A Miracle Hairbrush

I’ve made a discovery, and I need to tell everyone about it. It’s a simple, solid, reasonably priced piece of female KIT and it actually works wonders.

It’s a hairbrush. A boar bristle hairbrush.

A what? Read on…

So what is this?

It’s just a hairbrush – but the bristles, instead of being synthetic, are made from boar’s hair and the handle is made from wood. There are many different kinds; from the Mason Pearson being the best quality (the price says it all) to the humble Spornette which is the one I have. Boar bristle hairbrushes used to be very common in Victorian times (you’ve probably seen those pictures of the upper class women sitting at their dressing tables brushing their hair for hours…they’d have been using a boar bristle brush) but their usage died out in more recent times with the advent of so many hair products.

How does it work?

The brush works by redistributing the natural oils that your hair produces moving them from the roots to the tips of the hair. In other words, instead of keeping all the oils at the top (hence why hair often gets greasy at the crown of your head) it gets that grease to a good home.

What are the benefits?

For me there are two main benefits: firstly, using this brush has made my hair so much shinier and silkier thanks to all the natural oils running through my locks. It has seriously improved the condition of my hair so much so that people comment on how glossy my hair is now (I NEVER used to get that…’greasy’ not ‘glossy’ was the most commonly used adjective to describe my hair amongst my friends!) Secondly, and as a result of the first point, it means I have to wash my hair so much less (I used to wash my hair 2/3 times a week; I am now down to once a week) which for me is a winner not only because it saves mama over here time but also because it means I can avoid putting any nasties on my hair that shampoos inevitably contains (I haven’t mustered up the energy to make my own hair products yet).

There are several other advantages of getting hold of a boar bristle brush for yourself:

* I find that my hair definitely grows faster with it – when you brush, you are stimulating (gently) the roots on your scalp helping make more blood to flow to your hair follicles!

*  Brushing is actually a really relaxing ritual (see below for how).

* If you are prone to dry hair or dry ends then again, the oil distribution is awesome at enhancing your hair’s moisture.

* Forget using hair straighteners, brushing with the boar bristle brush genuinely makes my hair much straighter. (I’m not sure how well the brush would work on curly hair – I have read that it is better for use on straight or wavy hair).

* If you are after extra volume, then the backcombing part of the brushing will give you tonnes of this.

But HOW does it work?

There is a “method”? (sounds cryptic) but it really is super simple. Every evening I brush my hair through with my normal hairbrush to get the tangles out.  Then with my spornette I slowly brush from roots to tips around the crown of my head. Then I tip my head upside and do the same to the underside of my hair. I do this all slowly and quite methodically to catch every part of my hair but it literally takes 2 minutes and is really therapeutic.

And that’s it! I’m all about boar bristle brushes making a come back given all the benefits… Seriously, with one of these babies, you might as well ditch half your hair products…

I hope you found this post useful and might be persuaded to bag yourself a brush.*

Emma x

P.s To clean your brush simply pull out any hair stuck in it using the end of a comb then mix bicarbonate of soda and water together and dip the bristles into the mixture. Be careful to keep the wood out of the water and swill around a bit and then rinse under lukewarm water.

P.p.s I promise this is not an ad – I’m just a big advocate of BBB!