The 5 mistakes you make when brushing your hair

In addition to a career as a top model, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, and Linda Evangelista, as well as Jane Fonda, Sofia Richie Grainge, and many more famous celebs have one thing in common: the Mason Pearson hairbrush, also known as the Rolls-Royce of brushes. You can guess that this ended up in my online shopping cart in no time and has since been purchased, because the importance of a good hairbrush is much more than just removing tangles and knots in your hair.

Lies Helsloot wrote ‘The Complete Book About Your Hair’, which I read in one day. Were you familiar with the phenomenon of a hundred brush strokes a day, and did you know that you should always brush your hair before going to sleep? This last one has been part of my evening ritual for some time now, but there was a time when I never brushed my hair because I thought it would make it frizzy. What turned out? That frizz was due to a lack of moisture and hydration. So it had nothing to do with brushing it – oops. According to Lies Helsloot, there are many more mistakes we make while brushing our hair. What common mistakes are these? They are coming.

The importance of a hundred brush strokes

You never hear anyone talk about brushing your hair that many times, do you? Once the knots are out, aren’t you done? The longer you brush, the greasier your hair becomes is a myth. Brushing your hair with a good brush actually ensures that your own produced conditioner (also known as sebum) is distributed through your locks – we take care of our hair even better this way. You also give your scalp a micromassage, which, besides the lovely feeling, also promotes good blood circulation. This in turn provides extra oxygen, which stimulates hair growth – so brush for those beautiful long locks. Once you’ve reached those hundred strokes (and believe me: this goes quite fast), you’ll see that because dust, dirt, sebum, and dead hairs have been removed, your hair also gets a shine and after a while, you even train your arm muscles with it. So it’s all win-win.

The classic mistake

I was never really aware that there is a technique for brushing your hair. I knew that hair is more vulnerable to brushing when it’s wet, but going roughly through your hair from your crown while encountering some tangles and knots along the way is not a good idea. Your hair cuticles break, and your hairbrush gets much fuller with hair than necessary. How should it be done? Start from the bottom to the top, so from the ends to your crown. This way, you gently remove all the tangles you encounter, and your hair breaks much less quickly.

The right hairbrush

Whether your hair is fine, straight, thick, colored, frizzy, or curly, a wrong brush can really damage your hair structure in the long run. Plastic and metal are a no-go according to Lies Helsloot, as those materials are really too coarse for your hair cuticles. Wood is, for example, a much better choice. Nowadays, you also see many brushes with boar bristles like those from Mason Pearson or Delphin & Emercence, because they have the same structure as our own hair or pig hair, which works well for people with fine or brittle hair.

Before you go to sleep

Your hair collects dirt all day long, just like your skin. We brush our teeth and cleanse our skin every evening, but we leave our hair as it is. No more from now on, because those dirty bacteria need to be removed. If you leave them, there’s a good chance you’ll experience more hair loss, less shine, and slower hair growth. When you sleep, your skin is able to renew itself (cells) and reset, and that also applies to your scalp. Washing your hair a bit more often is therefore not so harmful at all; after all, your scalp is the basis of healthy hair. So brush your hair. Every evening.

Cleaning your hairbrush

Confession time: I do this too little. I often remove the hairs or use a special comb to get the boar bristles free of dust, but that’s about it. If I try to brush my hair clean every evening, it’s handy to also remove the dirt and residues of hair styling products from my hairbrush. So wash it. You do this very simply with some lukewarm water and mild soap; it depends on your brush whether you can let it soak in the water for a while or just wet it briefly and clean it that way. Then let the brush air dry, and voilà, you’re done. So do this in the morning, because in the evening you have to get to work again.

@masonpearson Celeb Fans! #naomicampbell #katemoss #lindaevangelista #jennaortega #janefonda #masonpearson #masonpearsonbrush #hairbrush #vogue #harperbazaar #luxuryhaircare ♬ Mason Pearson – Mason Pearson

Source: elle.be & ‘The Complete Book About Your Hair’ by Lies Helsloot