Soften, Style & Shine Your Hair Naturally with a Boar Bristle Brush
These days, there are more hair care products on the market than you can try in a lifetime. The internet is overflowing with guides and routines to help you take the best care of your specific type of hair. However, one thing that folks often overlook is the most classic tool: your hairbrush! Sure, everyone with long enough hair or beard will have something lying around to detangle and style—but a quality, natural bristle hairbrush can do so much more than that! It’s an old tale that Victorian women brushed their hair with 100 strokes a day—and while 100 strokes is a little excessive, taking a little time out of your day to care for your hair’s health is relaxing AND worthwhile.
Boar bristle makes your hair cleaner, smoother, and shinier!
At Kent of Inglewood, we sell the same boar bristle brushes those Victorian ladies once used. Why? Because they’re the best. The two main traits of boar bristle hairbrushes, compared to synthetic brushes, are the spacing of the bristles and the properties of the bristles themselves. Synthetic brushes have farther apart bristles, so they are better suited for detangling (especially for thicker hair types). On the other hand, boar bristles are grouped closely, so while boar brushes will do a good job detangling more minor knots (keep a comb or another brush around for the big jobs), their main goal is to do is to increase hair health & shine. Boar bristles are also more textured than their smooth synthetic counterparts, creating a better-suited surface for picking up oil and dirt.
To the naked eye, Hair may look smooth, but its surface is full of tiny scales—kind of like a pine cone. Brushing frequently with boar bristle smoothes those scales down, increasing shine and reducing tendencies to tangle. The close arrangement of the bristles also helps with styling, ensuring not a single strand is out of place, whether your hair is cropped short or has been growing for a decade. While your method may vary—curly-haired folks are better off brushing with wet hair to maintain their curls’ integrity, whereas I let my straight hair dry before brushing to keep as much volume as I can—everyone with hair can benefit from one of these brushes.
What blew me away the most in using a boar bristle brush is its phenomenal cleaning power. I was so used to over-shampooing my hair and dealing with the ensuing dry scalp that I thought it was just a fact of life. A hairdresser persuaded me not to shampoo every day to benefit my scalp and hair, but that left my hair looking a little greasy every second day! The solution was a Kent of England hairbrush. Not only does it coax out knots oh-so-gently and makes my hair shine like that of a Disney Princess, but it also pulls my scalp’s natural oils along the shafts of hair, distributing it and giving the ends of my hair some much-needed moisturizing. This mechanical cleaning means you’re removing excess oil and debris without completely stripping your hair. In the long run, this encourages your scalp (or face) to stop overproducing oil and increases the health of the entire length of your hair.
Nathan's hair & beard, before & after a boar bristle brush.
The result? Softer, shinier, smoother hair. This also works wonders for beards too! If you have an especially wiry or unruly beard, a boar bristle brush will gently detangle your whiskers, helping them to lie more flat and straight. Much like your head hair, boar bristle will also leave your beard feeling softer with a subtle natural shine.
Thicker hair and longer beards benefit from a stiffer boar bristle brush like this one, as it can get through thick hair more easily. If you have a shorter beard, you’ll want to try a softer Kent of Inglewood beard brush to help smooth down the flyaways, whereas this brush is best for very long hair. If you ever need help choosing a brush, don’t hesitate to get in touch or visit our shop, and we’ll be happy to help!
