
I have two BBBs - one of them a round brush, which my hair hates, and another, which I occasionally use to move sebum down the hair shaft. I never use any of them for detangling, though, in fact I mostly stick to my combs these days.
I expect you will have to try things and find out what your hair prefers!:)

[Khiwanean]

I was under the impression that BBs aren't terribly good for detangling (though they are excellent for smoothing hair and distributing sebum) and that horn combs may warp if they get wet. I can't say I'm anywhere close to an expert on those though; I don't own either of them.

I too would recommend you try out a cheaper bbb before investing all that money in a mason pearson. It would be awful if you got an mp and found that your hair didn't like it.

[aenflex]

I was under the impression that BBs aren't terribly good for detangling (though they are excellent for smoothing hair and distributing sebum)

^^ My problem with them exactly. Also they made my hair velcro-y.
Horn combs, well, I aint gonna judge anyone, but personally I don't use/like them because they are made from animals.

[LadyG]

I have fine hair, and I use my BBB for smoothing when putting my hair up. I also use it like the others to spread the sebum. I do this the night or morning before I wash. My hair is so fine that it can make it look greasy, so I have to be careful if I'm going out for the day.

[freckles]

My fine, straight hair loves the tangle teezer (we have a few threads on it, just do a search) but YMMV :)

[*Aoife*]

I'm not as fine as you but I mostly fingercomb. It's easier to snag through knots with a comb so I just use my fingers to untangle the knots one by one. I do use a wooden comb after oiling and before a shower.

[Deborah]

I have extremely fine, mostly straight hair (tailbone length), and my new WIDU Wooden Bristle Brush is my favorite by far.

I also have a Mason Pearson BBB, a Denman, a Tangle Teezer and a Body Shop wooden bristle brush as well. I like all of them, but that WIDU is just the best, in my opinion.

If you like the idea of a wooden bristle brush, but don't want to spend $40 or more on a WIDU, the Body Shop version is nice to.

If you don't like the idea of wood, then a Tangle Teezer is great, and a Denman is very good too. I don't use the Mason Pearson BBB very much any more. I just grab the wooden brush most of the time.

I find it best to not detangle after washing until my hair has dried naturally. Any tangles come out WAY easier this way, and I can just use the WIDU. If I must detangle right away, I use a Madora Wide Tooth Comb or a Body Shop Wooden Tooth Comb (the Madora is the better of the two. I have a horn comb too, but I don't like it as much.) The key is to finger comb a little first, then very slowly begin removing the tangles. If you don't like combs, the Tangle Teezer, unlike other brushes, is quite good on wet hair too. Generally it is not best to use a brush on wet hair. In fact, some of our folks use combs only, even on dry hair, but for my hair that causes hair snapping, aka breakage, so I am a definite brush girl.

[Madora]

100% pure boar bristle brushes need not be expensive.

Just be sure that there are no nylon bristles mingled in with the boar bristles (nylon tears the hair).

Please remember...boar bristle brushes are NOT detanglers. You use a wide tooth seamless comb for that job.

Always comb your hair FIRST before brushing. It's gentler on your hair than pulling a brush thru it w/o detangling first.

[Deborah]

I only use a comb if my hair is wet. Otherwise I detangle and brush with a brush, usually a wooden bristle one. This works fine for me. A comb on my dry hair causes snapping and breakage. A brush is much gentler, as the bristles can bend and move. I know this may be contrary to what many on LHC say, but brushing works much better for my very fine hair.