Do Round Brushes Damage Hair? The Honest Answer

A bride asked me last season whether she should stop using her round brush because someone on the internet said brushes cause breakage. I told her that if a round brush were dangerous, I would have been out of business twenty years ago.

Here is the honest version. Brushes do not break hair. Heat plus tension plus wet hair breaks hair. A round brush used on damp hair with a hot dryer at close range, over and over, with the brush pulling hard through tangles, will damage anyone's hair. That is a technique problem, not a brush problem.

How I use a round brush correctly. Hair is eighty percent dry before the brush goes near it. Sections are small. Tension comes from the brush angle, not from my wrist yanking. The dryer follows the brush rather than sitting on one spot. And the biggest one: I never brush through a tangle. I separate it with my fingers first.

For bridal work, a medium boar and nylon mix is the workhorse. Boar bristle smooths and distributes oil, nylon grips and shapes. A pure boar brush on thick hair does nothing. A pure nylon brush on fine hair is overkill.

The other myth is that you must replace brushes constantly. You must clean them constantly, which is different. A brush full of product residue and old hair is what actually causes dullness.

If you want to know exactly what tools suit your hair, inquire and ask. Bridal hair including preview is $1,000, and the full investment page is online.