The 20 Best Hairbrushes for Every Hair Type
Regardless of your hair type, finding the right brush is a hair-care essential. Coily curls require different treatment than straight, fine locks, and thick hair reacts differently to brushing than thin hair. With various bristles, shapes, and sizes to consider, identifying the best brush for your hair type can be challenging.
In addition to Quinones, we also sought insight from celebrity hair stylists Ted Gibson and Michael Dueñas, as well as Syrenthia Quinones, Mane Addicts’ Head of Education, and Janell Stephens, founder of the world’s largest Black-owned & female-led hair care brand Camille Rose Naturals. Combining our research with their advice, we’ve compiled a list of the best hairbrushes on the market. Read on for our favorite picks, along with helpful information on how to find the best brush for your hair type and texture.
Best Brushes for Thin/Fine Hair
Fine hair can be fragile, so Quinones and Dueñas suggest using a soft-bristle brush to avoid breakage. Gibson emphasizes the importance of delicacy, noting that raising the cuticle can help achieve a more voluminous look: “When you have fine hair, you want that cuticle to be raised ever so slightly, because when that cuticle is raised with finer hair, you get the opportunity to have more hair.” He says boar bristles are ideal for thin hair, as their soft texture can help smooth it while adding volume.
Dueñas recommends the Aveda Wooden Paddle Brush, which provides a gentle, massage-like sensation without being too harsh on the scalp. The bristles are long enough to detangle yet flexible enough to avoid breakage, and we also appreciate the square-shaped paddle, which offers a large enough surface area for those with longer hair. Another fan favorite is the Tangle Teezer Detangling Hair Brush, which features two-tiered teeth with a mix of shorter bristles for smoothing and longer bristles for detangling.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/Black-Egg-Wooden-Boar-Bristle-Brush-ab80ae283db84bbca4fdf37382ce5227.jpg)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/Tangle-Teezer-Fine-Fragile-Detangling-Hair-Brush-7918dc0c3596422eb99bea89d7f208c3.jpg)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/AvedaWoodenPaddleBrush-195997dd2cfd4254a231bad42ca395d0.jpeg)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/Belula-100-Boar-Bristle-Brush-cfd78062886c4a06a0e8c37b15bfa176.jpg)
Best Brushes for Thick Hair
Quinones says thick hair typically benefits from a paddle brush for detangling and smoothing. As a general rule of thumb: The larger the paddle, the more hair the brush can tackle at once. Long bristles are also ideal for those with thicker hair, as they have enough length to reach and stimulate the scalp. That’s why we love the Tek Paddle Brush, which has extra-long, widely spaced bristles that not only provide an invigorating scalp massage but also promote blood circulation, stimulating hair growth.
Gibson recommends that those with thicker hair use a combination brush, which has both boar and nylon bristles to smooth and detangle simultaneously. The Urtheone Boar Bristle Brush achieves the best of both worlds, featuring nylon bristles to detangle knots and massage the scalp and softer boar bristles to smooth the hair and redistribute natural oils. While tightly packed bristles are ideal for smoothing, wider teeth are excellent for detangling. Dueñas says the Brushzoo Wide Tooth Comb is his favorite for those with thick curls. as it smooths and detangles without causing enough tension to break the hair.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/Tek-Paddle-Brush-With-Long-Pins-d8aaf0fbdb35400282b4b34106c33c33.jpg)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/hair-brush-boar-bristle-hairbrush-for-thick-curly-thin-long-short-wet-or-dry-hair-adds-shine-and-makes-hair-smooth-best-paddle-hair-brush-for-men-women-kids--7c9c9c741aa346f9a6aa599bdcbf9f2b.jpg)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/Brushzoo-Wide-Tooth-Comb-b465a6fdb61a463bacd44f78ae1b14b1.jpg)